Google Analytics - In-Page Analytics
-
I had a strange thought waking up this morning, and was curious to hear other people's opinions on it.
In Google Analytics, under Content > In-Page Analytics, Google shows what links on your site pages get clicked and how many times plus other metrics. Do you think they use that data for ranking back links so-to-speak?
What I mean is, say I had a back link to my site on example.com, and example.com had google analytics installed. Google can see through google analytics whether my link has been clicked on. Say that my link gets no clicks, do you think that Google would use that metric against my site deeming it "not popular" or "not a good resource", even if example.com was a very popular site?
And it could work the other way. Say my link got thousands of clicks on example.com, do you think that Google might use that to promote my site?
I couldn't find any other discussion on this anywhere, so am not sure if people have already thought about this.
-
Thanks Jason. I still wonder, though. Google has said one thing and done the other in the past.
This thought jumped into my head because I have managed to land some very lucrative backlinks to my site from several (~25 or so) major players in my niche. DA's of 90-100, and bang on for what I deal in. However, my backlink gets zero clicks to my site which got me thinking that perhaps Google does use the GA data to determine the more popular links on a page. And upon checking, the majority of the sites which my link sits on has Google Analytics installed.
To put it into perspective, the relation between my site to the sites in which I have backlinks on would be like a company who owns a search engine getting a backlink on google.com, or an independent news outlet getting a backlink on CNN.com.
It's been about 6-8 months now since I landed ~80% of these backlinks, but have yet to notice any significant changes in the SERP's for my site. I'm giving Google the benefit of the doubt that new backlinks can take some time to set in, in fear that they're temporary backlinks so as to not reward a site prematurely in case that backlink comes down.
Thanks for the reply!
-
Hi THB,
According to the recent Q&A with Matt Cutts at SMX 2012, Google does not look at Analytics for ranking.
http://www.seroundtable.com/smxadv-mattcutts-15253.html
However, if you're getting a good amount of traffic through a link, I'm sure it may help ranking in a tangential way. If it's getting traffic then the referring page probably has a decent authority so that link is probably worth more for rankings than one from a page that isn't getting much traffic.
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
-
Google Analytics - Referral traffic being reported as Direct traffic
Hi, I have a link on my www homepage to another subdomain website. Both websites are served on https, and have independent Google Analytics properties. However, the traffic from the www site to the subdomain site is being reported as Direct, and not Referral traffic. Any ideas why? See image provided for context... RCn6HER
Reporting & Analytics | | RWesley1 -
Was Google Analytics and Adsense Down Today?
For the last 4 hours of so we were registering zero users and Adsense reporting has not changed. We checked the site, and there were no problems. It seems for some reason there was no reporting. Just now it came back up and we are showing live traffic. Trying to figure out if this was a problem specific to us or if it is on Google's end. Thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | akin670 -
UTM Links Showing Up as Separate Pages in Google Analytics
Hey everyone, I was just looking at landing pages in Google Analytics, and in addition to just the URL of the landing page, the UTM links are being listed as separate pages. Is this normal? I anticipated seeing the landing page URL and then using the secondary dimension to see source/medium. If this isn't normal, what would I check next?
Reporting & Analytics | | rachelmeyer0 -
What does 'Safari (in-app)' mean in Google Analytics browser traffic?
Hi, can anyone explain what 'Safari (in-app)' refers to in my browser sources? Also, it has a very high bounce rate - any ideas why?
Reporting & Analytics | | b4cab1 -
Why is Google Analytics showing index.php after every page URL?
Hi, My client's site has GA tracking code gathering correct data on the site, but the pages are listed in GA as having /index.php at the end of every URL, although this does not appear when you visit the site pages. Even if there is a redirect happening for site visitors, shouldn't GA be showing the pages as their redirect destination, i.e. the URL that visitors actually see? Could this discrepancy be adversely affecting my search performance? Example page: http://freshstarttax.com/innocent-spouse/ shows up in GA as http://freshstarttax.com/innocent-spouse/index.php thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | JMagary0 -
Alternatives for google analytics multi account dashboard overview
Hi there, I like the new Google Analytics layout don't get me wrong but I really miss the old possibility to have a quick overview of all your accounts. Does anyone know an alternative for this? Please share your experiences and recommendations.
Reporting & Analytics | | Robbern0 -
Does Google Analytics parse visits from search apps?
Does anyone know if Google Analytics reports visits to your website differently from individual search apps like Google and Bing? Or do they just treat them the same as any other keyword visit from Google or Bing search engine? I suppose the end result is probably the same as in the Google app you're using Google so it would just be a different access point versus a new tool. I'm just curious if there is a way to see how many Mobile visits are coming from the apps vs the browser. For me personally I have the Google and Bing iOS apps installed but rarely use them, opting for the Safari search bar 99% of the time.
Reporting & Analytics | | nsauser0 -
Nofollow page is being reported as a landing page for organic search in Google Analytics
One of my client's websites includes a series of pages for an enrollment process. All of these pages are blocked by robots.txt. In Google Analytics these pages are showing data as landing pages for organic search traffic, and have been for quite some time. There was recently a surge of organic search traffic landing on one of these pages, coming from multiple search engines. The pages appear to be blocked and I'm not finding any of them in the search results for the keywords that are being reported in GA or by searching for the url. Does anyone have any insights into why this might be happening?
Reporting & Analytics | | rgibson1000