SEO – Keyword ranking with Google Analytics

google
Google is busy beta testing their new AJAX driven search engine and with the release of this new AJAX version it’s now possible, with the help of Filters, to allow Google Analytics to track the clicked position of specific keywords on a Google Keyword Search.

Firstly see if you’re using the new search engine, preform a search and then look at the url of the result page. This will assist you later went preforming keyword searches in Google in order to populate you Google Analytics data (most countries don’t support it as of yet).

Standard:
google\_filter\_search2

AJAX driven:
google\_filter\_search1

Adding the new filters

Select the Analytics you want to start tracking and “+ Add new profile”
google_filter_howto1

Add a profile for an existing domain
google_filter_howto2

Choose a profile name, I just append “rankings” onto my existing profile name
google_filter_howto3

Once the profile is created select “Edit” to begin adding your Google filters
google_filter_howto4

“+ Add Filter” to add your first Google filter
google_filter_howto5 

Filter name: "Ranking 1"
Filter type: "Custom filter - Include"
Filter field: "Campaign Medium"
Filter pattern: "organic"






  google_filter_ranking1








Filter name: "Ranking 2"
Filter type: "Custom filter - Include"
Filter field: "Campaign Source"
Filter pattern: "google"






  google_filter_ranking2








Filter name: "Ranking 3"
Filter type: "Custom filter - Advanced"
Field A -> Extract A: "Campaign term", "(.*)"
Field B -> Extract B: "Referral", "cd=([0-9]+)"
Output To -> User Defined: "$A1 (position: $B1)"






  google_filter_ranking3






  Finally a filter to add an “unknown position” message when the position of the searched keyword is not passed through:








Filter name: "Ranking 4"
Filter type: "Custom filter - Search and Replace"
Filter field: "User Defined"
Search String: "(.*)\(position: \)"
Replace String: "(position unknown)"






  google_filter_ranking4






  You can view your newly created ranking results under “visitors –> user defined”






  google_filter_howto6






  After a couple of hours you should start seeing the results, bearing in mind that the new search referring URL is still in beta and not available in some regions.






  The results will look something like this:






  google_filter_howto7






  Conclusion:






  The most challenging part of working with Google Analytics is waiting for your changes to take effect. Once a filter of profile setting is changed, it may be seven or more hours before the data in Google Analytics is affected. Debugging problems in Google Analytics takes time, so be patient. The more you can do to understand the implications of a change, prior to making the modification, the better.






  References:

  Yoast.com

  Regular Expression Filter Tester (BETA)*