Google Analytics is such an easy and powerful website performance reporting tool. It can be very powerful indeed, although there are some limitations compared to the very expensive “paid” solutions (like Omniture for example).
But when you link Google Analytics with other tools Google offers like Google Site Search, you’ll discover interesting insights into how your website is performing and what people are searching for on your website.
You can then take steps to ensure people are able to find important content more easily, or indeed add new sections or pages to your site to help your visitors.
If you’re not too technically adept, you may need your web developer to help you configure Google Analytics to track search activity.
Anyway, here’s a screenshot showing an overview of Site Search when integrated into Google Analytics:
Google Site Search used to be free but it now (unfortunately) costs $US100 per year. But if you’re reasonably serious about your website’s performance it’s probably well worth the investment. I’ll show you why.
This next screenshot shows what people are searching for on one of our client’s websites:
So we can see that many people are searching for jobs with this particular organisation. Without Site Search, we would never know this was happening. Of course our recommendation to the client is to create a new section on the site providing more information about jobs, careers and employment.
If your site is an e-commerce website, you can discover which products people are searching for and either eventually finding or, more importantly NOT finding.
You can either feature “most searched for” products on your home page so they’re easier to “find” or if you’re not stocking a product people desire, try and source it!
Ironically the idea is to try and help people to use Site Search LESS frequently.
Seems like such a shame when you’ve just spent $US100 bucks getting it installed!
Below is an informative YouTube video outlining some of the features in more detail.
Chris Thomas heads Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.
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