Get more out of Google Analytics

Google Analytics out of the box is all well and good but are you getting the most of your Google Analytics account? There are many hidden features within Google Analytics that you could be taking advantage of.

Tracking external links

Do you have external links heading out to another website? Would knowing how many people click these links be useful to you? Well this is for you!

There is a very simple solution to tracking external links on Google Analytics; simply tag your links (in the source code) with a Javascript as seen below:

<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(“/G1/example.com“);>

You will have to edit the bolded parts above with the details that you want, the 1st will be the external link and the 2nd what you want the external link to be named.

Once this Javascript has been implemented on your website; each external link that you have tagged will come up on your content report as a new page (this is the second part that named in the tag) This way you can track the usage of the external links just like a normal page. Doing this will also eliminate a Bounce from your website if the link you are tagging is on the landing page.

Tracking traffic from Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter

If you run Pay per Click Campaigns on Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft AdCenter you may not be tracking this traffic on Google Analytics. There are two ways to track traffic from Yahoo and MSN PPC on Google Analytics which i will explain below.

For both techniques you will have to tag the desination URLs with a piece of code which Google Analytics will pickup, for the 1st technique there are automatic keyword insertions which both Yahoo and MSN provide.

For Microsoft AdCenter:

You will have to add the following to your Destination URL: http://www.example.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={keyword}&utm_campaign=Campaign

You will have to ammend the bolded parts to fit your PPC Campaign/Website

For Yahoo Search Marketing:

For Yahoo you will have to add the following to your Destination URL: http://www.example.com/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={OVKEY}&utm_campaign=Campaign

Again you will have to ammend the bolded parts to fit your PPC Campaign/Website

Alternatively:

The second technique will take more time but ultimately be the most accurate. Google provide a free tool in which you can build a URL like I have showed you above. All you will have to do for this is fill in the simple form and click generate URL; once you have generated a URL you will have to add this as your destination URL. To get the most out of this technique you will have to do this for each individual keyword (you can ofcourse use an excel script to do this faster) You can also use this technique to track traffic from other sources such as display advertising or email newsletters.

If you have not already done so, you can also link your Google AdWords account easily with Google Analytics – refer to an old Blog post for help on this.

Hopefully this has been of some use to you, if you need any more help feel free to tweet @tugsearch on Twitter or refer to Google Analytics Help. Tug also provide a wide range of Search Marketing services.