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
-
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
-
Thanks for following up Will.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Thanks a lot Ryan. So, we can discount seomozz post ?
-
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.
-
Thanks Devin.
If i understood you correctly, GA is attributing the visit to a different keyword ( other than "business engagement in outsourcing" )
-
Thanks Devin.
If i understood you correctly, GA is attributing the visit to a different keyword ( other than "business engagement in outsourcing" )
-
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 )
-
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?
-
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.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Can you index a Google doc?
We have updated and added completely new content to our state pages. Our old state content is sitting in a our Google drive. Can I make these public to get them indexed and provide a link back to our state pages? In theory it sounds like a great link building strategy... TIA!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LindsayE1 -
I think Google Analytics is mis-reporting organic landing pages.
I have multiple clients whose Google Analytics accounts are showing me that some of the top performing organic landing pages (in terms of highest conversion rates) look like this: /cart.php /quote /checkout.php /finishorder.php /login.php In some cases, these pages are blocked by Robots.txt. In other cases they are not even indexed at all in Google. These pages are clearly part of the conversion process. A couple of them are links sent out when a cart is abandoned, etc. - is it possible they actually came in organically but then re-entered via one of these links which is what Google is calling the organic landing page? How is it possible that these pages would be the top performing landing pages for organic visitors?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | FPD_NYC0 -
"Null" appearing as top keyword in "Content Keywords" under Google index in Google Search Console
Hi, "Null" is appearing as top keyword in Google search console > Google Index > Content Keywords for our site http://goo.gl/cKaQ4K . We do not use "null" as keyword on site. We are not able to find why Google is treating "null" as a keyword for our site. Is anyone facing such issue. Thanks & Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
My website is not ranking for primary keywords in Google
I need help regarding some SEO strategy that need to be implemented to my website http://goo.gl/AiOgu1 . My website is a leading live chat product, daily it receives around 2000 unique visitors. Initially the website was impacted by manual link penalty, I cleaned up lot of backlinks, the website revoked from the penalty some where around June'14. Most of the secondary and longtail Keywords started ranking in Google, but unfortunately, it do not rank well for the primary keywords like (live chat, live chat software, helpdesk etc). Since I have done lot of onsite changes and even revamped the content but till now I dont find any improvement. I am unable to understand where I have got structed.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sandeep.clickdesk
can anyone help me out?0 -
How to NOT appear in Google results in other countries?
I have ecommerce sites the only serve US and Canada. Is there a way to prevent a site from appearing in the Google results in foreign countries? The reason I ask is that we also have a lot of informational pages that folks in other countries are visiting, then leaving right after reading. This is making our overall Bounce Rate very high (64%). When we segment the GA data to look at just our US visitors, then the Bounce Rate drops a lot. (to 48%) Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GregB1230 -
Limit on Google Removal Tool?
I'm dealing with thousands of duplicate URL's caused by the CMS... So I am using some automation to get through them - What is the daily limit? weekly? monthly? Any ideas?? thanks, Ben
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20100 -
Does Google hate wordpress?
I have my categories pages set to noindex, follow. I deactivated the author and date based archives, and all the /page/2 /page/3 are noindex. Is this the right approach? I had thought about adding some text to the topic of each category page and then changing them to index. I'm using showing recent post excerpts on the homepage. Another other suggestions? I think two of my sites are in panda for no good reason. It seems like non-wordpress blogs in my industry do better than comparable wordpress sites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KateV0 -
Is it better to use geo-targeted keywords or add the locations as separate keywords?
For example... state keyword (nyc real estate) or keyword, state (nyc, real estate) = 2 keywords Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cyclone0