Impressions in Google Analytics
-
I am trying to compare SERP impressions in Google Analtyics between two different time periods.
I want to compare the last two months, with the previous two months.
Now this works fine when I go to Traffic Sources > SEO > Queries.
Our analytics has been set up since early last year, so I cannot understand why, for a couple of weeks at the start of the previous two months, it is showing that I have less than 10 impressions per day, then in one day, it jumps to 22,000 impressions, and starts to show 'real' information after that...
Very frustrating when I am trying to show how effective my work has been.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
-
Worth a try, thanks!!
It will be far better when i have a full year of data
-
Miranda,
I am sure Doug is correct as to the reason for the "spike."
Now, a work around could be found in Places, especially if you did some work around their local. You could look at who is looking and coming to the site, etc. Keywords, etc.
I would certainly give that a try as well.
Best -
How about going into TRAFFIC SOURCES, All Traffic.
Set the Secondary Dimention to Traffic Sources / Keyword
Select the keyword you wish to plot from the list. and click the plot rows button.
You can plot a couple of keywords to do comparisons over time...
-
I feel your pain!
Without the historic data it's difficult to see what impact you've had. Maybe now Analytics is receiving this data it'll give us more history to go by - once enough time has passed to make it relevant.
-
webmaster tools kills me, I have to keep downloading the data every two weeks or so as they keep moving the history goal posts.
have never actually got round to trying to compare the data though
-
Not just seasonality. Our brand name is our main keyword. So even though we have had a huge jump in traffic, a lot of people come directly to the site. So in Jan it looks like our SEO is doing worse than before. We infact we are now targeting/appearing/and getting clicks for hundreds more keywords than before.
-
That looks the same as mine - think this just related to the date when the SEO data was made available in Google analytics.
You can't get historic information from Google Webmaster tools either can you.
-
Great thinking, seasonality didn't come top mind - I'll have to remember that. Possibly give you a heads up for developing niches that you should be targetting more directly too I guess.
"Then in one day, it jumps to 22,000 impressions" which seems a a bit extreme though. Once things settle down, what's the average impressions/day? Was it JUST impressions that went silly on that one day, how did this relate to clicks/average ranking?
Can you tie changes to your impressions to activity on your site?
-
This shows just as much seasonality.
Our site is very busy in Jan for instance. 1 keyword term that we always rank number 1 for, from before I started and still today... returned 6,000 vistis in first two months, and only 2,000 in last two months. Even though this term is definately appearing top in all searches.
It is quite hard to show the impact of your work sometimes on a big website I find
-
and guys, I am not trying to show total impressions, as I realised this in not accurate for what I want to show. What I am trying to show is how many impressions & click throughs we are getting from ceratin keywords, in comparison to the past.
-
-
Looking at organic search traffic too.
Impressions are great for showing the difference from appearing on page 2 to appearing on page 1.
Is there anyway to compare over time, the percentage of overall traffic that a keyword has sent. So at the minute I can see a keyword, how many visits it has sent in a given time period and how many visits it sent in the compared time period. I see a percentage change - But this change does not take into account the seasonality of my searchers. I want to see a percentage change of visits from the keyword with regards to 'total visits'
(october 11th is when my impressions start)
-
Doug,
Overall, I agree and good thinking. The other issue is impressions can be more influenced by seasonality, etc. I think she would be better served looking at site visits and the associated keywords along with time on site, and bounce rate, conversions, etc.
If she has 3 terms around widgets: Blue widgets, Green turtle widgets, and moving purple lion widgets that were all fully active during a given period, she can compare apples to apples in each time span.
Best
Edit: And I would still like to see a screen shot.
-
Miranda, Is there any way you can send a screen shot or two? I am having a bit of trouble getting what is going on in my mind.
How does the data look for the first two month period compared to the second? -
What date range are you looking at? My SEO Queries data in Google Analytics only became available in the middle of September.
Before that it looks like 0 impressions.
How sure are you that this is going to give you the evidence you need to show how effective you work has been?
Impressions are just going to show you the number of races you're running - not how well you've performed? It'll give you a view as to how broad your content is a feel for your long-tail.
You've already taking a look at organic search traffic over time?
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
-
Do I need a separate Google Analytics ID for a subdomain on my website?
Hello Everyone, I would like to know if I need a separate Google Analytics ID for a subdomain on my website? I have a sub-domain within my website, and the software for the site on the subdomain is asking for a Google Analytics ID. Should I be using the same Google Analytics ID as the main domain or should I be creating a new Google Analytics profile or ID? Thanks. Ryan
Reporting & Analytics | | RyanUK0 -
Direct traffic spam on Google Analytics: how can you identify and filter it?
One of my smaller clients noticed a huge jump in direct traffic visits last month. The bounce rate was around 97% so I'm pretty certain that most of the traffic was illegitimate. I know how to filter out spam referrals and organic keywords in Google Analytics. However I'm not sure what to do about direct traffic spam. Are there recommendations for filtering this out? Can I identify spam IP addresses?
Reporting & Analytics | | RosemaryB0 -
Google Analytics Page Metrics and Redirects
Hi All- Context: A site has been redesigned. Pages were renamed in the process. Problem: It's very hard to compare before and after metrics because the page URLs are not the same. Question: Anyone know how to do this in Google Analytics? I'm hoping there's some simple trick I just don't know about. D
Reporting & Analytics | | DonnaDuncan0 -
No Google Analytics code on page BUT reporting is active
How could Google Analytics be reporting data if my pages don't have the GA code on them? Mike
Reporting & Analytics | | Mike_c0 -
Google Analytics: Okay to change domain?
So, we are a long time user of GA and we're planning a domain change.
Reporting & Analytics | | jmueller0823
Does anyone know if I can 'change the domain' in GA so we don't lose our past data?
Thanks!0 -
Where does the organic keyword information come from in Google Analytics?
I know that Google switch to all encrypted search, but I still show some keywords. Are those keywords that slipped through? Or are they all from Yahoo/Bing?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
Newsletter Campaign Need HELP to Create a Custom Report in Google Analytics
I have this newsletter send using Mailchimp. This campaign is link to G.A. How can I create custom report for me online store about this campaign? For example: I have 2 Goals Completion Location setup in G.A. they are: /checkout.php and /finishorder.php Is there a way to find out how many visitors from my campaign reach the /finishorder.php vs. /checkout.php Reason, about 50% are reaching /finishorder.php Maybe I need to creat a "How to redeem you coupon code" video to included in the newsletter to HELP customers complet there order process. Thank you, BigBlaze
Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze2050 -
Expert Google Analytics: store with multiple languages and multiple sub-domians
I hope there's some hardcore Analytics shark out there, with a quick reply 🙂 I am setting up a store with multiple languages for a client and need to be able to track multiple sub-domains as a multiple languages in analytics. Example: dk.somedomain.com -> Danish language
Reporting & Analytics | | ReneReinholdt
www.somedomain.com -> English language
no.somedomain.com -> Norweigen language
.. and so on Now what the client would like is to have one single entity with multiple profiles in analytics, like this: somedomain.com
-> www.somedomain.com
-> dk.somedomain.com
-> no.somedomain.com
ex.. So if the client want's to see stats for the English language then he just vlivks the www profile and in case of danish he clicks the dk profile and so on.
problem here is I can't find an analytics help that addresses this specific issue. I have found this but that doesn't seem to cover it:. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. 🙂0