How to Measure SEO in Google Analytics 4: A Step-by-Step Guide
Ready to step up your SEO in Google Analytics 4?
Whether you’re an analytics pro or just starting out, we’ll take you through 5 easy ways to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure your SEO performance and take your strategy to the next level:
- How to create ‘Views’ like Universal Analytics in GA4 in order to segment or exclude certain traffic to get the most accurate numbers for your SEO reporting
- How to create a Traffic Acquisition Report to see exactly how much of your website traffic comes from search engines like Google Search and Bing, and why
- How to see your top backlinks in order to determine which backlinks are really worth the investment
- How to create a Landing Page Report to analyze which of your website pages are attracting the most organic traffic and which need to be improved
- How to see if your organic visitors are converting and follow their path from discovery to conversion so that you can patch any leaks in your marketing funnel.
Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. Let’s dig into the world of SEO in Google Analytics 4!
(And if you get overwhelmed, don’t worry—our SEO services include done-for-you GA4 integration. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help getting started.)
Background: What’s the Difference Between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 for SEO?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics, and it brings some significant changes compared to Universal Analytics (UA).
GA4 adds a ton of new functionality, a brand-new interface, and most importantly a completely new data model. This provides some significant advantages over UA when it comes to measuring SEO performance, including:
- Enhanced Measurement: Google Analytics 4 introduces automatic tracking called enhanced measurement which automates a wide range of tracking processes you had to set up by hand in Universal Analytics. GA4 automatically tracks page scrolling, clicks to external sites, using site search, video engagements (including starts, progress, and completion), file downloads, and more.
- Cross-Device Tracking: Google Analytics 4 features reliable cross-device tracking using Google Signals or User-ID. In other words, GA4 can tell when a user switches from their mobile device to a desktop computer and treats them as one user. Not only is it more accurate than UA, but it also offers you deeper insights into how people use different devices.
- Improved Session Tracking: Google Analytics 4 no longer breaks sessions as it goes past midnight, causing it to appear that a person has two sessions when they actually only have one.
- Enhanced Funnels and Paths: Google Analytics 4 offers a robust funnel exploration feature that provides you a detailed look at the steps your users take to complete certain goals on your website, like filling out a form or making a purchase.
- More Flexible Conversion Goals: Google Analytics 4 enables you to set up additional and more flexible conversion goals that can be used to better understand your site.
There are, however, some big changes and missing features that make the transition to GA4 challenging for marketers.
One significant difference from UA is that GA4 does not offer separate Views by default—so, in the next section, we’ll tell you how to configure GA4 to get the same results.
GA4 also lacks certain reports that were available by default in UA and have to be configured manually. We’ll also discuss how to create custom reports for organic traffic, landing pages, backlinks, and organic conversions in GA4.
1. How to Create Views and Filters in GA4
In Universal Analytics, a View is a subset of data for a single domain based on filters that you have applied. Marketers often use Views to exclude internal traffic, test new reporting set-ups, or filter traffic by geographical location.
However, due to a change in the overall account structure, Views are not available as a way to filter data in Google Analytics 4.
The good news is that GA4 does allow you to filter Data Streams to provide a similar experience to UA’s Views.
To create an equivalent to UA’s Views in GA4:
- Click into the Reports section of GA4. In the left navigation menu, it’s the second option from the top.
- Click into the default Events report under Engagement.
- Click on the pencil icon in the top right of the screen to customize the report.
- Click Add Filter to apply a filter based on any of the available dimensions.
- Select a Dimension. For example, if you want to create a filtered view of traffic from one country, apply a filter where the dimension of County equals the country you want to see.
- Click the blue Apply button.
You can also filter certain types of traffic at the Property level. This is the best way to go about excluding traffic that comes from your own staff, since internal traffic can skew the data and make it more difficult to understand exactly how your SEO efforts are performing.
How Views and Filters Help You Measure SEO Performance
Like views in Universal Analytics, this custom GA4 report filters your data so that you can analyze it in a more focused and actionable way.
By creating separate Views for different countries or regions, for example, you can analyze the performance of your website in each location and understand which areas are driving the most traffic. The same can be done using GA4 report filters.
2. How to Check Your Organic Traffic in GA4
To understand where your website users are coming from and how they got there, you’ll need to customize the Traffic Acquisition Report under Acquisition.
- Click into the Reports section of GA4. In the left navigation menu, it’s the second option from the top.
- Click into the default Traffic Acquisition report under Acquisition.
- Click on the Primary Dimension, which is Session Default Channel Group by default.
- From the list of Dimensions, select Session Source/Medium.
- In the search bar above the Primary Dimension, type Organic and press enter.
Now, you can assess the performance of your SEO efforts metrics such as users, sessions, engaged sessions, and average engagement time.
Analyzing Organic Traffic Growth with GA4
SEO is one of the most powerful tools a business can use to boost its online visibility.
However, without tracking how many visitors are coming to your website through organic search, you won’t know if your SEO strategy is really working or not.
By tracking how many visitors come to your website through organic search, you can gain valuable insight into what is working and what isn’t. Measuring your organic traffic in GA4 will not only help you fine-tune your SEO strategy, but also help you optimize your entire digital marketing strategy for long-term success.
3. How to See Your Top Landing Pages by Organic Traffic in GA4
If you’re familiar with UA, you’ll remember that a landing page report was available by default by clicking the Behavior drop-down menu, then clicking Site Content, followed by Landing Pages.
GA4 isn’t quite as intuitive, but it only takes a few extra steps to create a report that gives you your top landing pages by organic traffic.
- Click into the Reports section of GA4. In the left navigation menu, it’s the second option from the top.
- Click into the default Traffic Acquisition report under Acquisition.
- Click on the Primary Dimension, which is Session Default Channel Group by default.
- From the list of Dimensions, select Landing Page + Query String.
- Click the + Plus sign and select First User Medium.
- In the search bar above the Primary Dimension, type Organic and press Enter.
Voilà: you have a report that tells you which of your landing pages drive the most organic traffic!
Unlocking SEO Insights with a GA4 Landing Page Report
When you start seeing organic traffic coming in, it means that your SEO efforts are paying off.
Customers are finding what they need on your website—and Google is rewarding you for it.
You can use what’s working on that page to improve your SEO across your website.
Pages with low traffic, on the other hand, might be missing the mark. By taking the time to spot these pages and make the necessary improvements, you can work to unlock your website’s full potential for generating traffic over time.
4. How to See Your Top Backlinks in GA4
You can use GA4 to get detailed information about which of your backlinks drive the most traffic to your site, and which of them carry the most weight for the search engines.
By analyzing this data, you can identify which websites provide the greatest value to your SEO efforts and where you should focus your link building efforts.
- Click into the Reports section of GA4. In the left navigation menu, it’s the second option from the top.
- Click into the default Traffic Acquisition report under Acquisition.
- Type Referral into the search bar and press Enter.
- Click on the + Plus sign to add a Secondary Dimension.
- From the list of Dimensions, select Session Source.
This report provides information about the source of your referral traffic as well as information about the traffic that helps you determine the value of those backlinks.
Use the objective metrics Google Analytics gives you — number of visitors, page views, pages per visit and bounce rate — as well as subjective characteristics like relevance, uniqueness, and authority.
Analyze Referral Traffic to Boost Your Search Ranking
Building backlinks is one of the most essential SEO strategies. One of the factors determining the ranking of your website on Google for targeted keywords is the number of quality links that point to your website.
5. How to Check Your Organic Conversions in GA4
Measuring the volume of website traffic alone can give you a general idea of how your website is performing, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Conversions in GA4 measure how effective your website is at driving desired actions from visitors. These actions could be anything from making a purchase to subscribing to a newsletter or downloading a PDF guide.
To create an organic conversion report in GA4:
- Click into the Explore section of GA4. In the left navigation menu, it’s the third option from the top.
- Click on the Blank exploration report template.
- Name your report Organic Conversions.
- Set the date range to at least 30 days.
- First, you’ll need to create a Segment.
- Click on the + Plus button next to Segments and click the User Segment button.
- Name the new Segment Organic Search.
- Click Add Condition and select First User Medium.
- Click on the Add Filter button. Set the first box to Contains and the second to organic. Click Apply.
- Click the Save and Apply button in the top right corner.
- Next, you’ll need to add Dimensions.
- Click on the + Plus button next to Dimensions.
- Search for the following Dimensions and click the checkbox for each one:
- First user source/medium
- Landing page
- Event name
- Item name
- Device category
- Browser
- Country
- Click the Import button in the top right corner.
- Finally, it’s time to add Metrics.
- Click the + Plus button next to Metrics.
- Search for the following Metrics and click the checkbox for each one:
- Total users
- Conversions
- User conversion rate
- Session conversion rate
- Event revenue
- Click the Import button in the top right corner.
- Double-click the First User/Source Dimension to add it to the Rows section.
- Double click all the Metrics one by one to add them to the Values section.
- Under Values, select Cell Type Heat Map.
Why Organic Conversions Matter in GA4
Organic conversions and organic traffic go hand in hand when it comes to measuring the success of your SEO strategy.
While organic traffic is essential for getting visitors to your website, conversions are what really tells you that the effort you’re putting into SEO is moving the needle.
If you’re getting a lot of website traffic but your conversion rate is low, it may indicate that your website is not effectively converting visitors into customers; or, that your SEO efforts aren’t bringing you the right kind of traffic.
Additionally, comparing your organic conversion rate to that of other channels can help you understand which channels are driving the most valuable traffic to your website. For example, if you see that your organic traffic has a higher conversion rate than your paid traffic, it may indicate that you should redirect some of your PPC advertising budget to SEO.
With this information, you can make data-driven decisions that will improve your website’s performance and drive more revenue to your business.
Unlock the Keys to SEO Success with Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool for measuring your SEO performance.
By following the steps outlined in this post, you can track the most important SEO metrics, create accurate views, and make data-driven decisions for your SEO strategy.
Remember: GA4 can be a bit daunting at first, but with a little bit of practice and the right guidance, you’ll be a pro in no time!
If you find yourself getting overwhelmed or need help with integration, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We offer done-for-you GA4 integration and can help you set up your account, track the right metrics and create accurate views.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you drive more traffic to your website.
5 Common Reasons Google Could Penalize Your Website
Trying to increase your website’s ranking on Google? Heard horror stories of Google’s updates completely wiping sites off the search rankings? It happens, but not at random. Let’s have a look at what exactly a Google penalty is – and the reasons Google may drop your site in its rankings.
What is a Google Penalty?
Let’s start with Google’s goal: to eliminate poor-quality content to refine the quality of search results.
To do this, Google released their Penguin update in 2012, which wiped some sites out of search rankings altogether. This update downgrades site rankings based on many factors (which we will chat about shortly), forcing companies to change the way they look at SEO and prioritize the quality of their content.
Subsequent updates continue to sharpen the search engine’s ability to judge the quality of a site.
Why Does Google Penalize Websites?
1. Your Website is Outdated
The design of a website plays a large factor in its site ranking. Two main design concerns are whether the site is mobile-friendly or if it is new or up-to-date. According to Forbes, “you could lose anywhere from 5-30% of leads based on this factor alone”.
When you’re building your website design, make sure you also keep meta titles and meta descriptions in mind. They help Google understand what keywords your website wants to rank for; without them, Google may not recognize your site as relevant and penalize you.
2. Poor Link Structure
What makes up link structure? Let’s break it down:
- External links – these connect your content to other sites. You want to link to other high-ranking websites so that Google will associate your content with other high-quality sources. Additionally, these sites should be relevant – for example, if your website is fashion-themed and only links to sites about food or electronics, Google views this as a problem. Linking to low-quality or irrelevant content sites will put you straight on Google’s radar to drop down in ranking.
- Internal links – these connect your content to other pages within your website. It gives Google an idea of how your website is mapped out and what your overall site content is like. That being said, it’s important to interlink to relevant If you’re linking your blog post about saving money to your pricey gift shop, for example, you may get penalized.
- Backlinks – these are links from other sites that direct back to yours. The goal with backlinks is to get high-ranking websites to link back to you. It would be fantastic to have backlinks from CNN or New York Times. This is high-level, but the idea is you want to avoid fake or illegitimate websites to maintain a higher ranking.
When it comes to links, remember – quality over quantity.
3. Buying Links
Yes, some companies still buy links to their website to increase in ranking.
Google sees this as an attempt to deceive PageRank, which calculates where your site should appear in search engine results based on what content Google views as relevant and high-quality.
When you try to manipulate Google, they can catch this – and the bad links you have been buying. Buying links can even drop you off the rankings completely.
4. Your Content Has Little Value
This can be anything from not enough content, shallow content that your readers have already found on many other sites, or content obviously trying to rank for keywords. These are all the wrong way for your content to help rank your website.
Your site must offer significant content to readers. Google judges how users interact with your website. If people visit your site and immediately leave, Google will catch on that users don’t value your content and will penalize your site and it’s ranking.
5. Slow Speeds
How frustrated do you get when a page is taking 10 seconds to load? Do you abandon the page and move on?
A lot of people do – and Google notices. Neil Patel recommends using a caching plugin or a CDN right away to avoid this issue.
If you’re not sure how fast your existing site is, check out Google’s PageSpeed to see if you have room to improve on your desktop or mobile site load time.
Stay Prepared
In the end, you must always put the user experience at top-of-mind.
They’re the ones visiting your websites and, in turn, buying your products or services. The goal is to give them the most seamless experience, so they have no reason to exit your page.
Doing this will help avoid penalties, increase the quality of your traffic and number of conversions, and create a happy relationship between your website and Google.
Understanding Bounce Rate, Long Clicks and Pogo-Sticking
How users interact with your website can have a significant impact on its search engine ranking. Factors like how long a user spends on a landing page, or whether the user clicks through to another page on the site, help Google’s search engine algorithm determine your site’s quality and relevance to search terms.
One of the ways we measure site engagement is by looking at data collected by Google Analytics: metrics like bounce rate, visit duration, and pages per visit. These numbers give insight into whether the page resonates with your audience and how to better optimize it.
However, the engagement data you can access with Google Analytics isn’t what Google uses to determine search engine ranking. The search engine algorithm uses different engagement metrics, and unfortunately, these numbers are a bit harder to pin down than bounce rate.
Below, we’ll discuss the meaning of three important terms that illustrate how users interact with your site: bounce rate, long clicks, and pogo-sticking.
Understanding Bounce Rate: Hits, Sessions and Bounces
Before we talk about bounce rate, it helps to get a refresher on how Google Analytics collects data.
The moment a user lands on a website, Google Analytics begins to record a ‘session’ for that user. A session is a single continuous visit to a site, which can include viewing multiple pages on the site and interacting with the site in different ways. Google Analytics tracks everything the user does on the site during that session, including how long the user spends on a specific page (Time on Page) and the total duration of the session.
A session ends in one of three ways: the user leaves the site, is inactive for a period (30 minutes by default) or the clock strikes midnight (in which case Analytics starts tracking a new session for that user beginning at 12:00 AM).
In addition to tracking sessions, Google Analytics also tracks every ‘hit’ that occurs during a session. A hit is any user interaction with the website that triggers data to be sent to Analytics, such as:
- Clicking a link to another page on the site
- Leaving a comment on the page
- Playing a video
- Purchasing an item
- Clicking a button to Share the page on social media
A bounce is a session that ends without a hit. It means the user viewed a single page on the site before exiting, without interacting with the page (at least not in a way that triggers a hit to Google Analytics).
Bounce rate is the number of bounces divided by the number of sessions or the percentage of users who landed on a page and left without interacting or viewing other pages on the site.
Is High Bounce Rate Always a Bad Thing?
A high bounce rate equals a low retention rate. If visitors are leaving a site after viewing a single page, it means that page has not enticed them to engage with or go deeper into the site.
Whether this is a bad thing depends on your objective.
Some pages are built purely to inform. If a visitor lands on a Store Hours page, for example, it is likely they’re already planning a trip to the store and need a bit more information. One would expect that page to have a high bounce rate because once it has done its job, the user should be good to go.
It’s for this same reason that blog posts and news articles tend to have a high bounce rate. People usually visit those pages to obtain a specific piece of information. If the page delivers, the user can leave.
However, a high bounce rate can also indicate problems with your site. It could be that people bounce because the page is of low quality, or it didn’t meet their expectations.
In other cases, a high bounce rate reveals a flaw in your marketing strategy. A flawless page will nonetheless generate a high bounce rate if you’re sending the wrong kind of traffic there.
Finally, bounce rate can yield clues to some of the important factors that impact on your search engine ranking.
Does Bounce Rate Affect SEO?
Bounce rate can tell you a lot about whether people find a page useful and relevant. Usefulness and relevance is information that Google’s search engine ranking algorithm wants to know, too. So, does bounce rate affect SEO?
The short answer is, no. Google confirms that bounce rate is not a ranking factor. Not every website uses Google Analytics, so Google has no way of obtaining widespread data on bounce rate. Plus, as we noted above, a page can be exactly what users were looking for and still have a high bounce rate.
But bounce rate is fundamental in uncovering other numbers that do impact SEO: long clicks and short clicks.
What Are Short and Long Clicks?
The search engine algorithm does not consider a page’s bounce rate when it comes to determining its ranking in the results. However, it does notice how Google’s users interact with pages that appear in the search engine results.
When a user clicks through to a site from the search engine results page (SERP), Google tracks how long the user spends on that site before returning to the SERP. A long click occurs when a user clicks through to a result and does not return to the SERP or remains on the site for a long time before returning.
Short clicks, on the other hand, occur when a user clicks through and then quickly backtracks.
Another important term here is dwell time, or the time a user spends on a site before returning to the SERP.
Difference Between Short Clicks, Long Clicks and Bounce Rate
Unlike bounce rate, short and long clicks do affect a site’s search engine ranking. And it’s unfortunate that Google Analytics doesn’t track them because this data provides even more insight into a user’s activity than bounce rate.
Bounce rate only shows how many users bounced; it doesn’t tell you why. They may have closed the browser, returned to the SERP, or gone for a lunch break.
Short clicks, on the other hand, reveal that the user went right back to the SERP after clicking. Some call this pogo-sticking: you can visualize the user hopping from the SERP to the site and then back to the SERP in quick bounces. Pogo-sticking is a clear signal that the page didn’t fulfil the purpose of the search query.
Although Google Analytics doesn’t track short clicks, long clicks or pogo-sticking, it is possible to uncover some insight on these numbers using bounce rate. Bounce rate and pogo-sticking are directly proportional; if a page is getting a lot of short clicks, it will have a correspondingly high bounce rate, while a higher proportion of long clicks will lead to a lower bounce rate.
The challenge is uncovering the reasons why users bounce.
Are Short Clicks Always a Bad Thing?
Like bounce rate, there are some cases where pogo-sticking is normal.
Take health-related search queries, for example. Users who are researching symptoms will likely want a second opinion, so they’ll bounce back to the results page more than once during their query. It is likely that Google’s algorithm recognizes this and takes it into account.
3 Key Differences Between Voice Search and Text Search (and What It Means For Your Business)
The numbers speak for themselves. One in five searches on the Google Android App are voice searches. Over 60 million people in North America use digital voice assistants on a regular basis.
All signs point to 2018 being the breakout year for voice search.
It’s more than a novelty. Voice search is an evolution in the way we use search engines, and search engine giants like Google and Bing are already changing their search engine algorithms to adapt.
So, what does this mean for your business? To understand how voice search will impact your search engine optimization strategy, let’s look at the core differences between voice search and text search.
How Does Voice Search Work?
Voice search lets you use a search engine app by speaking to a device rather than typing the query on a keyboard or touchpad. The app uses voice recognition software to transcribe the spoken words into written text. Then the search engine algorithm strives to deliver the best possible results.
Voice search has been around in various forms since at least 2002 when Google launched the first incarnation of its voice-enabled search function. Believe it or not, there was a time when users dialled a phone number and received Google search results via text message! It was a far cry from the instant answers voice search delivers today.
Differences Between Voice Search and Text Search
Just as with a text-based search, the search engine algorithm aims to deliver results are as useful and relevant to the voice searcher’s query as possible. But the differences between voice search and text search can have a big impact on what those results look like — and how the algorithm goes about finding them.
1. Device (and Search Engine) of Choice
According to Google, more than 60% of all searches now come from mobile devices. A sizable 20% of those mobile searches are of the spoken variety. But not all voice searches are made on-the-go; more and more voice searches come from voice-enabled smart speakers.
The year 2017 saw an explosion in the number of smart speakers in homes across North America. Amazon, the frontrunner in the market, sold millions of Alexa-enabled devices on Black Friday alone.
Why does this matter? Not only does the device of choice impact how people search, but which search engine they use.
Although Google remains the search engine of choice for most people, Amazon’s Alexa uses Bing by default. So does Microsoft’s Cortana. Together, Alexa and Cortana represent over half of all smart assistant use, meaning the majority of voice searches from smart speakers actually use Bing, not Google.
If smart speakers continue to proliferate, and Amazon stays on top, Bing will become increasingly important to businesses who want to rank among voice searchers.
2. What People Search For
Voice search is more accurate and functional than ever. The more we use it, the better the voice recognition software behind the app becomes. However, Google’s own research shows people still avoid using voice search for certain subjects.
People are most willing to raise their voices on quick queries in the moment. They use voice search to find the nearest restaurant, ask how late it’s open, and check its star-rating on Yelp. That’s why local SEO is huge when it comes to voice search.
But when it comes to so-called ‘sensitive’ subjects, like healthcare, people prefer to search the old-fashioned way. Not surprisingly, the same goes for anything you could classify as ‘adults-only’. What is surprising is that social media is still largely taboo for voice search as well. Perhaps that’s because 63% of Internet users worry about voice-enabled technology spying on them.
Though this gap could decrease over time, not all types of content will necessarily benefit from optimizing for voice search today.
3. How People Search
The biggest difference between voice search and text search? Tone, phrasing, and word choice. To optimize their site for voice search, businesses will have to turn an ear to how their customers talk.
When people use a voice search app, they’re more likely to phrase the query as a question. They use natural language, choosing words that reflect a conversational tone. They expect quick answers to specific questions.
Ranking for voice search queries will require businesses to focus not only on long-tail keywords that come up in these queries, but on direct answers to users’ most common questions.
Search engine algorithms are increasingly able to precisely detect user intent. If your site can deliver, you can leverage voice search to climb the rankings and reach customers who know exactly what they’re looking for.
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What to Look for In Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers a wealth of data. You need to know what to prioritize, or else you will spend hours trying to understand what all the numbers mean for your website traffic.
The main point of Google Analytics is to figure out how your website is performing, and what that means in relation to your marketing efforts. Let’s walk through this process.
Starting Point – Acquisition > Channels
Every time you log into Google Analytics, you want to look at the Acquisition Channels. It’s the best way a quick snapshot of what is happening with your website. You will quickly be able to identify any success or issues occurring on your site.
The default timeline in this section is one week, but that is a small sample size for most websites. Switch your timeline to a 30-day period for more reliable results. Compare this to the previous period, and you will have a great starting point to identify the performance of the website.
Further, you can break down the traffic into specific channels to get a more detailed grasp of the performance. If something is off, it usually jumps out here.
What to Do if Traffic is Up
This is a great thing! But just because traffic is up this month does not mean your job is done. Ideally, you’d like to see an increase in traffic month over month, so try to figure out what caused the increase and replicate it for the future.
Tip: Compare each channel’s engagement or conversion data to see which might be underperforming.
What to Do if Traffic is Down
Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but don’t worry. A change in traffic could be based on a factor outside of your control.
The most common reason for changes in traffic is seasonality. Keep in mind how your industry ebbs and flows, and standardize your results to get a better sense of how you are doing relatively.
The first step in accounting for seasonality is to analyze the year over year data. While this is not a perfect comparison, it can still be a good litmus test to see if the changes are normal. If your year over year data is also down, then you probably have a bigger issue on your hands, where further investigation is required.
The next step to determining reasons for a decline in traffic is to compare month over month data from the previous year. Look at the changes in traffic from past years, and compare that to the current data to get a gauge of your results. If your current decrease in traffic is less than previous years, you can consider your results successful.
For clarity, here is an example. In a previous year, your drop in traffic in October was -40%, but this year your drop in traffic is -20%. Although your overall traffic is still down, when you factor in seasonality, your YoY traffic is up 20%!
If your traffic is still down after accounting for seasonality, then you will need to conduct a deep dive into your analytics to figure out why. Carefully check out the performance of each individual channel to find out which avenue could have a problem.
Tip: Take a close look at your top three channels, as they are the largest contributors to your traffic.
Here are some factors to consider for each channel when traffic is down:
- Organic traffic – Check your keyword rankings.
- Social – Check into what content you’re posting.
- Paid – Check your total spend amount and cost per click.
- Referral – Check to see if you have lost any backlinks.
- Direct – There is no simple solution to why direct traffic is down. Any traffic that comes to a website that is not specifically classified will be logged in direct traffic, meaning it is difficult to pinpoint the problem. Fluctuation in traffic can often be attributed to spam.
Finally, if you still can’t seem to figure out why your traffic is down, look at individual page views and content types on your website. Certain types of content and landing pages my not be as relevant as you expected, causing a drop in traffic. For example, if you sell air conditioners, but it has been a cool summer, then you would not have as much traffic to those pages as usual.
If a single page has a dramatic decrease in views, this might be an SEO issue. If a page is no longer ranking properly, it might explain why traffic is down.
Engagement Metrics
Engagement metrics are another important data set to analyze. Key metrics include bounce rate, average session duration and pages per session. These metrics are large indicators of conversion likelihood, so continually monitoring and trying to improve engagement can lead to an increase of success on your website.
What to Do if Engagement is Down
Different types of traffic have different engagement metrics, so analyze where your traffic is coming from before panicking. Social and Paid traffic generally have poorer engagement metrics based on the nature of their medium, so if you had a massive influx of traffic to these channels, don’t be concerned when engagement is down.
Check out individual page engagement metrics to identify specific underperforming pages. Often, landing pages leave users with “nowhere to go”, causing high bounce rate and low session duration. Simply, when users finish with the content, there are no prompts to send them elsewhere on the website. A blog with related posts of links to a related product/service will have better engagement than a post that does not. Fixing underperforming pages is a great way to improve the overall metrics.
Finally, check behaviour flow and see which landing pages have high drop off rates. If you can identify which pages are not giving users the information they need, causing them to leave the site, then you can improve the overall engagement rate.
Checking these metrics should give you a good sense if there is an issue or it’s just normal fluctuation.
Google Analytics can give you a ton of information about your website. Once you know how to interpret the data, you will have new ideas on how to improve traffic and engagement, leading to a more successful website!
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