On both Data Query and Explorer, you have the ability to filter on your analysis results and / or apply a segment. These two operations, although similar at first sight, are different.
- A filter will only display item's results based on what you've filtered on.
For example, if I make a filter on the "Contact" page, I will only get the number of loads of this page. - The segment will display all the visits' results during which this item was loaded.
For example, if I make a segment on the "Contact" page, I will get loads of all pages loaded during visits where the "Contact" page has been loaded.
Practical case :
Let's imagine a site that has received 3 visits over a given period, made by three different visitors: A, B and C. These three visitors have loaded four pages: Home, Product page, Contact and Career.
| Home | Product_page | Contact | Career | |
| Visitor A | 1 Load | 0 load | 0 load | 1 load |
| Visitor B | 2 loads | 2 loads | 2 loads | 0 load |
| Visitor C | 3 loads | 1 load | 1 load | 0 load |
If we display loads for all these pages via a Data Query template, we get the following results:
| Pages | Loads |
| Home | 6 |
| Product_page | 3 |
| Contact | 3 |
| Career | 1 |
We will now show the difference between a filter applied on the "Contact" page and a segment based on the "Contact" page.
Results of a filter on the "Contact" page:
| Pages | Loads |
| Contact | 3 |
Comment: This filter will only focus on the "Contact" page. The other pages have been removed.
Results of a segment on the "Contact" page:
| Pages | Loads |
| Home | 5 |
| Product_page | 3 |
| Contact | 3 |
Comment: This time, we get page loads for all pages loaded during visits where the "Contact" page has been loaded (visits B and C).