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
-
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 -
How is Google Analytics defining page depth?
We run two websites and as part of our KPIs we are treating those who visit 3 or more pages of our website as a client served. As a digital team we are not convinced that this is the best metric to use as the improvements we are making to the sites mean that people are able to find the information quicker. Additionally other organisations including forums etc link to us so those users will get the info they need in one click. What I would like to know is how Google calculates page depth in GA. Are they treating the landing page as ground zero and then when users clicks a link they go one page deep? Or is the landing page, page depth 1 . Is page depth a measure of how many clicks a user needs to find their information?
Reporting & Analytics | | MATOnlineServices0 -
Set Up of Goal Tracking with Google Analytics-$750 a Fair Price????
Greetings Moz Community! My firm operates commercial real estate website that contains 3-4 forms. Each form represents a goals. Google Analytics has been set up for years, but it does not track these form completions/goals properly. My SEO firm has offered to configure Goals on Google Analytics for $750. Is this a fair price? If the set up takes one hour, I am really over paying. But if this is a complex project that may take 7-9 hours the pricing seems OK. Also, the SEO firm will require an additional $750 in the future to set up event tracking. Is this excessive? I might add that my developer will need to add code to my web site. My SEO company has proven reliable and accurate. I can go to sleep at night knowing they are doing a good job. Where as my Argentinian developers really try their best, but perhaps because of the language barrier, they can make mistakes from time to time. I am willing to pay a premium to ensure that the job is done correctly domestically, however I don't appreciate over paying. Is the $750 payment for setting up Google Analytics reasonable assuming the job is done well??? Thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
Relation between Page and Landing Page
Hi all, I am looking through the Analytics data on a specific 'page' (404.html which is the Not found page) and as my secondary dimensions, I have Landing Page data. Now am I not sure how the page and the landing page are related here. Is it basically saying 58 Page views of the 404.html were originated by the users who landed on brochures.html? If someone could provide any pointers on it, it would be great. Thank you for your time. uZQJ
Reporting & Analytics | | nirpan0 -
Google Analytics Organic Search Keywords Suddenly Displaying FulL Urls
In my Google Analytics, the top keywords for Organic Search are suddenyl displaying full URLs. For example, now the third and fourth keywords are http://www.domain.com/highly-specific-URL. These have all started recently around the same day, July 12th. I've checked back, and we've made no internal changes to the site around that time that could affect this. Any thoughts on this? Thanks! P.S. It might be related to rich snippets, but I cannot tell at this point.
Reporting & Analytics | | 10SL0 -
Google analytics settings
Hi I have GA installed, whaen I try to use Inpage Analytics, I get this message: We've identified problems in your setup. These may cause problems loading In-Page Analytics. Error: The Website in your settings (http://www.tvorba-logo-firmy.sk) redirects into a different domain. (http://tvorba-logo-firmy.sk). In-Page Analytics currently works on only one domain. Note that www.example.com and example.com are NOT considered to be on the same domain. Also, make sure you're not redirecting from http:// to https:// or vice versa My website is running on wordpress. Thanks for help.
Reporting & Analytics | | info_tipovanie-stavkovanie.com0 -
Google Analytics (not provided)
Hi A greater and greater % of clicks is showing as "not provided" - does any one know of any good external tracking software which will show this information? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | jj34340 -
How do I best segment tablets on Google Analytics
I would like to find a way to best segment out my tablet traffic to measure performance; however I'm finding that there are road blocks. It doesn't seem that device operating systems or screen resolutions have clear cut differences in the tablet/mobile versions. Has anyone here found a good way to create a "tablet" segment in Google Analytics? Right now I'm having to lean on solely the ipad traffic to get indicators of tablet performance. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | lvstrickland0