Google Analytics is a free web site statistics application that you can use to track your web site
traffic. You can access Google Analytics by going to www.google.com/analytics. You must
have a Google user name to access the program.
If you do not have a Google user name, you can create one when you sign up for the application.
It’s simple. Provide your e-mail address and a password, type the verification word
from the graphic provided, and then read the Terms of Service and click ‘‘I accept. Create my
account.’’
Once you’ve created your user name and password, accessing the tracking capabilities of Google
is easy. You’ll need to copy a snippet of text that Google provides into the coding of your
web site. Once you’ve added the code to your site, it will take a few days for Google to gather
enough information to provide reports about it, and as much as two months to gather enough
data to give you real insight into your site. But once there is enough data, you’ll have access to
the keywords that most often lead visitors to your site.
Google Analytics can also be combined with Google’s AdWords program to provide paid
keyword tracking and information. To learn more about Google Analytics, check out Google
Analytics 2.0 by Mary Tyler and Jerri Ledford (Wiley, 2007). Note that Google Analytics doesn’t
currently track spiders and crawlers, however, so there may be some limitations to its SEO functionality.
Still, if you need a (free) tool to help you examine some of the metrics surrounding
your SEO efforts, Google Analytics is a good starting point