Tracking and Analytics

In this third part of our Franchise Local SEO for franchisors series we are going to discuss tracking and analytics based on the goal sets we spoke about earlier like increasing lead generation and site traffic.

Once you have optimized your sites with the right content and keywords you want to start tracking and measuring the results of the content and keyword optimization. By tracking and analyzing the data you can make fine tuned adjustments to your websites content so that you can meet your online marketing goals.

First, I will walk you through the process of setting up the tracking part and then the analytical part. We will then walk through the analysis and interpretation part of the data based on specific goals.

Installing Tracking and Analytics

GA

For site analytics we will be working with Google Analytics. There are many other options available that are both free and paid and you may choose whichever is best for you. So let’s get started. Getting up and running with GA is fairly quick and simple.

You can go the Google Analytics website and follow the simple setup instructions they have in place. Once you are all set up you can then install Google Webmaster Tools.

Setting Up GA Tracking

So how does Analytics track my website information? Simple! You add in a tracking code that is provided by Analytics onto the

Setting up goal tracking

One of the most important ways to measure the success of your online marketing strategy is setting up goals in GA. In this example we will focus on lead generation via a form on your website. Check out this quick video

GWT

Webmaster Tools is also free and you can sign up and get started right away. There is an integration process between GA and GWT that will help us identify and analyze information all within one admin panel. To integrate GA with GWT simply go to Admin then property settings and scroll down to webmaster tool site

Ok so you now have tracking and analysis setup on your website. The next step is to let both of these gather some data. We recommend at least 3 months worth of data but you can begin tracking and analysis  right after the first month.

Under the Looking Glass

We will now take a look at what data we want to track based on our current lead generation strategy. For this we will take a look at data inside GWT and GA. Let’s start with GWT.

In Google Webmaster Tools, once you access the site you’re tracking in your admin panel, we will take a look at the following:

• Traffic > Search Queries

• Optimization > HTML Improvements

• Optimization > Content Keywords

This three sections will help us identify areas of opportunity that we will walk through in the next part of our Local SEO for Franchisors series titled “Continual Improvements and Optimization”

Here are some screenshots of what those three areas look like:

We will now take a look at what data and areas of GA we need to keep in mind for our tracking and analysis. Those are the following:

• Traffic Sources > Overview

• Content > Overview

• Conversions > Goals > Overview