Did you know that most people click on the first five results in a search engine? But, how do you know if your SEO work is actually paying off? Well, the good news is there’s a fantastic tool you can use for free – Google Analytics for SEO analysis.
When you use Google Analytics right, it gives you awesome data to keep your SEO game strong. Tracking your SEO efforts with Google Analytics for SEO analysis helps you tweak your strategy and get even better results.
This guide covers everything about Google Analytics for SEO analysis! From what Google Analytics is to how to leverage it, we’ll cover everything. So, gear up and start reading!
What is SEO Analytics?
SEO analytics is about understanding how well your website is doing in search engines. It helps you see what’s working and what needs improvement. By keeping track of your marketing data, you can see where your website’s traffic is coming from and how people are finding you online.
This is super helpful because it lets you spot areas where you can do better, get a clearer picture of your website’s performance, and make the most of your SEO efforts.
There are lots of tools out there to help you measure your SEO data. One of the most popular free tools is Google Analytics for SEO analysis. And if you want to share that data with your team or clients, you can use Google Analytics Reporting.
What Is Google Analytics for SEO Analysis?
Google Analytics is a tool that helps you understand how people are using your website. It gives you detailed information about your visitors and helps you make your website better.
With Google Analytics for SEO analysis, you can see things like how many people visit your site, where they come from, and what they do when they’re there. It’s not just for SEO though. Google Analytics can also help you improve your marketing campaigns by showing you how people interact with your site.
But for the best results, it’s a good idea to use Google Analytics alongside other tools. Most SEO experts use at least two other tools along with Google Analytics for SEO analysis to get a complete picture of their website’s performance.
How Does Google Analytics Help Improve SEO?
Google Analytics for SEO analysis is super helpful for making your website better for search engines. Since it’s made by Google, the same search engine people use to find your site, it can give you special insights that other tools might miss. Here are some key ways Google Analytics helps boost your SEO:
Tracking website performance:
It shows you how well your website is doing, like how many people visit and what they do when they’re there. Collecting visitor data: You can see where your visitors are coming from and what they’re interested in.
Assessing marketing success
It helps you see if your marketing efforts are paying off . Monitoring goal completions: You can track if people are doing what you want them to do on your site, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
Spotting user engagement patterns:
It lets you see how people interact with your site so you can make it more engaging.
Reaching target audience:
You can learn more about who’s visiting your site and tailor your content to them.
With all this info, you can make smart changes to your website to make it more appealing to visitors.
For instance, if lots of people leave your site quickly (high bounce rate), you might need to work on making your content more interesting. Or, if you find out most of your visitors are from a certain demographic, you can adjust your marketing to target them better.
Checking Google Analytics regularly is important for keeping track of your SEO progress. Most experts look at it every week, but some even check daily. It depends on how quickly you want to see results and make adjustments to your strategy.
Setting up Google Analytics for SEO Analysis
Setting up Google Analytics for SEO analysis is crucial for understanding how users interact with your website and identifying areas for improvement. Follow these steps to get started:
1. Create a Google Analytics Account
Setting up Google Analytics begins with creating an account if you don’t already have one. Visit the Google Analytics website and click on “Start for free” or “Sign in” if you already have a Google account. Follow the prompts to set up your account by providing information about your website and agreeing to the terms of service.
2. Install Google Analytics Tracking Code
After creating your Google Analytics account, you need to install the tracking code on your website. This code allows Google Analytics to collect data about your website visitors.
To do this, log in to your Google Analytics account, select your website’s property, and navigate to the Admin section. In the Property column, click on Tracking Info and then Tracking Code. Copy the tracking code provided and paste it into the HTML code of every page on your website, just before the closing </head> tag.
3. Set Up Goals
Goals in Google Analytics help you track specific actions that users take on your website, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Setting up goals is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
To create a new goal, go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics account, select Goals, and click on New Goal. Follow the prompts to define your goals, such as destination, duration, pages/screens per session, or event, and set up tracking accordingly.
4. Link Google Search Console
Google Search Console provides valuable insights into how your website performs in Google search results.
To link Google Search Console to your Google Analytics account, go to the Admin section of Google Analytics, select Property Settings, and then click on Adjust Search Console. Follow the prompts to link your Google Analytics account to your Google Search Console account.
This integration allows you to view search query data directly in Google Analytics and analyze your website’s performance in organic search.
5. Set Up Site Search Tracking
If your website has an internal search engine, you can track what users are searching for using Google Analytics for SEO analysis. This feature, known as site search tracking, allows you to gather data on user behavior and preferences.
To set up site search tracking, go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics account, select View Settings, and toggle the Site Search Tracking option to On. Enter the query parameter used by your website’s internal search engine (usually “q” or “s”), and click Save.
6. Customize Reports
Google Analytics offers a variety of reports and metrics that you can use to analyze your website’s performance. Customize your reports to focus on SEO-related metrics such as organic traffic, top landing pages, search queries, and conversion rates.
You can create custom dashboards and reports to monitor these metrics regularly and track your SEO progress over time. Experiment with different report configurations to find the most relevant insights for your website and SEO strategy.
How to Track Your SEO Performance with Google Analytics
Now that we’ve got the basics down, let’s dive into some top-notch strategies for keeping tabs on your SEO performance using Google Analytics (GA).
Sync Your Search Console Account for More SEO Data
Connecting your Google Analytics (GA) account with Google Search Console (GSC) can provide valuable insights into your website’s performance that you wouldn’t get from just one tool. Without GSC, you might miss out on valuable data. By combining GA and GSC, you can analyze queries to find opportunities for improving your target keywords and ranking pages.
Steps to Analyze Landing Page Data in GA After Connecting with GSC:
- Connect your Google Analytics account with Google Search Console.
- Open Google Analytics and navigate to Acquisition > Search Console > Landing Pages.
- Review the data to see which landing pages visitors are hitting from Google searches.
- Analyze the top search terms driving traffic to your site and identify optimization opportunities.
This integration gives you insight into your top-performing pages and search terms, helping you refine your SEO strategy and improve your site’s visibility in search results.
Analyzing the Synced Data
When examining the data from both tools, it’s essential to look beyond just the exact search phrases. Remember that all traffic from related or longer-tail phrases containing your target keywords is highly beneficial. This broader view is referred to as “halo traffic.”
Creating SEO Goals
Creating SEO goals in Google Analytics is a smart way to gain deeper insights into your performance. Setting goals for leads generated from organic SEO helps you focus on conversions rather than just traffic volume.
While Google Analytics goals can be valuable, they can sometimes feel complex to set up. However, they allow you to track any metric you’re already monitoring and provide access to historical data for setting realistic targets. This makes it easier to gauge whether you’re on track or need to adjust your strategy.
Steps to Create SEO Goals in Google Analytics:
- Log in to your Google Analytics account.
- Navigate to the Admin section and select Goals.
- Click New Goal to start setting up a goal.
- Choose a goal type that aligns with your SEO objectives, such as Destination (for specific page visits) or Event (for actions like form submissions).
- Define the goal details, including metrics and conditions to track conversions effectively.
- Save the goal and begin analyzing the data to evaluate your SEO performance.
Applying the Right Filters for Accurate SEO Reporting
When using Google Analytics for SEO, it’s crucial to apply the correct segments and filters to eliminate spam traffic and ensure accurate reporting. Two common types of spam traffic to watch for are crawlers (fake referrers) and ghost spam. These can skew your data, making it less reliable.
Steps to Apply Filters for Accurate SEO Reporting:
- Create a new view in Google Analytics specifically for SEO analysis to preserve raw data.
- Use regex codes to filter out multiple versions of known spammy domains with different TLDs.
- Exclude traffic that doesn’t match your hostname to block direct spam traffic.
- Apply Google Analytics segments and build a custom dashboard tailored for organic traffic.
- Regularly monitor your filtered data to ensure spam traffic doesn’t appear in your reports moving forward.
While these filters can’t remove spam traffic retroactively, setting them up ensures cleaner, more reliable SEO reporting for the future.
Improving SEO on Your Highest Converting Pages
Regularly optimizing your highest-converting pages is key to maintaining their performance and maximizing returns. These pages may already rank well, but ensuring they stay updated and drive meaningful business value is essential. Look for pages with significant drops in organic traffic or those that bring in traffic but don’t contribute much to your business goals, as these have untapped potential.
Steps to Optimize Your Top-Converting Pages:
- Identify your top-performing pages by navigating to Behavior > Top Landing Pages > Filter by Organic in Google Analytics.
- Analyze the content for opportunities to update it with fresh, relevant information.
- Enhance your calls-to-action (CTAs) to improve conversion rates.
- Monitor pages with significant traffic drops or low business value for promotion or updates.
- Use insights from top-performing blog posts to guide your content strategy and create more audience-resonating topics.
Using the Content Drilldown Report
Google Analytics Content Drilldown reports are handy for tracking and comparing the performance of different segments of your website, such as your blog. Within this report, you can examine specific URL page views, exit rates, bounce rates, and average time spent on the page.
However, one downside of the Content Drilldown report is that you need to check multiple sub-directories to compare page performance.
Add Annotations to Track Content Updates
When you’re making updates to your content for SEO, it’s important to track the results over time. This is where annotations in Google Analytics for SEO analysis can be really helpful. Using annotations allows you to mark specific dates when you make changes to your content. This makes it easier to compare performance before and after the updates.
Using the Multi-Channel Funnel Report
Google Analytics offers a Multi-Channel Funnel report, which helps you understand how different marketing channels contribute to conversions. This is especially useful for understanding the role of various channels in driving conversions.
Tracking Referral Sites
Google Analytics for SEO analysis allows you to track referral traffic, which occurs when other websites refer visitors to your site. Using Google Analytics referral data to find links that may not be reported in other tools and to identify relevant websites for outreach.
Managing Your PPC Spend
If you’re running PPC campaigns, it’s important to track their performance in Google Analytics. By connecting your Analytics account with AdWords, you can monitor the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns and optimize your spending accordingly.
Checking How Google Views Your Website
Understanding how Google categorizes your website is crucial for SEO. It can help you position your site and adjust your content strategy to improve its authority.
By analyzing the affinity categories, in-market segments, and other categories in Google Analytics, you can tailor your content to align with the interests of your target audience and establish your site as an authority in your niche.
Create Custom SEO Dashboards
One effective way to stay ahead in SEO is by creating custom dashboards in Google Analytics tailored to your specific metrics and goals. Start segmenting your data by channel, URL, location, and more to focus on particular aspects of your website traffic and draw meaningful conclusions.
While Google Analytics allows you to build custom dashboards, it might not be the most intuitive process
Set Up Alerts
Utilizing Google Analytics’ custom alert service can be incredibly beneficial for tracking SEO performance efficiently. Setting up triggers for specific parameters, such as organic traffic increases or bounce rate decreases, to receive email notifications instantly when changes occur. However, Google Analytics alert service has limitations in tracking multiple metrics simultaneously.
Finding Low-Hanging Opportunities to Boost Traffic
Regularly updating and republishing content is vital for maintaining relevance and preventing it from becoming outdated. By analyzing trends in Google Analytics, you can uncover areas where improvements can boost traffic and performance.
Steps to Identify and Update Content for Traffic Growth:
- Navigate to Acquisition > Search Console > Landing Pages in Google Analytics.
- Analyze conversion data over a six to eight-month period to identify trends and fluctuations.
- Consider factors like:
- Topic freshness.
- Changes in search query volumes.
- Shifts in device category usage.
- Prioritize pages with declining performance or outdated content for updates and optimization.
Identify New Keyword Opportunities by Tracking Internal Site Search
Your website’s internal search engine is a goldmine for discovering what visitors are actively looking for. By tracking internal searches in Google Analytics, you can identify keywords and topics that lack sufficient or relevant content on your site.
Steps to Discover Keyword Opportunities:
- Navigate to Behavior > Site Search > Search Terms in Google Analytics.
- Collect data for a few months to understand user behavior and common search queries.
- Filter the report to:
- Eliminate unnecessary long-tail keywords.
- Sort by Search Exit Percentage using the weighted sort type to prioritize keywords.
- Identify keywords or queries with no relevant landing pages or content on your site.
- Analyze search exit metrics to see how many visitors left after conducting an internal search.
This process highlights gaps in your content strategy, allowing you to create targeted content that matches user intent and improves your SEO performance.
Identify Slow Loading Page Times
Slow-loading pages negatively impact user experience and search rankings, making it crucial to monitor and address page speed issues regularly. Many SEOs overlook this aspect, but resolving slow loading times can significantly boost site performance.
Steps to Monitor and Improve Page Load Times:
- Navigate to Behavior > Site Speed Report in Google Analytics.
- Review data on page load times and execution speeds for various interactions.
- Identify pages with prolonged loading times.
- Report slow-loading pages to your site developers for optimization.
- Use the Google Analytics Site Speed Overview Dashboard for advanced monitoring, including:
- Immediate identification of broken pages.
- Areas needing optimization.
Ending Note
In conclusion, setting up Google Analytics for SEO analysis is essential for understanding how users interact with your website and identifying areas for improvement. By following the steps outlined above, you can harness the power of Google Analytics to track your SEO efforts effectively and make data-driven decisions to optimize your website for better search engine performance.
By following the steps outlined above, you can leverage the power of Google Analytics to track, analyze, and improve your SEO strategy effectively. Ready to take your SEO to the next level? Contact Brandtonics today for expert guidance and maximize your online presence!
