Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Zero visits from keyword in Google Analytics

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Zero visits from keyword in Google Analytics

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4
    11
    3732
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • seoug_2005
      seoug_2005 last edited by

      The keyword  "business engagement in outsourcing" shows 0 visits. I have a look at Seomoz post at - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/advanced-google-analytics. According to it,

      "If someone makes more than one visit to a site within the same "session" and each visit comes from a search but on different keywords, then both keywords will be included in the keywords report - the first with 0 visits and the second with 1 visit"

      In my  GA report, i could only see 0 visit for the above keyword. Why is 1 visit not being shown ?

      On reading the blog, http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-analytics-tips-and-tricks-why-do.html#axzz1UPqhMV7o

      i am more confused, as it says "Google Analytics, assigns the visitors activity to the first keyword " . which is NOT what seomoz suggests

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • RyanKent
        RyanKent @willcritchlow last edited by

        Thanks for following up Will.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • willcritchlow
          willcritchlow last edited by

          Thanks for checking this out and not just taking it at face value guys. I have to admit I didn't test it in detail. It seemed plausible because GA is generally last touch, but I'm glad to see someone testing it. I have updated the post.

          RyanKent 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • RyanKent
            RyanKent @seoug_2005 last edited by

            Yes.

            In this instance the testing I performed this week and the testing Anil performed in 2008 showed consistent results, and are in alignment with Google's explanation of how their sessions work.

            A session begins when a user first visits your site. That session is maintained for 30 minutes even if the user leaves your site and returns to Google. Everything makes sense and synchs perfectly with the results.

            If you wish to pursue this any further I can only suggest either repeating the test yourself, or contacting Will or Avinash concerning the prior article. I can only presume there was a misunderstanding in Will's article.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • seoug_2005
              seoug_2005 @seoug_2005 last edited by

              Thanks a lot Ryan. So, we can discount seomozz post ?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • RyanKent
                RyanKent @seoug_2005 last edited by

                My test results support the first article you shared.

                I duplicated Anil's test. I searched three times for the same site only using a long tail phrase with four words. I altered the 4th term each time.

                The first phrase showed "1" visit, the other two phrases appeared in the report but showed "0" visits.

                The other results were combined. Even though I did bounce on my first visit the Bounce Rate showed 0%. My bounce on the first visit was immediate but the Average Time on Site was 1:12 which is clearly the average of my three visits.

                You can easily perform this test and have the results the next day. Choose a key phrase where you perform well in SERPs but is unlikely to be used in a search. Alter the last term a repeat the steps in Anil's test. The next day, check your GA.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • seoug_2005
                  seoug_2005 @Devin_Anderson last edited by

                  Thanks Devin.

                  If i understood you correctly, GA is attributing the visit to a different keyword ( other than "business engagement in outsourcing" )

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • seoug_2005
                    seoug_2005 @Devin_Anderson last edited by

                    Thanks Devin.

                    If i understood you correctly, GA is attributing the visit to a different keyword ( other than "business engagement in outsourcing" )

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • seoug_2005
                      seoug_2005 @RyanKent last edited by

                      Thanks Ryan. I would also go with the second article. But as you mentioned, its difficult to trust one source over another. I will be waiting for the results of your test.  Here is another link.

                      http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Analytics/thread?tid=0d04370f123bc16c&hl=en  on the same topic, which suggests that  first keyword will show 1 visit, and the second keyword 0 visits. ( Again contradicting seomoz post )

                      RyanKent seoug_2005 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Devin_Anderson
                        Devin_Anderson last edited by

                        The SEOmoz article you linked was published more recently (2009) than the other blog post (2008), so if you have to choose I would go with that one, since Google is constantly updating.

                        It might help to look at it as the number of 'unique visits'. You got a visit for "business engagement in outsourcing", but that same visitor subsequently did another search and came to your site from a different keyword. As a result, you got several visits for different keywords, but only one unique visit. GA attributed this visit to a different keyword, so "business engagement in outsourcing" is listed as drawing 0 visits.

                        ..if that makes any sense?

                        seoug_2005 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • RyanKent
                          RyanKent last edited by

                          Hi Atul.

                          What you have is common in the SEO world: two different SEOs who offer opposing explanations on the same topic. In this case they cannot both be correct. Some things to consider:

                          The first article was written by Anil Batra. I have never heard of him, but that's OK! He's probably never heard of me either. He lists his credentials at the top of the page which seem satisfactory.

                          Anil's article was well presented and he offered a screenshot of his results along with a meaningful description of the test he performed to draw the conclusion he ultimately made. The article was written in April 2008.

                          The second article was written by Will Critchlow of Distilled. Will has written other articles I have read and I find him to be a credible source of SEO information.

                          Will's article is also well presented. Will specifically shared he contacted Avinash Kaushik from Google who would be considered an expert on the topic. Will's article was written in Jan 2009.

                          Personally I would choose to accept Will's response being that it is more recent and I offer higher credibility to his Google contact. BUT, I am also hesitant to discount anyone's ideas, especially when they are well presented such as Anil's article.

                          The great news: we can easily try a new test and find the answer! It's been over 2 1/2 years since the most recent article. I'll go ahead and try some tests and share the results.

                          seoug_2005 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • 1 / 1
                          • First post
                            Last post

                          Got a burning SEO question?

                          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                          Start my free trial


                          Browse Questions

                          Explore more categories

                          • Moz Tools

                            Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                          • SEO Tactics

                            Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                          • Community

                            Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                          • Digital Marketing

                            Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                          • Research & Trends

                            Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                          • Support

                            Connect on product support and feature requests.

                          • See all categories

                          Related Questions

                          • CarolynSC

                            Does google ignore ? in url?

                            Hi Guys, Have a site which ends ?v=6cc98ba2045f for all its URLs. Example: https://domain.com/products/cashmere/robes/?v=6cc98ba2045f Just wondering does Google ignore what is after the ?. Also any ideas what that is? Cheers.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CarolynSC
                            0
                          • odihost

                            Google does not want to index my page

                            I have a site that is hundreds of page indexed on Google. But there is a page that I put in the footer section that Google seems does not like and are not indexing that page. I've tried submitting it to their index through google webmaster and it will appear on Google index but then after a few days it's gone again. Before that page had canonical meta to another page, but it is removed now.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | odihost
                            0
                          • CayenneRed89

                            Keyword Ranking Fluctuations

                            Hi Guys I am currently working on a website where one of the keyword targets is fluctuating. The keyword is fluctuating between page 2 and page 5. What makes this strange is that we are not experiencing the issue with any other keyword targets. They are all ranking fine.   It is only 1 keyword. The keyword target happens to be the main homepage keyword target - not sure if this makes a difference? The homepage targets 2 keyword e.g. Business Offices & Accessories. The homepage ranks perfectly fine for e.g. Business Accessories but is fluctuating for e.g. Business Offices! Very strange. What makes it even stranger - the keyword variations of the fluctuating keyword e.g. office for business  - these variations are all fine and not fluctuating. Its only 1 keyword. If anyone has any ideas  or feedback that would be great! Thanks, Duncan

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CayenneRed89
                            0
                          • joony

                            Advanced SEO - What would you do after you run out of keywords?

                            Hello! Our company has been growing in terms of traffic and ranking well for a couple of years but we are now kind of stagnating because we just don't know what to do next. We have a good blog - and with our blogs, we have been targeting all major keywords with their related keywords as a bucket. - "keyword theme / page" for a long time. But it seems we now don't have any major keyword theme to write about. What is worse is that we don't see any traffic growth since 2014 September. (although we added many good blogs) So what would do you when you run out of keywords? or keyword themes? Would you just keep pumping in more blogs and hope that you get more clicks? or at some point, you just don't care about keywords and write whatever relevant to your site? Wouldn't it hurt our site if we create similar keyword themed pages? (like regurgitating our keywords?)  or even same keyword targeting pages? You must have similar experience if you are an owner of a niche site. Can you please share your experience with this kind of headaches? Thank you and look forward to your comments.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joony
                            3
                          • AWCthreads

                            Google and Product Description Tabs

                            How does Google process a product page with description tabs?  For example, lets say the product page has a tab for Overview, Specifications, What's In the Box and so on. Wouldn't that content be better served in one main product description tab with the tab names used as (htags) or highlighted paragraph separators? Or, does all that content get crawled as a single page regardless of the tabs?

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AWCthreads
                            0
                          • Atomicx

                            Google is displaying wrong address

                            I have a client whose Google Places listing is not showing correctly. We have control of the page, and have the address verified by postcard. Yet when we view the listing it shows a totally different address that is miles away and on a totally different street. We have relogged into manage the business listing and all of the info is correct. We dragged the marker and submitted it to them that they had things wrong and left a note with the right address. Why would this happen and how can we fix it? Right now they rank highly but with a blatantly wrong address.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Atomicx
                            0
                          • SEOSponge

                            Multiple Authors Google + Authorship

                            Hello, I took a look through past questions but can't seem to find a definitive answer on setting up Google + Authorship credit (for multiple authors) using a Wordpress blog. Has anyone had experience setting this up? Or could you recommend solid reading/research? I took a look at a couple of Wordpress plug in's but just found them very confusing (so did our IT contact who will ultimately be setting up code for this.) Any direction or advice is appreciated.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOSponge
                            0
                          • RichardTaylor

                            So What On My Site Is Breaking The Google Guidelines?

                            I have a site that I'm trying to rank for the Keyword "Jigsaw Puzzles" I was originally ranked around #60 or something around there and then all of a sudden my site stopped ranking for that keyword. (My other keyword rankings stayed) Contacted Google via the site reconsideration and got the general response... So I went through and deleted as many links as I could find that I thought Google may not have liked... heck, I even removed links that I don't think I should have JUST so I could have this fixed. I responded with a list of all links I removed and also any links that I've tried to remove, but couldn't for whatever reasons. They are STILL saying my website is breaking the Google guidelines... mainly around links. Can anyone take a peek at my site and see if there's anything on the site that may be breaking the guidelines? (because I can't) Website in question: http://www.yourjigsawpuzzles.co.uk UPDATE: Just to let everyone know that after multiple reconsideration requests, this penalty has been removed. They stated it was a manual penalty. I tried removing numerous different types of links but they kept saying no, it's still breaking rules. It wasn't until I removed some website directory links that they removed this manual penalty. Thought it would be interesting for some of you guys.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RichardTaylor
                            0

                          Get started with Moz Pro!

                          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                          Start my free trial
                          Products
                          • Moz Pro
                          • Moz Local
                          • Moz API
                          • Moz Data
                          • STAT
                          • Product Updates
                          Moz Solutions
                          • SMB Solutions
                          • Agency Solutions
                          • Enterprise Solutions
                          • Digital Marketers
                          Free SEO Tools
                          • Domain Authority Checker
                          • Link Explorer
                          • Keyword Explorer
                          • Competitive Research
                          • Brand Authority Checker
                          • Local Citation Checker
                          • MozBar Extension
                          • MozCast
                          Resources
                          • Blog
                          • SEO Learning Center
                          • Help Hub
                          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                          • How-to Guides
                          • Moz Academy
                          • API Docs
                          About Moz
                          • About
                          • Team
                          • Careers
                          • Contact
                          Why Moz
                          • Case Studies
                          • Testimonials
                          Get Involved
                          • Become an Affiliate
                          • MozCon
                          • Webinars
                          • Practical Marketer Series
                          • MozPod
                          Connect with us

                          Contact the Help team

                          Join our newsletter
                          Moz logo
                          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                          • Accessibility
                          • Terms of Use
                          • Privacy

                          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.