The problem I am having is filtering out the users that come to our homepage just to login, since we have the client button on the homepage (and yes I've tried to get them to put it somewhere else).
I can't think of a way to do it because they don't look any different than potential clients, other than that they may visit more often and click on the button. Any ideas or software that might accomplish this?
one way, is to associate a cookie with those users and either a) don't load the tracking code when cookie is present, or b) in Analytics Settings -> Filter Manager, add an exclusion pattern matching the cookie name. a) would be more flexible.
now, there's no way to tell if the user is going to stay on the main site or hop to the client area... so it might undercount in some cases. but you might find that better than the overcount showing up now...
a slightly more intrusive option, would be a javscript overlay / splash screen that shows up when you detect a user returning that asks them, "Would you like to go directly to your client area? [YES] [NO, TAKE ME TO THE MAIN SITE]". in that case, the tracking code wouldn't be loaded unless, they say are going to the main site...
if using the filter manager method, you'll want to register the variable like so:
<body onLoad=”javascript:pageTracker._setVar('my_cookie_name_guid')”>