The Range Blog » Analytics & Tracking

Rewiring Your Google Analytics for SEO

John Greer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:36:56 +0000

One great attribute of Google Analytics is that, as a free program, lots of people use it. The result has been loads of great hacks to the default setup, allowing web analytics gurus to create more useful reports and information.

For SEO, if you’re already using it as a secondary or even primary tracking tool, you’ll want to consider adding a few of these items:

Want to know exactly where your natural search listings rank? Here’s a settings hack that lets you capture this information when Google includes it – http://yoast.com/track-seo-rankings-and-sitelinks-with-google-analytics-ii/
Are people clicking on your video or image thumbnails in the normal Google web results? Use this code to find out – http://www.searchcowboys.com/seo/256
Find out if your content is making it into Digg, Reddit, and other social media sites with this Firefox plugin (in beta) – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9393
Create a quick list of keywords that are suddenly driving you new traffic with another Firefox plugin (in beta) – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11120

Those are just some of the options you might want to look into. In fact, you might even develop a custom solution to your specific needs. The possibilities are wide open with SEO and Google Analytics.

What’s the Deal with All These Mispelings?

John Greer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:01:38 +0000

If you have an attentive web analytics guru or agency, you may have noticed an odd trend in search engine keyword traffic: misspellings are totally hot right now. If you’re curious, it has a lot to do with Google Suggest, which is Google’s way of guessing what you are going to search for while you type. Formerly a resident of the Google toolbar, Google Suggest has moved on up, having recently leased a spot on your homepage.

You’ve no doubt seen this application, but it does more than finish your sentences. Not only does Google toss out common searches based on your typing, a URL might even appear for the first listing or in a sponsored ad at the bottom. Such is the case in the screen capture below, where all one has to do is type “flic” before a link to flickr.com is shown.

Google search for Flic

Fancy and convenient. But how does this look in your web analytics? The good news is that the click will still appear as a natural search or paid search visit in most services. However, the associated keyword in the case above is simply “flic.” All of a sudden, many sites are going to notice an uptick in misspelled words similar to their brand from Google, and likely a drop in the proper spelling “Flickr.” Take a look for yourself and see if this explains why people might be searching for your “websit.”