Tracking Keyword Ranking Position with Google Analytics
May 15, 2009
Stumble it!Recently there have been a few blog posts summarizing the steps that allow you to set up a series of filters that when properly deployed will provide you with ranking results displayed next to the referring keyword string like this:
keyword+keyword (Rank: 1)
keyword+keyword +keyword (Rank: 1)
keyword+keyword +keyword (Rank: 4)
Here are the steps that I have successfully used on one of my sites:
1. Create a New Profile
Create a new profile within Google Analytics so that you do not interfere with the data that you may already have set up.
To do this, sign in to your Google Analytics account and click on”Add Website Profile” on the bottom of the page. Then choose “Add a Profile for an existing domain”, choose the domain and give the profile a unique name.
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2. Creating the Filters
- 2a. Include Organic Serps
Filter Type: Custom filter -> choose Include
Filter Field: Campaign Medium
Filter Pattern: organic
Case Sensitive: No - 2b. Include Google Serps
Filter Type: Custom filter -> choose Include
Filter Field: Campaign Source
Filter Pattern: google
Case Sensitive: No - 2c. Restrict to New Google Referral URL
Filter Type: Custom filter -> choose Include
Filter Field: Referral
Filter Pattern: google.com/(search¦url).*\bcd=\d*
Case Sensitive: No - 2d. Construct Ranking String
Filter Type: Custom filter -> choose Advanced
Field A -> Extract A -> Choose Referral -> \bq=([^&]*)
Field B -> Extract B -> Choose Referral -> \bcd=(\d*)
Output To -> Constructor -> Choose User Defined -> $A1 (Rank: $B1)
Field A Required: Yes
Field B Required: Yes
Override Output Field: Yes
Case Sensitive: No
NOTE : It is important to create these filters in the following order
3. Viewing the results
Once you have created the new profile and filters, it may take a couple of hours to start seeing results. You will find the new keyword/ranking data in any of your reports when you change the dimension to User Defined Value.
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May 15th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
That is a great tip… I will have to try it out. I am still trying to figure out how to track adsense though.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Nice trick. I’ll definitely try this one. Thanks
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Hey this is good stuff. So glad you posted this. I enjoy reading blogs like this. Anna
June 7th, 2009 at 10:55 am
wow is greats information for me, because im a newbie in interenet, thanks for ur sharing information
August 27th, 2009 at 4:39 am
Hi,
Thanks for the guide, it was very easy to follow. However when I select user defined value I get (not set) displayed rather than the keyword and position? Has anyone else had this and any idea where I may have gone wrong?
I’m aware that a while ago the cd= value was only passed across if you were logged into your Google account but this seems to have been expanded now so I’d expect to see data coming through for most users?
Thanks.
Paddy