What to get from google Webmaster tools?
-
Hi everyone,
I've been doing optimization for our websites and tracking the results regularly but don't really know what the results actually mean. I heard that I need to check the traffic and organic results from Google analytics and Google webmaster tools. Everybody says something and not sure what to do?
Is there anyone clarify the SEO process for me - when to do what and why in simplest way?
Thanks in advance,
-
"I've been doing optimization for our websites and tracking the results regularly but don't really know what the results actually mean."
This is quite a broad statement. I'll take it that you already understand the important parts of the optimization process. So, the first question to address would be: What results were you trying to achieve?
If all you're going for is "more traffic," then you can simply look at Analytics and see whether or not organic traffic has noticeably risen or fallen to get a measure of your success. If your goal is more business, then you need to start looking at conversions and specific page flow within Analytics.
For instance, say you run an e-commerce site... perhaps you should look at the number of hits to the "thank you" page that users see after making a purchase. Is it getting more hits than it has in the past, and if so, does the increase in hits there correlate with your increased traffic, and does all of that together correlate with your SEO efforts? In a perfect world, things would look like this:
- Optimize your site
- Traffic noticeably increases
- Conversions noticeably increase
I'm sorry if this is all a little broad... it might help if we know exactly what "results" you'd like to track.
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
-
Google Analytics Not Properly Attributing Goals
My GA has been working fine for years and is now suddenly attributing 100% of my goals/conversions to a "referral" source. In this case "crm.zoho.com". (see attached url) Our contact form is a zoho CRM form. When prospect fills it out online, it dumps them to a thank-you page and the conversion is counted. That all works just fine, but it is not attributing the conversion to Organic or PPC or Direct as it was a month or so ago. I'm not sure if this may be the cause, but I was cleaning up GA about a month ago, deleting some filters I didn't think I needed any more. Thank you for your help. 9CRUx
Reporting & Analytics | | sanctuary2420 -
Changing URL Parameters in Webmaster Tools
We have a bit of a conundrum. Webmaster tools is telling us that they are crawling too many URLs: Googlebot found an extremely high number of URLs on your site: http://www.uncommongoods.com/ In their list of URL examples, all of the URLs have tons of parameters. We would probably be ok telling Google not to index any of the URLs with parameters. We have a great URL structure. All of our category and product pages have clean links (no parameters) The parameters come only from sorts and filters. We don't have a need for Google to index all of these pages. However, Google Analytics is showing us that over the last year, we received a substantial amount of search revenue from many of these URLs (800+ of them converted) So, Google is telling us they are unhappy. We want to make Google happy by ignoring all of the paramter URLs, but we're worried this will kill the revenue we're seeing. Two questions here: 1. What do we have to lose by keeping everything as-is. Google is giving us errors, but other than that what are the negative repercussions? 2. If we were to de-index all of the parameter URLs via Webmaster tools, how much of the revnenue would likely be recovered by our non-parameter URLs? I've linked to a screenshot from Google Analytics ArxMSMG.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | znotes0 -
No option to connect to google analytics!
I figured it out had to click on the pencil icon. On GA looks like this http://orlandocouponsfree.com - http://orlandocouponsfree.comUA-9313894-1orlandocouponsfree.combut url is http://www.orlandocouponsfree.com/Is this an issue? When I tried to connect to google analytics yesterday. There was a connection issue with Moz & GA. I refreshed page hoping it would help. Now it won't let me choose domain. When I view campaign it says I should connect properties. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jkJ0ZdF.png[/IMG] I click link and get to this page which doesn't provide my an option. http://analytics.moz.com/settings/campaign/89561.117561 [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jkJ0ZdF.png[/IMG]
Reporting & Analytics | | touristips0 -
What is the best tool to look at Internal Links?
My site has on average 220 internal links a page largely due to how the site is built ie every page shows every link via the menu system, which isnt great, but from what i have read there isnt much i can do about it. However, this week 3 pages jumped to over 400 links and the home page over 500 internal links, GWT will only show me 200 of them, Is there a tool that i can use that will list all my internal links, so i can find out why this has happened? Thanks Ash
Reporting & Analytics | | AshShep10 -
Google Internal Search Tracking Kaput :-(
Buongiorno from cloudy & overcast Wetherby UK... On this site http://www.dartexcoatings.com/ I configured Google to tracdk internal search & heres how - http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/internal-search-jinx_zpscf86b49d.jpg But internal search data is not pulling through 😞 How can i fix this please.
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing
Thanks,
David0 -
Implications of Google discontinuing Website Optimizer
Hi Guys, As most of you probably know, Google is discontinuing Website Optimizer and introducing Experiments within Google Analytics. However, doesn't this mean that now, every site you want to run an experiment for has to be using Google Analytics? This is possibly one of the motivations for them making the change I guess? I also find it inconvenient that every 'experiment' now has to be based on improving a pre-defined goal in Google Analytics. This means that for a lot of situations we'll be creating goals just for the experiment and the clients actual goal conversions will appear quite inflated. I guess we'll just have to filter the new 'goals' out from the actual goals.
Reporting & Analytics | | David_ODonnell1 -
Google Analytics help - exporting reports
Hey mozzers, A little help if you will. I am in traffic sources > sources > search > organic I am view keywords and comparing 1 month with another. Now I see what 1 keyword sends 1st month, 2nd month and % Change. I want to export this data to an .xls file. When I do, I end up with a file that shows what 1 keyword sends 1st month and 2nd month, but no % Change! I really need to include this in exported document.... Summary: Analytics hates me. 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | MirandaP0 -
Home page rankings disappeared - Google Penalty?
Hi, I have a clients website that I have been working on for a few months now. On-page SEO for home page is A for all target keywords. All Domain / subdomain / external link data etc. much stronger than all competition. But approx 3 months ago (before Panda update) all home page rankings (except 1 keyword) dropped out sight in Google rankings. 3 months later, still can't work out why. Sometimes rankings come back onto page 9 or so then drop out again. Deeper pages are not effected, just the Home page. Looks like a Google penalty to me but can't work out why. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Website is - www.marrikashairextensions.com Many thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | websearchseo0