If you want to fully understand the ROI of your SEO efforts, yes. Your SEO marketing expert should not only know Google Analytics but also understand how to analyze data and metrics in your CRM (HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, etc.)
Here are a few specific reasons why an SEO consultant should be familiar with Google Analytics
Data analysis: Google Analytics provides valuable insights into website performance, user behavior, traffic sources, and more. By understanding how to navigate and interpret the data in Google Analytics, an SEO consultant can gain a deeper understanding of the website’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven recommendations.
Goal tracking: Google Analytics allows the tracking of various goals and conversions, such as form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, and e-commerce transactions. An SEO consultant can use this data to assess the effectiveness of SEO strategies, measure conversion rates, and optimize the website for better performance.
Traffic analysis: By examining traffic sources, organic search data, and user behavior, an SEO consultant can gain insights into the effectiveness of SEO efforts, identify top-performing pages, analyze keyword performance, and detect potential issues or opportunities.
Performance reporting: Google Analytics provides reporting features that allow the creation of customized reports and dashboards. An SEO consultant can use these features to generate regular performance reports for clients, demonstrating the impact of SEO efforts and providing actionable recommendations for improvement.
Integration with other tools: Google Analytics can be integrated with various SEO and marketing tools, such as Google Search Console, Google Ads, or third-party tools. An SEO consultant who understands how these integrations work can gather comprehensive data and insights for their clients’ websites.
While it’s not mandatory for an SEO consultant to have expertise in Google Analytics, having knowledge of the platform can greatly enhance their ability to analyze data, make informed decisions, and provide valuable SEO insights and recommendations to their clients.
What’s the difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console?
Being an expert at Google Search Console is a must for any SEO marketer. Let’s break down the differences between this tool and Google Analytics.
Google Search Console:
Focus: Google Search Console primarily focuses on website performance in search engine results pages (SERPs) and provides insights into how your website appears in Google search.
Data source: Search Console collects data directly from Google’s search index, offering information on organic search traffic, search queries, impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and average search positions.
Website health and indexing: Search Console helps monitor and optimize the technical aspects of your website, such as indexing status, crawling errors, mobile usability, and sitemap management.
Search appearance: It provides data on how your website’s pages appear in search results, including information about structured data, rich snippets, and sitelinks.
URL inspection tool: Search Console offers a URL inspection tool that allows you to analyze specific URLs on your website and identify potential issues affecting their visibility in Google search.
Google Analytics:
Focus: Google Analytics focuses on website visitor behavior, traffic sources, conversions, and user interactions across your website.
Data source: Analytics collects data through a tracking code installed on your website, providing insights into user demographics, acquisition channels, session duration, bounce rate, page views, goal completions, e-commerce transactions, and more.
Audience analysis: It helps you understand your website visitors in terms of their geographic location, language, device type, browser, and other demographic data.
Conversion tracking: Analytics tracks user interactions that lead to conversions, such as form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, e-commerce purchases, and specific goal completions. This allows you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and website performance.
Behavior analysis: Analytics provides information on how users navigate through your website, which pages they visit, how long they spend on each page, and the paths they take. This data helps you optimize user experience and identify popular or underperforming content.
In summary, Google Search Console focuses on website visibility in search results and technical aspects, while Google Analytics focuses on website traffic, user behavior, and conversions. Both tools are complementary and provide valuable insights for optimizing your website’s performance and improving your online presence.
To get the most out of your SEO marketing, make sure your conversion tracking is setup in Google Analytics. On top of providing content metrics like time spent on page and scrolling, Google Analytics can be the source of truth for which keywords are producing the most value.
To learn more or schedule a free SEO consultation, email me at cort@bayareaseosolutions.com.