Guest: Rachael Gerson (@RachaelGerson). @RachaelGerson has a backgroun in SEO and leads the Analytics division at SEER Interactive in Philadelphia. She has been developing tracking recommendations & strategies focused on aggressively pursuing the most positive and tangible ROI. @RachaelGerson is also a Google Analytics Qualified Individual and named by Google as a “Top Contributors” to the GA product forum.
What’s the first thing you do when you get access to a client’s GA data?
Oh my gosh, so many things! First step is to make sure we have a backup, totally raw unfiltered profile. Since GA collects data based on the filters on a profile, we want a clean profile that collects *everything*.
We also want a test profile, so we can test any new filters, goals, etc. w/o messing up our good data.
I’ll use the original profile to find any headsmack-worthy issues, then apply filters to new or secondary profiles.
1) Look @ hostname report (Audience > Tech > Network > Hostname). More sites listed than just yours? Solution 1: Create a custom filter to only include *your* hostname(s).
2) Look at Pages or Landing Pages. Do some have capitalization and some not? If so, GA’s separating your data. Solution 2: Create a custom filter to make all Request URI lowercase.
3) You know the client’s running paid search. Is PPC data coming into the “Paid” reports? If not, go click on a paid search ad to make sure the client is tagging paid search URLs. If using AdWords & autotagging, confirm that cost source settings are applied & autotagging enabled.
4) Check out the current setup. Are the filters working? Do they block info they shouldn’t? Do goals work? etc. I always audit the existing settings b/c I’m amazed at how often there are MAJOR issues.
5) Last one isn’t actually in GA, but is HUGELY important. Never trust that the GA code is actually on every page of the site!!! Find a way to confirm the code is on each page. Here’s how I use the paid version of Screaming Frog to verify the code: http://bit.ly/JjHwWq . I’m betting a lot of people are doing the same thing. @willcritchlow mentioned using @screamingfrog last year, got ppl thinking!
Btw if anyone’s unsure how to set up any of these filters, lmk! Happy to walk through it now or later.
I said 5 but want to add one more “headsmack” item. Like serious headsmack item. I will never understand this one.
If the site uses GA ecommerce tracking, make sure you mark “Yes, an ecommerce site” in profile settings!
@scott_dodge RE: 2 – Do you mean something like /Index.php vs. /index.php? Wouldn’t that be something to take care of via 301s?
@RachaelGerson Ideally it would be, but for so many sites, it isn’t. This filter is an easy fix while they work on 301s. I’m always surprised but this comes up so often.
@scott_dodge RE clicking an ad – Probably not recommended if your client’s keywords are on this list http://bit.ly/pZoG8Q ha 
@RachaelGerson LOL agreed!! I’ll usually look for a branded term they’re bidding on. Costs less = i make less enemies
@scott_dodge I’d also like to add that consistent code (legacy vs. asynchronous) is very important.
@RachaelGerson YESSIR!!! I def look for parts of the code that are async-specific, as well as for the cross-domain tracking, etc.
@scott_dodge I found that the hard way when doing event tracking – our blog had legacy code, rest of the site had asynchronous.
@RachaelGerson Oh gosh. Believe me, I’ve run into it. Even more painful when it’s your own site. How about commented out Urchin code? Ran into that just yesterday. “YOURCODEHERE” = helpful.
@DarrochReid Those without Paid version of screaming frog can use this Chrome App: http://bit.ly/Kxngj7.
@RachaelGerson Yes but I want to scan every page of the site. GA Debugger = AWESOME. Lifesaver, seriously.
@thompsonpaul New free tool for scanning a full site’s GA code deployment is gPablo http://ow.ly/aZkkj. gPablo also checks for broken links as well as GA so I’m careful to run it in off-hours so not to load up a server.
How can GA data be used to dictate strategy direction or decision-making throughout an SEO campaign?
SO many ways. I have a few parts of this response in this answer, more in the next one. Check out referring traffic. You may have gotten a great link from a site that could give future linking or partnership opps.
Looking at your keywords could show you new angles for keyword research & strategy. I found something tiny in keywords. That tiny little finding drove more than 30% extra traffic once we built a strategy around it. Btw that’s not just 30% extra on the one keyword. That was for the site overall.
Look at locations with your keywords. You may be ranking really well in an area due to local search & have no idea. Once you get the initial spark of an idea, you can build a whole strategy around these things.
What are your go-to reports within GA to uncover new opportunities?
Lots of standard reports. Obviously I look at the reports for keywords, landing pages, source, etc. For each report, look at # of visits, bounce rate & conversion rate. Working hard to drive useless traffic sucks. Sorry to be blunt, but it’s true. By the way, I’m shocked at the number of people who never use these functions: http://bit.ly/JzNp1e. Especially the Comparison & Performance functions. They rock, use them!!
Use RegEx to group your keywords to get better insight about how the terms perform. Make sure you have your internal site search set up to track in @googleanalytics.
The level of data we can get from site search is fantastic. Find out which terms people are searching for on your site. Then make sure the terms are there! Also consider these terms for SEO & paid search efforts, especially if they convert well.
Look for landing pages that convert really well. Find terms that could be related to the content on these landing pages. If you’re already ranked on 1st two pages, do what you can to help bump those rankings up for quick, easy wins.
Similarly, find terms you convert really well for (from SEO & PPC) and work on improving those rankings, too.
@DarrochReid Unclear what to look for? Some great custom reports here: http://www.customreportsharing.com/.
@RachaelGerson Meh, was going to give @CustomGAreports a shout out in the next session, but @jillwhalen deserves two for that site!
@BrettASnyder 2 great Regex guides here as well: http://bit.ly/d00g5a & http://bit.ly/H8ALyG.
Which do you prefer: Profiles or Advanced Segments? And what are some of your favorites?
If fast-access mode (or whatever we’re calling it these days) didn’t exist, Advanced Segments would win, hands down. Profiles only gather data from the day they’re created. Advanced segments can be applied on the fly. If I could have new profiles populate with previous data OR no sampled data, I’d be a very happy girl. But advanced segments are still awesome.
To quote the amazing @avinash, “All data in aggregate is ‘crap.’” Oh, should I take this opportunity to confess my total nerd crush on @avinash again now?
If you’re not segmenting, you’re not really analyzing. And advanced segments make that EASY!
Every link will open in GA, where you can save the segments, edit them, etc. Enjoy.
Segment to include just twitter traffic: http://bit.ly/twitter-segment. Twitter segment’s useful since this traffic can come in from so many sources. This isn’t perfect, since people do use Hootsuite for other social media tools, but it’s closer to accurate.
Create segments to include & exclude Branded Search. Here’s an include segment for SEER, replace w/ your own branded info: http://bit.ly/seer-branded. Here’s an exclude: http://bit.ly/seer-non-brand. It excludes (not provided) since we don’t know if that data was branded or not.
Take it a step further & make the traffic organic or paid only.
@avinash created a fantastic set of advanced segments to count the # of words in a keyword: http://bit.ly/KF9rhe (Scroll to #3). Here they are to copy: 3 word – http://bit.ly/3-word; 4 word – http://bit.ly/4-word; 7 word – http://bit.ly/7-word. Make whatever # you want by replacing the number in the { } in the RegEx.
@Googleanalytics did a great job of providing a standard set of segments that don’t take any work to set up – Use them!
As @darrochreid mentioned, check out @customgareports (http://bit.ly/LgS6Og) – a great resource for segments, dashboards, etc.
@Nutritionwtloss @avinash created this too on GA advanced segments http://bit.ly/Lc9pti.
How are SEOs supposed to take full advantage of their GA data now that (not provided) results are becoming more prevalent?
Speaking of missing keywords… I’ll be totally honest, I hate (not provided). Not just that it’s happening, but that the discussion happens over and over. Yes, we’re losing more keyword data than initially projected. Yes, it sucks. But isn’t everyone sick of this conversation already??
I initially looked for ways to apply the branded vs non-branded search ratios to the (not provided) traffic. When the (not provided) traffic was low, this wasn’t a big deal. We got some insight back, yay. But as (not provided) continues to increase, we just can’t assume these %s are accurate. It’s time to move away from keyword-level reporting for traffic. Trust me, I held my breath & stomped my feet at first. @AnnieCushing will vouch for that one But I’m coming around.
@OptimizePrime Don’t mean to derail you but what is the most useful reason for integrating gwmt + ga? Haven’t done it yet.
@RachaelGerson MISSING KEYWORD DATA!! (Imagine that in a cookie monster voice…) Still figuring out the details, but since @GoogleAnalytics just said the #s should be accurate, I want that info!
@scott_dodge Remember @aimclear’s #seochat? He laid out a process for getting the missing KW data – http://bit.ly/KVulrR.
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[...] I use Tweetdeck and have a column within Tweetdeck to follow #SEOCHAT. #SEOChat is the hashtag for the weekly SEO discussion. It is a fast paced discussion with the added fun challenge of having to make answers in 140 characters or less. This week I had a question on using Regular Expression or Regex, in Google Analytics, since Regex was a component of one of the answers given by guest Rachael Gerson (@RachelGerson). The summary of Rachael’ chat can be found at http://www.searchmarketingweekly.com/summary-google-analytics-uncover-seo-opportunities-seochat-rach… [...]