It is important to keep one unfiltered view when using filters with Google Analytics because the unfiltered view acts as a critical baseline, preserving the raw, unaltered data. This ensures that the original data can always be accessed for comparison, troubleshooting, auditing, and maintaining data integrity. Filters permanently alter data views, so having an unfiltered view prevents data loss and helps identify issues or errors caused by filters. Additionally, an unfiltered view safeguards historical data accuracy and allows businesses to measure the true impact of filters on their analytics accurately.
Key Reasons to Maintain an Unfiltered View
- Data Integrity: It preserves raw data untouched by filters, ensuring accuracy and reliability for audits and compliance.
- Baseline for Comparison: Enables accurate measurement of the effects of filters by comparing filtered data against the unfiltered baseline.
- Troubleshooting: Helps identify discrepancies or errors caused by filter misconfigurations by comparing filtered views with the original data.
- Historical Accuracy: Maintains an unaltered historical record crucial for assessing long-term trends and campaign effectiveness.
- Safety Net: Acts as a backup so that data lost due to improperly applied filters can still be retrieved.
Keeping one unfiltered view is a best practice recommended by Google Analytics experts to ensure clean, dependable data for all analyses and decision-making.
