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.
Google Analytics Organic Search Keywords Suddenly Displaying FulL Urls
-
In my Google Analytics, the top keywords for Organic Search are suddenyl displaying full URLs. For example, now the third and fourth keywords are http://www.domain.com/highly-specific-URL.
These have all started recently around the same day, July 12th. I've checked back, and we've made no internal changes to the site around that time that could affect this.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
P.S. It might be related to rich snippets, but I cannot tell at this point.
-
We are seeing this too! The homepage URL has become a top term among the usual top terms. For multiple clients, all beginning around July 14th.
Checked - devices, regions, OS, browser, landing page, visitor type, etc. Everything is different, so no one cause. Again, three different clients have gone from less than 5 URL visits a day to 50 -80 a day.
-
Hi Josh! Did you see Robert's response to your screencap? He raises some very good questions in it. Please let us know, thanks.
-
Matt,
First thing, is you said this started on 7/12. Was there anything done with GA code placement then or prior (say within the previous month)? And, do you have a bounce rate that is at or near zero?
Second, Can you give me any of the KW terms that are showing for you (don't need other data on that).
Next, can you take visitor flow for a week, and then juxtapose it against what you are showing re KW terms and urls to see if you have any "ahaa" moment.
From experience I can tell you that if you have GA code in more than once it will affect things but I do not recall ever seeing this type of occurrence. You are obviously in the right area on GA so you should see KWs with amounts to the right. (I am assuming your GA code is in the head tag).
Also, other than GA, are you running any other type of analytics program?
Now, if you take where you are and select secondary dimension, then select traffic sources and then landing page.
Does this change your urls on the left to keywords and the next item to the right being the url?I am going to send an email to a person who only does high end analysis and is G certified in GA. With all the redaction there is really no info, but I will ask him generally if he has seen that occur before. Let me know on the above as I do not know when he will respond this close to the weekend.
Let me know. Thanks
-
Hi Robert,
I'm attaching a redacted screenshot of the GA view I'm using.
Please let me know if you see anything!
Best,
Matt
-
Josh,
I use GA a lot and have not experienced that. If you can either put an image (use something where you can show everything like awesome screenshot) here or if it is better, PM me, I will look at it to see what is happening. If I don't have an answer, I will shoot an email to an expert (whose only works is GA and other analytics) with the screen shot.Thanks
-
Hi Robert,
I'm going to Traffic Sources - Search - Organic. The primary dimension is Keyword. There is no secondary dimension. Underneath Keyword column, URLs are appearing as top keywords. There are keywords mixed in, but they occur later.
Please let me know.
Thanks.
-
Josh,
Under Traffic Sources - Search - Organic, You are saying your primary dimension is Keyword, and under that first column, there are urls as opposed to keywords?
It is not under a secondary dimension, correct?Just clarifying before going further.
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
-
Attribution of conversions to payment gateway in Google Analytics
Hi all, We have been having a problem for a while now where most transactions are attributed to referrals from our payment gateway Sagepay. The issue started a couple of months ago, when we finally upgraded our website to https:// for logged in users and transactions. Before, when we were using http://, transactions were attributed to the correct channel. Even weirder, we upgraded 4 websites and only 2 of them have the issue now, the other two continue to attribute transactions correctly. I added Sagepay to the referral exclusion list which made no difference. Over the weekend, we upgraded to the global site tag and it seems to have improved somewhat, but yesterday 50% of transactions were still attributed to referral/sagepay. I am also seeing an odd issue, where for half of the transactions, the revenue and transaction are attributed to one channel, but the products (quantity) are attributed to another. One of the channels is always referral/sagepay and the other is the channel that the transaction should be attributed to. Has anyone seen this issue before? I'd appreciate any tips that might help us fix this issue. Thanks in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | ViviCa10 -
Tracking 301 redirect traffic in Google Analytics
if I 301 redirect www.mywebsite.com to go to www.yourwebsite.com, how can I track the traffic in Google Analytics that is coming from mywebsite.com?? I don't think that's a referral traffic, is it?
Reporting & Analytics | | Armen-SEO0 -
Would updating Meta Titles affect Google analytics tracking?
Hi All, I need a little bit of help. We need to optimize our blog's articles Meta titles for SEO which all exceed 100 characters. I was told that if we change the titles, google analytics would split the tracking pages and count the data as 2 pages (old title and new title). Has any of you have this experience before and if so, is there a way to avoid google analytics counting this as two pages? Thanks in advance! Viviana http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/
Reporting & Analytics | | mchoi0 -
Did Analytics change the way to handle Google images searches on Dec 12?
Dear all, One of the sites I'm monitoring receives a lot of traffic from image searches or images that appear in universal search results. On Dec 12th, 2015, the bounce rate for these sessions went from around 30% the day before to around 87%. See screen shot below. Did anybody notice similar bounces in the bounce rate? Did Google change something in the way that image search is handled? Looking forward to your ideas! large?v=mpbl-1&px=999
Reporting & Analytics | | AABMarketing_Frank0 -
How does switching to HTTPS effect Google Analytics?
We are looking at making our site HTTPS. We have been using the same Google Analytics account for years and I like having the historical data. All of our pages will be the same, we are just going to redirect from the http to https. Does anything need to be done with Google Analytics? What about other addons such as Optimizely, Crazy Egg, or Share this?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
How many users completely block Google Analytics cookies ?
Hello everyone! In your experience, how many of your visitors' browsers completely block cookies including those of Google Analytics ?
Reporting & Analytics | | Masoko-T0 -
Setting Up Google Analytic with Sub Folder Sites
What is the best way of setting up Google Analytic for a website that has many sub folders? The main site is example.com and it has 40 sub folder sites like example.com/uk example.com/France etc etc Would it be advised to track a single domain in Google Analytic then create filters for the sub folder sites. Filters > Include traffic from > Sub directories Also with this method is it possible to view overall incoming website stats for everything? Previous experience would be great with this thanks 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | daracreative0 -
Why does Google Analytics think PPC traffic is organic?
I have a bastard of a problem... Google Analytics is incorrectly tracking PPC traffic as SEO which is screwing up all my reporting . I don't care for rankings, I care for actual SEO traffic and I can't be sure that what i am seeing is correct which is driving me nuts. Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | Red_Mud_Rookie1