How to Find Keywords in Google Analytics

Why do you need to know how to find keywords in Google analytics?

Google at one time would provide you with a full list of all of the keywords that people used to find your site so that you know exactly how your site was being found. However that has been significantly devalued as now most of the results that you will find under this report now say “Keyword not provided” and you are not sure of how the searcher got to your page. Keywords and SEO are a vital part of driving your traffic and understanding Google analytics keywords is key to this. Without this information about keyword search results it is difficult to know where to focus your efforts to improve your traffic. So how to find keywords in Google analytics now that they have lumped everything in “Keyword not Provided”?

Link your Analytics and Webmaster tools accounts

If you want to know how to find keywords in Google analytics then the first step is to ensure that your webmaster tools and Google analytics accounts are linked together. The reports that we will discuss will not be available until at least 48 hrs after you have linked the two accounts. To link the accounts start within Google Analytics and from the side bar navigate to Acquisitions, then search engine optimization then Queries. At the bottom of the page you will find the webmaster tools setting section, select “edit link” and then choose the specific webmaster tools account you wish to link. Once you have done this you will have access to the following reports: geographical summary report, landing page report and the queries report.

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How to use the queries report to find keywords in Google analytics

When you open the queries report you will be shown a list of keywords that Google has listed your site for. The impressions column tells you how many times Google has put your site in the search results for that specific query. This is not how many actual visits, it is purely how many times someone has used that keyword string and your site has then been listed in the results. The end column will show you where your site has actually appeared within the results, so if it is in the first few places then that is great but if it is appearing on page 5 maybe not so great. The other information that it provides is the click through rate which is the percentage of searchers that have then clicked through to your page when they have seen you site in the results.

How to use the information provided by Google Analytics

If you have a low click through rate you need to ask yourself if your title and your description tag is right for the keyword query made in the search engine. Keyword search engine optimization is not enough if when the searcher reads your title and the description they are not compelled to actually click the link in the search engine results to actually view the page. It is also not good if once the person visits your page they immediately click back to the search results as they don’t think your page is relevant to the search that they have made; this rapid bounce back to the search results is going to reduce your ranking in the search engines for that keyword query. So knowing how to find keywords in Google analytics is a great way to improve your rankings and to tell you what copy you need to improve.