Top Google Analytics Hacks for SEO

#BrightonSEO 2011

Nikki Rae

@analyticsgirl

Future Insight

Analytics07/04/2011

SEO Fundamental Needs

• I want to know the effect of Keyword Rankings

• I want more organic traffic

• I want more organic conversions for non-branded/ non-navigational traffic

• I don’t want to look like an ASS!!

• I want my life to be easier07/04/2011

Google Analytics for SEO

07/04/2011

Much More than just a Keyword Reporting Tool

Use GA to check results, test, report,inform strategies

What is it you want to know?

Makes you ask more Questions than answer them

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I want to know my rankings...

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I want to know my rankings

• REALLY useful little hack• Written by Andre Scholten• Re-edited by Nikki Rae• http://www.freshegg.com/blog/track-seo-rankings-yoastscholten-

twist-analyticsgirl_2754• Re-edited by MikeCP• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-organic-ranking-in-google-

analytics-with-custom-variables• Monitor the behaviour of visitors who click through to your site

– Keyword– Keyword Rankings

• Not absolute, just follow the trends

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I want to know Rankings Cont...

• Visitors/User-Defined• Group ‘behaviour’ by keyword ranking• Group ‘keyword’ by keyword ranking and find which

keywords should be promoted

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Why are positions 9 & 10 bringing in more traffic than positions 4, 8 and 7?(Not set) is any other traffic source that is not recognised as matching the User-Defined filter pattern

Rankings vs. Page Titles (Call to Action)• Does traffic delivered from

position 9 convert better/worse than e.g. Position 1?

• WHY?

• Is there a correlation between landing page, keyword, title and call-to-action, meta description etc.

• WHAT IS IT?

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How to: Content/Content by Title (drop-

down by User-Defined Variable)

Advanced Filter – User-Defined Value

contains 9

I want more organic traffic ...

07/04/2011

I want more Organic Traffic: Add More Search Engines

• Google Analytics only tracks this list of Search Engines ‘out-of-the-box’

• Add more search engines –particularly for international sites

07/04/2011http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingTraffic.html#searchEngine

http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApiSearchEngines.html#_gat.GA_Tracker_._addOrganic

I want more organic traffic: Tracking Google Places as Organic

– Maps or Place– Use Google URL Builder

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55578– I want to know it is (Source) Google, Medium (Organic) Traffic

• Track as campaign name = Places• Track as campaign content = Place|Maps

07/04/2011 http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-traffic-from-google-places-in-google-analytics

http://www.futureinsightanalytics.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=map&utm_campaign=places

I want more Organic Traffic

• Sub-Domain and Cross-domain tracking– E.g. Tracking blog as part of main site stops blog

appearing as referrer

– Instead shows keyword/traffic sources that drove traffic to the blog and then through to the main site.

07/04/2011 http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingSite.html

I don’t want to look like an ASS!

07/04/2011

I don’t want to look like an Ass!

• When weird stuff happens in keyword reports that you can’t quite explain....

• Even worse when client notices it first• Or another agency notices and make you look like a duffer

07/04/2011

I don’t want to look like an ASS!: Stealing PPC traffic

• Make sure your client is correctly tracking paid search traffic

• Have you asked them if they are running PPC campaigns (then check if these are being tracked)?

• Are there kw’s appearing in GA with high visits that you don’t rank for?

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I don’t want to look like an ASS!Killing PPC traffic (aka wasting client budget)

• Communicate when you make development changes

– Change URLs

• Remember to tell PPC agency of changes so PPC traffic is not sent to 404 pages.

– Use 301/302 redirects

• Make sure that any 301’s carry over important parameters such as gclids and other tracking parameters

07/04/2011

I don’t want to look like an ASS!Hiding SEO Issues

• Applying filters with due care and attention

– Force page URI to upper/lowercase

• This will hide duplicate pages

– Using Default Index page

• Will also hide instances of multiple home pages

07/04/2011

I don’t want to look like an ASS!: Somebody has stolen my site!!

• Has your traffic suddenly increased

• You have referrers from new and far off lands

• Suddenly, a large percentage of your keywords are in Chinese!?

• Hostname report contains www.web.com or some other irrelevant domains (this should be the name of your website)

07/04/2011

I don’t want to look like an ASS!: www.web.com

• Referrer Spoofing

– Our site has been scraped/copied e.g. Your tracking script has been hijacked

– Using a hostname filter (from day 1) will prevent this from happening

(Good Explanation here) - http://techhacking.com/2011/01/23/google-analytics-referrer-spammers/

07/04/2011

Hostname Filter

• The simple solution: Hostname Filter

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Why does Google show as a referrer?

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Why does Google show as a referrer?

• Tracking exact referring URLs will help

– Was an actual link from Google (Yippee)?

– Igoogle

– Page has been translated

– Google Image search

– Google Docs (e.g. Spreadsheets)

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Exact Referring URLs

• Want to know exactly which page traffic has come from?

• Want to know why Google is showing as a referrer?

07/04/2011

http://www.analyticstraining.co.uk/2010/02/how-to-find-out-the-real-referring-url-google-analytics/

I want less branded Search Conversions!

• To get more conversions from non-branded traffic sources– Use advanced filters to recognise brand/navigational

source and set it as Direct traffic source• Can set medium as (branded) or (navigational) so that you

know what ‘type’ of direct traffic it was.

– GA will not attribute conversion to direct traffic unless was first visit to site (last click wins unless is direct source)

• Put this in a separate profile so you can still see how much traffic comes from branded search (and keep count of organic searches )

07/04/2011

Second Page Viewed

• If a search has come in via branded keywords or direct search, you will not know what visitor is searching for

• Find out what second page viewed was and then you’ll have a better idea of visitor intention

07/04/2011

Content Reports

• Look for Duplicate page titles

• Look for insightful Internal Search keywords

• Look for duplicate page names

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WTF?

• (other) bucket

• Sampling

• (not set)

07/04/2011

Using Advanced Segments

• Track ‘exact phrase’ you are working e.g. ‘Google Analytics Training’

• Track containing ‘exact phrase’ you are working on ‘Find Google Analytics Training Courses’

• Track contains ‘exact’ and ‘phrase’ you are working on ‘Training in SEO for Google Analytics’– How do these different segments perform?

– Can you see patterns to give more insight to your strategy?

– Is engagement better with long tail?

– Compare with paid/non-paid• Missing opportunities for keywords?

• Missing landing page opportunities?

07/04/2011

I want to stay up to date: Using Google Analytics Intelligence

• Use Google Intelligence to email you for significant keyword/visit changes

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I want to stay up to date: Using Google Analytics Notations

• Use Google Analytics Notations remind you what happened on specific days– 301s put in place– New Site went live– Server down for 2 hours– Anything that will affect your campaign– Etc.

07/04/2011

Troubleshooting Google Analytics

• Tools

– SitescanGA

– Livehttpheaders

– Google Analytics Tracking Code Debugger

07/04/2011

Making my life easier

• Add a tracker for an account specifically for tracking SEO data.

• Imacro

• Excellent analytics

• Tatvic

• TrackPal

07/04/2011

Resources

• http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/search-engine-marketing/google-analytics-seo/ by @danbarker

• http://www.slideshare.net/JoannaButler/think-visibility-advanced-analytics-joanna-butler by @joannabutler

07/04/2011