web-analytics

Trackbacks in Google Analytics – How To Analyze Inbound Links in GA’s Social Reports

In May of 2012, Google Analytics introduced trackbacks in its social reporting.  If you’re not familiar with trackbacks, they enable you to understand when another website links to your content.  So, using Google Analytics, and the new trackbacks reporting, you could start to track inbound links you are building from across the web. Note, if … Read more

How Google Analytics *Really* Handles Referring Traffic Sources [Experiment] – Why Clicks and Visits Might Not Match Up

Let me walk you through a common scenario in web marketing.  You have a website, and some people visit your site by clicking through links on other websites.  In your web analytics reporting, those visits are categorized as referring visits.  In Google Analytics specifically, those visits show up in your “Referrals” report under “Traffic Sources”.  … Read more

Hunting False Negatives – How To Avoid False Negatives When Checking Redirects After a Website Redesign or Migration [Screaming Frog Tutorial]

Every webmaster has to deal with a website redesign or migration at some point.  And redesigns and migrations often mean that your URL structure will be impacted.  From an SEO perspective, when URL’s need to change, it’s critically important that you have a solid 301 redirection plan in place.  If you don’t, you can pay … Read more

SEM Competitive Analysis – The Power of Understanding Your Competition in Paid Search

There are a lot of moving parts to developing and managing SEM campaigns.  First, you need to develop a strong paid search strategy, perform keyword research, map out a robust structure for your campaigns and ad groups, determine budgets, create effective ads, etc.  After the setup phase, you will be neck deep in ongoing campaign … Read more

Adjusted Bounce Rate in Google Analytics – One Step Closer to Actual Bounce Rate

I’ve written extensively in the past about Bounce Rate both here on my blog and on Search Engine Journal.  Bounce Rate is an incredibly powerful metric, and can help marketers better understand the quality of their traffic, and the quality of their content.  If you’re not familiar with Bounce Rate, it’s the percentage of visits … Read more

How To Use Index Status in Google Search Console (GSC) to Diagnose SEO Problems

{Updated on 3/28/16 to reflect the name change from Google Webmaster Tools to Google Search Console.} In late July, Google added Index Status to Google Search Console to help site owners better understand how many pages are indexed on their websites.  In addition, Index Status can also help webmasters diagnose indexation problems, which can be caused by … Read more

How To Use Social Reports in Google Analytics To Analyze Specific Blog Posts or Content [Tutorial]

In March of this year, Google Analytics released a set of new reports for measuring the effectiveness of traffic from social networks.  It was a great addition and provides some valuable information about how social is affecting your business.  For example, you can view social referrers, content that received traffic from social networks, view conversations … Read more