URLS are top keywords in GA?
-
Hey Moz,
For some reason on my father's website, michaelpadway.com, the top 2 keywords from organic are complete urls from his site. This doesn't makeugh sense to me. Any ideas?
-
Yes, it's definitely a "thing" with less tech-savvy users.
It seems most common among my mom's generation - 60+ years old and not terribly familiar with technology.
-
Hi Spencer,
As others said, as an IT guy I see so many people just go to Google and type a url then click whatever it gives them. I've even seen people go to Google and type Yahoo.com shake head
-
Like EGOL and Dirk say, this is a pretty common behavior now especially with so many browsers featuring a search from the URL Address bar feature. I sometimes wonder if it's not also due to Google's handling of (not provided) and their move towards masking more search terms.
One question, are these top keywords the same in Google Webmaster Tools for your dad's site, or are you looking at just analytics? I'd give GWT a try as it usually shows a lot more in the keyword department.
-
I agree. I am old enough to do this.
-
I see this a lot on our sites which are targeting a more senior audience (60+). Some of them have little experience with internet and some of them just seem to be unaware of the fact that you can put an url in the address bar. Their only way to navigate the internet goes through google (or bing) which in most cases is the default page in their browser.
Based on this article http://www.wsj.com/articles/uneasy-rider-boomer-deaths-in-motorcycle-crashes-jump-1419210199 I guess they make a big part of your father's audience...
-
I get a lot of full URLs as keywords.
I think that people copy / paste them into the search box, or just type them because they are simple
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
-
Excluding Cookieless Static Content Sub-domain from GA/GTM
For the purposes of this question our ecommerce site url is www.ecommerce.com Our TLD is ecommerce.com We have, following advice from Yslow, Pagespeed and others, moved our static content to a subdomain - static.ecommerce.com We have Google Analytics and Enhance Ecommerce installed, fired from GTM. The cookieDomain setting in GTM is 'auto' At present cookies are being attached to our static resources. What changes do I need to make to to prevent this happening? Many thanks Julian
Reporting & Analytics | | jdeb0 -
In google analytic for google /cpc it is showing url with 404 which even not exists in my database
Hello All, In google analytic for google /cpc it is showing url with 404 which even not exists in my database that also more than 300 per day. How can it is possible? it is showing /black-friday-offers but I don't have such page. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | pragnesh96390 -
Weird Math in GA Ecommerce Tracking
Hi everybody. I've recently discovered that I have a problem with the ecommerce tracking on a client's website. The client sells concert tickets at an average price of $10 per ticket. The custom ecommerce platform they use is kind of unusual; the same product often has different SKUs, but not always. This isn't associated with different seats, etc. In fact, I don't yet know why they've set it up that way. The problem that I'm facing is this: the data in Analytics is calculating the "average price" of a SKU item as the total price. If, for example, the actual average price for a SKU item is $10 and four of those SKU items were sold, Analytics will tell me the average price is $40. This means that the total revenue for that SKU shows up as $40 x 4 = $160. Needless to say, this is enormously skewing the data. Here's a screenshot. Note, it's the same product: http://screencast.com/t/JyLQkb3jzz6s The total revenue for ticket sales is way off because of this, and I'm not sure if it's a problem with the ecommerce tracking code in Analytics, or something that the ecomm platform is doing. Have any of you experienced anything like this, and if so is it a fix in Analytics? Thank you!
Reporting & Analytics | | newwhy0 -
Landing page URL appearing as keyword
Hi Mozers, I've recently experienced the URLs of my key landing pages coming up as keywords. This has been on the rise since early July (when it was relatively insignificant) to the current position (see image below) where they make up the majority of my top keywords. Drilling down into a bit more detail, this seems to be almost exclusively Desktop traffic but in terms of Technology there are no clear standouts (seems to be mostly Windows OS and Chrome). Has anyone else been experiencing this?
Reporting & Analytics | | mopland0 -
Webmaster tools traffic on one keyword dropped through the floor - ideas?
Hi there, We design and sell our own product range in a narrow niche, and we are also stocked by Amazon and a lot of other big retailers in the UK. During the first two weeks of Dec 2012 the position of one of our main keywords, which was in google SERPs on page 1 (8 or 9), dropped to page 4. The keyword describes the niche we're in. The drop is shown in the webmaster tools traffic report for that keyword. But it's the only one of our keywords where this has happened, and furthermore it hasn't happened for variations of the keyword. And in Adwords our quality score for the keyword is 10 For example say we were making and selling shopping trolleys - our keyword "shopping trolleys" has dropped through the floor, but "shopping trolleys (on) wheels" is just fine. Can anyone shed any light on what's going on here? Losing this one keyword has cost us some good organic traffic. i1uxSlB.png
Reporting & Analytics | | w1ll1am0 -
URL offline advertising
Hi there, I am in a bit of a dilemma, we are going to be doing some TV advertising and using the URL example.com/tv I want this to take the user to the product that we are advertising example.com/product For best practice should have a 301 redirect on /tv going to /product? We are also doing magazine, newspaper advertising also, so the same question applies. Kind Regards
Reporting & Analytics | | Paul780 -
How do I track comparison shopping engine traffic with keywords?
I want to track comparison shopping engine traffic with keywords in Google Analytics. So, How can I get it done? I am using Google Analytics URL Builder to track traffic which are associated to comparison shopping engine. My product page URL load with following format when some one click on comparison shopping engine. Please, see format of product page URL Now, I have problem with tracking as follow. Please, see this Google Analytics traffic sources screen shot to know more. Comparison shopping engine traffic is going to track with other section and not indicate keyword. I want to track keyword which help me to understand more about my product feed performance. It will help me for better understanding regarding keywords which was searched by my customers to land on my website.
Reporting & Analytics | | CommercePundit0 -
GA dropping source due to 3rd party checkout?
So I am trying to track ecommerce transactions on a Prostores site and GA is dropping the source because the checkout is on prostores domain instead of the store domain. All ecommerce transactions show a source of the actual website as a referral. I've read googles documentation on tracking across multiple domains but just can't quite get it right. Can anyone help me out? Here is my tracking code: ss:commentdo nothing</ss:comment>
Reporting & Analytics | | BlinkWeb0