2. Search Engine Optimization: Where are you in Google?
Steve Wieda
January 29, 2016
Yale University Library

3. Search engine optimization
Configuring your website to optimize your position within search results and increase click-through traffic
Many different strategies can be put in place for SEO
Content optimization
URL optimization
Structured data (schema.org)
It always helps to know what people are searching for when they find your site

4. SEO: How Google Analytics can help
Google Analytics can tell you:
How many times your site came up in a Google search
What people searched in Google that made your site pop up
Your position within the Google search results
How many people clicked your site in the Google search results

5. Google Search Console
By default, GA does not report Google search stats
Google Search Console provides all of this information
Google Search Console is part of Webmaster Tools
Google Search Console must be configured for each domain
You’ll need to prove that you “own” the domain before you can add it

6. Demo of Google Search Console Setup

7. Getting Search Console stats into GA
You need to link your GA property to your Google Search Console
You can only link one Google Search Console to your GA property
This means you can only choose one domain to include in your GA stats – e.g., web.library.yale.edu, not orbis.library.yale.edu

8. Demo of Google Search Console – GA Link

9. First, some lingo …
Impression: An instance where your domain came up in a search result list
Click: An instance where someone clicked your domain from within Google Search results
CTR: “Click-through rate” =clicks/impressions
Average Position: The average position of where your domain came up in the results (1=first, 2=second, etc.)

10. … then the scam (not set) is Google’s way of making you pay
Anyone logged into a Google site (gmail, youtube, etc.) when they conducted the search have their search string data obfuscated
In order to see search terms for people logged into Google sites, you have to pay for them as AdWords
If you get enough search activity, this isn’t as horrible as it sounds

11. Demo of GA and Google Search Console Stats

12. Differences between Search Console and GA
Google Search Console aggregates all of your impressions and clicks
This means that if your domain showed up as five of the top 10 results, you get one impression
If a user clicks any of your domain’s links, it’s a 100% click-through count

13. Differences between Search Console and GA
Google Analytics treats each impression and click separately
This means that if your domain showed up as five of the top 10 results, you get five impressions
If a user clicks any of your domain’s links, it’s a 20% click-through count (1 click, 4 misses)