2 SEO Filters for GA Optimization

I wonder if Google really considered the can of worms they were opening by offering Google Analytics for free back in 2005. The world is full of smart folks that have learned how to use this powerful google software to improve their bottom line. Unfortunately not everyone falls into that category. For those people that struggle with the technical side of Google Analytics I bring you this article.

How to Optimize Your Google Analytics Account

Optimization takes into account one very important idea—“who are you”? Similar to Search engine optimization, setting up your Google Analytics account needs your top level thoughts. For example, if you are advertising through radio, TV or direct mail you can track offline marketing quite easily but it should be a known fact that is your intention. Believe me when I say that is one small example of up front knowledge that will help you set up for actionable insights. Let me give you a couple other ideas for Google Analytics Optimization.

Plan your SEO Strategy

Carefully study your market, collect research data, find the hot products that are selling and determine the most profitable keywords. Ultimately what is your keyword approach as it relates to hierarchy on your website? What keywords are you trying to rank for? Remember a modern day SEO tip for success. “90% research time—10% Build time”

If you want to get the most out of Google Analytics you should use Firefox as your browser. Next, download the greasemonkey plugin (if you have not already). Once you have installed this plugin it allows the use of 100’s of scripts written by others. Some of these scripts were created for Google Analytics specifically. One of my favorites is Business notes in Google Analytics by Justin Cutroni. What this will allow you to do is make notes within the interface. It comes in really handy, especially if you are anal about keeping notes, I am! In this case I use it for SEO purposes. When I launch my first site I will make important notes about my SEO strategy.

Keywords and Notes

My first note is:

Launched site. Keywords to watch “design business cards for download, stock logos for printing, business cards design, design your own business cards, design business cards online, graphic design business cards”

From now on, when you log into Google Analytics these notes are accessable.

The notes come in very handy when you want to assess the effect of changes and keyword popularity growth. As you move forward and make changes designed to influence ranking, make notes to determine the success of your efforts.

Instead of relying on log file analysis for stats apply filters in your analytics settings to enhance your data. To look closely at measurable marketing activities such as pay per click and SEO, find the right profile/ filter mix for your business. Below I am going to share two of my favorite Google Analytics filters to use for SEO. These filters assume you have done proper SEO and have Google Analytics set up with goals configured.

SEO Filters for Google Analytics

True Google Ranking Positions

With this filter you can learn the position the keyword was in when it got clicked. Additionally you can see the landing page they were sent to. Over time this gives you the ability to see what keywords and pathways to goals are most profitable for your business. I like this one a lot because you will see where your keywords perform the best. In your reports you will see something like this “business card (20)” That means the keyword “business card” was at the bottom of the second page in SERPs (search engine result pages). SERPs are measured in increments of 10, so in my example the keyword was in position 20 (bottom of page 2 in result pages). You can find this out in your traffic sources metric.

Filter Source

Image Search

Again, another plugin from the fine folks at yoast.com. This plugin shows you the traffic you are getting from image search alone, along with the keywords used in image search. It is done in a separate profile that should also have the website goals configured. Now you can see what keywords resulted in conversion from image clicks.

Filter Source

Search engines increasingly understand more about each web property and the way people interact with them. Having an accessible website with well organized data structure are items at the top of the SEO checklist. With these 2 simple filters and one plugin you can find out how much searching in pictures comes to your site and the keywords they used to get there. Is SEO you’ve got the constant changing of algorithms and staying on top of updates to keep an eye on. This is the best way to avoid innocent penalties. Just remember as the internet continues to get littered with spam and low grade web pages search engines increase the quality score. This makes it difficult to have a sound SEO strategy that you can stay with. The safe bet is to forget about search engines and create your masterpiece for people to consume. Use Google Analytics to improve the quality of your site based on how people respond to your webpages.