How To Track Google Keyword Rankings Using Google Analytics

Thanks to a tip off from my business partner Martin, I’ve had unprecedented free access this week to my the top Google keywords that are sending traffic to my sites.  Using Google Analytics you can now track the top keywords for your site.  Armed with this data you can intelligently decide what keywords you want to target to try and drive additional traffic to your site, as well as tracking the impact of your efforts.

Just follow the steps below to setup google keyword tracking in Google.  You need to create three custom filters in a new profile.

Step 1: Add a New Profile To An Existing Website

To create a new profile, click on Add New Profile in Google Analytics.

Select the domain in the drop down list and give it a unique name, e.g. website rankings.

Step 2: Create 3 Filters

To create the three necessary filters, click on ‘edit’ next to the profile you just created and then click on ‘Add Filter’:

Now create the following three filters:

• Filter name: Ranking 1
• Filter type: Custom filter – Include
• Filter field: Campaign Medium
• Filter pattern: organic

• Filter name: Ranking 2
• Filter type: Custom filter – Include
• Filter field: Campaign Source
• Filter pattern: google

• Filter name: Ranking 3
• Filter type: Custom filter – Advanced
• Field A -> Extract A: Campaign term, (.*)
• Field B -> Extract B: Referral, (\?|&)cd=([^&]*)
• Output To -> User Defined: $A1 (position: $B2)

Step 3: Finishing Up

That’s basically it and google analytics is now tracking your keywords – it takes a few hours for data to appear.  While you are waiting you can setup the tracking for any other sites you might own:  Just repeat Step 1 but not Step 2, as you’ll find that the three filters you’ve created are already stored by google analytics and you can add them to your additional sites.

To view your keyword rankings, just click on Visitors/user Defined and you’ll see your google keyword stats.  Below is an screenshot from Otaku Gadgets that I own with Martin:

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