What is SEO analytics and what tools are needed?

When engaging in search engine optimization of the site, it is necessary to understand its purpose and determine KPI indicators, which will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected SEO strategy. Without available information about the dynamics of the parameters of your web resource, it is impossible to determine which methods of SEO promotion work better and which ones do not. So, SEO analysis is an integral part of promotion in search engines.

What is SEO analytics and why is it important?

SEO analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing information about the site’s characteristics and parameters through the “eyes” of search engines and visitors.

• Which marketing channels are more effective for attracting visitors?
• Which pages of the site “bring” more leads?
• What content do users interact with better?
• How do certain methods affect search promotion?

SEO analytics can answer these and other questions. It is important to determine the information necessary for tracking and analysis and the tools that will allow you to get it.

SEO analytics tools

Consider search promotion and tools that provide insight into the site’s presence in Google search, keyword ranking positions, external link profile parameters, and other parameters necessary for SEO analytics.

Google Search Console

The GSC tool will allow you to receive information about the quality of site indexing, usability of pages for mobile and desktop devices, search performance, alerts about possible security problems and actions taken manually.

To connect, go to Google Search Console, click “Try”, specify the URL of the site or domain and complete the verification according to the instructions.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is a “window” for monitoring user behavior on the site. The tool tells you what users do when they get to your site, how engaged they are, where they click, what pages they go to, and how many leads (sales) they generate. Google Analytics reports allow you to obtain qualitative and quantitative parameters of visits, necessary for evaluating and analyzing the quality of content, usability of pages, etc.

Start setting up Analytics by going to the page analytics.google.com, in the Administrator menu, click “Create account”, specify its name, then specify “Name” to create a resource of the type “Google Analytics 4” and fill in the necessary information about the company in the next step.

Note the warning: “Starting July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics resources will stop collecting data. It is recommended to create a Google Analytics 4 resource.”

Click “Create” and complete the necessary data flow settings, then add the GA tag to the site.

The tool will only start collecting information about visits to your site after installing the tracking tag, so install and configure Google Analytics as early as possible.

Free tools from Google are definitely useful for SEO analytics, but they don’t collect all the data you need. For more varied and complete information about the website, there is a paid software.

Ahrefs

The tool allows you to get the most complete information about external links to your site. To set up, go to the page App.Ahrefs.com:

• click “Create project” (manually or by importing from GSC);
• specify the necessary information about the site;
• prove ownership;
• schedule resource checks;
• add search queries for tracking;

Specify competitor sites for analysis

The functionality of the tool is quite wide, in addition to links, it will help you get data on keywords, organic traffic, competitors and other necessary information.

In addition to Ahrefs, SEO analysts also use other platforms depending on tasks, preferences and available budget, for example Serpstat,Seranking…

Dashboards and reports

To effectively use SEO tools, you need to define the parameters required for analysis, monitor them with regular checks, collect statistics, configure the necessary reports and display them on dashboards. Each of these platforms has its own characteristics, so their study by an SEO analyst should be mandatory.

The data obtained with the help of SEO analytics should be at the heart of your approach to determining and improving the effectiveness of your site’s search engine optimization. It is SEO analysis with the correction of detected errors that makes the web resource more useful for users, helps to increase the number of leads, which means the growth of site conversion and the growth of your business on the Internet.

Oleksandr Romanenko

Team Lead/Senior SEO specialist

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