Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

Google Analytics is an extremely effective tool for managing the performance of your online marketing (or search engine marketing) endeavors. There are numerous findings that can be generated within Analytics to look at each aspect of your website visibility and traffic. Below are some suggestions to consider while performing your Analytics analysis:

General/Basic Knowledge

• You can link your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account for better pay-per-click (PPC) campaign optimization and website performance.
• Tagging within your site helps to distinguish referrals (visits generated by other websites) vs. search engine visits.
• There are many goals that can be set up to see if users are completing a desired outcome, but you need to implement code on your website to monitor these goals in Analytics.

Optimizing Landing Pages

• In general, you have eight seconds for a user to view your page, decide if they like your page, and continue to view your website.  Optimize your landing page based on this knowledge.  Analytics can help to identify areas for improvement as well as to test different landing page variables.
• Bounce Rate is the key indicator to show how effective your landing page is. It’s a measure of how many people didn’t go further than the first page they landed on.
• Other tactics to look at within Analytics to optimize your landing page include:
  - Look at keywords that have brought users to your site.
  - Segmenting your visits in Analytics by Paid vs. Non-Paid users to see how each user responds to your site.
• Use the Website Optimizer Tool. It allows you to participate in A/B testing to see what content is most compelling on your site. Also, test everything on a Web page if you notice that it is underperforming.  It’s a good practice to consider everything that is on that underperforming Web page including pictures, ad copy, links, etc. Test each of these aspects to find out what is the best combination for your page.

Using Analytics to Find Additional Keywords

• Analytics can be especially helpful to find keywords that are already performing well, especially with PPC advertising campaigns.
• Google recommends finding these additional keywords by looking at your organic keyword searches.  To find these keywords in Analytics go to Traffic Sources > Keywords > Non-Paid. This will show you the list of your organic keyword searches. This list can be exported to perform data analysis.  Most specifically look to see if there are any gaps in your Paid vs. Non-Paid search terms.

User Onsite Searching

• Analytics can also be used to find what a visitor is looking for once they’ve landed on your site.  If your website has a search box, see what search queries are being entered into it. This can be found in Analytics by navigating to Content > Site Search > Search Terms.

This information was provided by the Google Webinar “Analyzing Search Campaigns Using Google Analytics Reports” that occurred on March 5, 2009.  If you would like more information on this webinar or further Analytics recommendations, please visit google.com/nationalagency.