Advanced Google Analytics for SEO
Google Analytics has long been the #1 analytics tool on the web. Most webmasters and website owners are familiar with its basic stats, like web traffic and demographic data. Yet Google Analytics has a whole host of tools that make it incredibly powerful as an advanced SEO tool. Here are some of those features, along with how to use them.
Multi-Channel Flows
If you’re marketing through several channels, just how much are those channels helping you? In other words, let’s say you have a website, a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. If someone clicks a Facebook link, then two weeks later buys on your website, by default Google Analytics doesn’t track that as a conversion.
Instead, it’s an assisted conversion. Facebook helped by building trust, but didn’t directly cause someone to buy. Tracking assisted conversions is crucial in the long run as you want to know all the ways your various channels helps your marketing efforts.
To turn on multi-channel flows, set your conversion goals, then tag your URLs with the traffic sources. Google will automatically filter your traffic into different channels.
Optimize Bounce Rate, Time on Site, Pages Per Visit
Backlinks used to be the only important thing for SEO. Today, backlinks are just a small part of the equation. Google is paying a lot of attention to your bounce rate and time on site statistics. If people spend a lot of time on your website, that naturally means your website is providing high quality information. In other words, optimizing your site to get people to stay longer means higher rankings.
You can do this using Google’s content experiments. Instead of running tests for conversions, run tests for bounce rate. Try different designs, banners, layouts and types of content to get people to stay for longer.
Find New Partnerships
One of the best ways to get new backlinks and exposure is by looking at the people who’re already linking to you. Using the “Traffic Sources” and “Referrer” sections, identify websites that are already sending you traffic.
Reach out to those website owners. Thank them for linking to you, then make them an offer. Perhaps you could write an article for their blog. Or do a show with them on their podcast. They already like you and your content, so they’re very likely to say yes.
Identify New Keywords to Target
Most people pick their SEO keywords based on search volume and what they think they could rank for. Using Google Analytics, you can use an even better approach. Look through your organic search data and see what keywords are already sending you traffic.
Some of those keywords will be keywords you’re trying to rank for. Yet usually you’ll also find a handful of keywords that are completely unexpected. These are words Google ranked you for without you even trying.
Figure out what those keywords are and put some attention on ranking for those keywords. Google has already told you that you’ll likely do well. You’ll likely rank well for those keywords very quickly.
Learn to Tag Your Links
Tag all your links in all your channels. You can split promotions into traffic sources, campaigns and specific promos. For example, your newsletter might be one “Traffic Source.” Your campaign might be “Video Content.” Then the specific promo is the name of the video you’re using.
Now when you look at your stats, you can tell exactly how much revenue your newsletters are generating. Not only that, but you’ll be able to tell how much revenue each type of email generates. You’ll even be able to figure out which specific emails generated the most revenues.
These are some of the advanced ways you can use Google Analytics to boost SEO and profits. Google Analytics is a very powerful tool with all kinds of hidden features. Spend some time learning it and your bank account will thank you for it.