We have a client that wants to apply UTM URL tagging to track local organic traffic in Google Analytics. Is there any benefit in doing this?
-
One of our clients requested that we apply UTM URL tagging to better track organic traffic in Google Analytics. We found this to be an odd request because we are most familiar with UTM tracking for special campaigns (referral tracking, PPC, email tracking, etc).
Is there any benefit of applying UTM tags to urls to analyze local organic traffic in Google Analytics? Are there any resources out there about this?
Thanks!
-
Just as Dmitrii says this is UTM is for tracking special campaigns.
But you can't track organic visits because bot crawl your website and find pages A, B, C, etc. And later in SERP you can see A, B ,C and rest pages as-is their physical location. Example http://www.example.com/a.html but you can't see tagged URL in SERP.
This make things impossible for implementing in their request.
If they really, really, really want to be URL tagged - you need to change their canonical of pages and internal linking between pages where all links to be tagged too. And this is pure recipe for SEO disaster. Also will be disaster for Analytics tracking because all traffic will be tagged.
-
Hi there.
I assume you are talking about adding UTM tracking parameters to the links on local listings profiles like Yelp, G+ etc?
If so, as far as I know there is no way to control anchor text, so users will see full url with all parameters, which might be confusing.
But overall - it will be helpful to see how many people are actually finding your client in local search and, if it's large enough number, they might want to invest in promoted listings within those networks. Other than that - I can't think of any benefits.
Hope this helps.
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
-
Analytics Tracking in China
I am setting up a Chinese domain and I was wondering if anyone has experience with using Google Analytics for tracking in the country and if it really works or if Baidu is the better solution for the website. The website will be hosted in the US so I don't know if that makes any difference with getting around "The Great Firewall". I would prefer to us GA if possible because I am extremely familiar with the platform but I am more concerned with getting accurate tracking data for the site. Thank you in advance and any help would be greatly appreciated. Brooke
Reporting & Analytics | | Ryan_Henry0 -
Universal Google analytics e-commerce tracking code?
Hi Mozzers, I have never setup a universal google analytics e-commerce tracking code before and my concern is what exactly do I need to add on the cart thank you page? Can someone send me a sample of code I need to be adding? What kind of customization does it require? The more details you can provide the better! Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Google Analytics Custom Alert For Goal Completions?
Hi currently setting up custom alerts for a website. I want to do a custom alerts for when goal completions decrease or increase by a certain % e.g. 20% as shown in the third example from this Moz Article back in 2012 - http://moz.com/blog/7-essential-google-intelligence-custom-alerts-that-keep-me-sane However when i go into my GA account the only options seem to be for when the goal completion conversion rate % drops. I could use this, but i rather do just based on completions rather than %. Any ideas on how i can do this? Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | MBASydney0 -
Google Analytics
Is there any way around being able to set up 20 goals in Analytics? What if one of my clients want to set up 10 pages with separate actions to track on each page. Will then each actions count as a separate goal? If this is the case, how could I work around creating more than 20 goals? Would I have to look into hiring/buying a third party or separate software? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | flcity150 -
Google Analytics traffic hijacking?
Ran into something interesting a week ago - the same Google Analytics code was installed on two different sites by accident. The account was reporting traffic from both domains. Haven't found a definitive answer on how to stop this yet if it were to be used maliciously?
Reporting & Analytics | | khemistry0 -
Advanced segements Google Analytics
Hi guys, I was to hasty last time marking the given question as answered. So i would like to ask another question on the subject. My original question was how to get a pdf report of 10 specific keywords with information about visits,pages per view. avg, visit time, new visitors and bounce rate. The answer was to create an advanced segment with "or operators" and adding all keywords on an exact match basis. I did this but it still gives me a list of more then 500 keywords in traffic sources organic view. Next to that i get different visitor numbers for some keywords where it says 40 at the normal segments (all visits) but gives me 0 when i turn on the advanced segment. I've been clicking and changing things for a long time until i got almost dizzy. Could someone plz help?
Reporting & Analytics | | 5MMedia0 -
Tracking Required Form Fields in Google Analytics
I tried searching for this elsewhere but am having a hard time finding a good answer. Is it possible to track the effect of required form fields on conversions in Google Analytics? In other words, how do I track whether or not more/less people fill out a form if I make "Last Name" a required field? Thanks 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | kylesuss0 -
Why isn´t my google analytics registering goals?
Hi everyone! I know this is is not the standard SEO question, but I hope you can help me with your knowledge. I set some goals in GA for the thankyou page that appears when a client requests more information on a property for sale. Problem is I have been testing them and the goals don´t get registered. I don´t know what am I doing wrong and I would really appreciate if you could help me through some light on this. I have attached an image of the option for the goal in GA. Can anybody help me? Paroa.png
Reporting & Analytics | | inmonova0