They say that if you can measure it then you can improve it. In SEO, measurement is critical to success. It's important to know the ins and outs of analysis and reporting when it comes to data about rankings, referrals, links, and more. Why? Because your findings can help fuel a more effective strategy moving forward.
Use this page as your platform for diving into SEO analytics and reporting. You'll find resources here that are useful for learners of all skill levels.
How to Hire & Train SEO Managers
An SEO Onboarding Guide for Agencies
Finding qualified SEO managers to add to your team is no small feat. From writing the job description to creating a training program, learn how to hire the right people and equip them with everything they need to hit the ground running.
The Mini Guide to SEO Reporting
Look forward to your reports.
Give yourself the gift of no longer dreading your SEO reports. Learn how to tailor them to client needs, pull them together beautifully and efficiently, which metrics work best for your goals, and how to communicate changes clearly.
Local Market Analytics: The Challenges and Opportunities
Presented by Rob Bucci at Mozcon 2019
We all know that SERPs are becoming increasingly local. Google is more and more looking to satisfy local intent queries for searchers. There's a treasure-trove of data in local SERPs that SEOs can use to outrank their competitors. In this session, Rob will talk about the challenges that come with trying to do SERP analytics at a local level and the opportunities that await those who can overcome those challenges.
How Many Words Is a Question Worth?
Presented by Dr. Pete Meyers at Mozcon 2019
Traditional keyword research is poorly suited to Google's quest for answers. One question might represent thousands of keyword variants, so how do we find the best questions, craft content around them, and evaluate success? Dr. Pete dives into three case studies to answer these questions.
20 Years in Search & I Don't Trust My Gut or Google
Presented by Wil Reynolds (he/him) at Mozcon 2019
What would your reaction be if you were told that one of Wil's clients got more conversions from zero-volume search terms than search terms with 1000+ searches per month? It's true. Wil found this out in seconds, leading him to really look at his whole client strategy through a new lens. It also made him question company-wide strategies. How prevalent is this across all clients? Don't they all deserve to get these insights? It required him to dig into the long tail, deep. To use big data and see PPC data as insights, not just marketing. What would your reaction be if you were told that Google's "bad click" business could be generating as much annually as Starbucks or McDonalds? Wil will be making the case for big data, agencies, and why building systems that looking at every single search term you get matched to is the future of search marketing.
Improved Reporting & Analytics Within Google Tools
Presented by Dana DiTomaso (she/her) at Mozcon 2019
Covering the intersections between some of our favorite free tools — Google Data Studio, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager — Dana will be deep-diving into how to improve your reporting and analytics, even providing downloadable Data Studio templates along the way.
Focused Reporting: Fewer Reports that Do More
Presented by Dana DiTomaso (she/her) at MozCon 2018
With an ever-increasing slate of options in tools like Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio, marketers of all stripes are falling prey to the habit of "I'll collect this data because maybe I'll need it eventually," when in reality it's creating a lot of noise for zero signal. We're still approaching our metrics from the organization's perspective, and not from the customer's perspective. Why, for example, are we not reporting on (or even thinking about, really) how quickly a customer can do what they need to do? Why are we still fixated on page views? In this talk, Dana will focus our attention on what really matters.
Lies, Damned Lies and Analytics
Presented by Russ Jones at MozCon 2018
Search engine optimization is a numbers game. We want some numbers to go up (links, rankings, traffic, and revenue), others to go down (bounce rate, load time, and budget). Underlying all these numbers are assumptions that can mislead, deceive, or downright ruin your campaigns. Russ will help uncover the hidden biases, distortions, and fabrications that underlie many of the metrics we have come to trust implicitly and from the ashes show you how to build metrics that make a difference.
Ranking Is a Promise: Can You Deliver?
Presented by Dr. Pete Meyers at MozCon 2018
In our rush to rank, we put ourselves first, neglecting what searchers (and our future customers) want. Google wants to reward sites that deliver on searcher intent, and SERP features are a window into that intent. Find out how to map keywords to intent, understand how intent informs the buyer funnel, and deliver on the promise of ranking to drive results that attract clicks and customers.
The #1 and Only Reason Your SEO Clients Keep Firing You
Presented by Meredith Oliver at MozCon 2018
You have a kick-ass keyword strategy. Like seriously, it could launch a NASA rocket, it's that good. You have the best 1099 local and international talent on your SEO team that working from home and an unlimited amount of free beard wax can buy. You have a super cool animal inspired company name like Sloth or Chinchilla that no one understands but the logo is AMAZING. You have all of this, yet, your client turnover rate is higher than Snoop Dog on an HBO Comedy Special. Why? You don't talk to your clients. As in, really communicate, teach them what you know, help them get it, really get it, talk to them. How do I know? I was you. The first five years of my agency we churned and burned through clients faster than Kim Kardashian can take a selfie. My mastermind group suggested we *proactively* set up and insist upon a monthly review meeting with every single client. It was a game changer and we immediately adopted the practice. Ten years later we have a 90% client retention rate and over 30 SEO clients on retainer.
Your Red-Tape Toolkit: How to Win Trust and Get Your Search Work Implemented
Presented by Heather Physioc at MozCon 2018
Are your search recommendations overlooked and misunderstood? Do you feel like you hit roadblocks at every turn? Are you worried that people don't understand the value of your work? Learn how to navigate corporate bureaucracy and cut through red tape to help clients and colleagues understand your search work — and actually get it implemented. From diagnosing client maturity to communicating where search fits into the big picture, these tools will equip you to overcome obstacles to doing your best work.
Bigger Data Requires Bigger Tools: How BI Helps You Tell Stronger Stories
Presented by Wil Reynolds (he/him) at MozCon 2018
The analysts are coming for your job, not AI (at least not yet). Analysts stopped using Excel years ago; they use Tableau, Power BI, Looker! They see more data than you, and that is what is going to make them a threat to your job. They might not know search, but they know data. In this talk, Wil documents his obsession with Power BI and the insights he can glean in seconds which is helping every single client at Seer at the speed of light. Search marketers must run to this opportunity, as analysts miss out on the insights because more often than not they use these tools to report. We use them to find insights.
SEO without Traffic: The World of Voice Search, Knowledge Graph, and Brand
Presented by Hannah Thorpe at MozCon 2018
Answer boxes, voice search and a reduction in the number of results displayed sometimes all result in users spending more time in the SERPs, and less on our websites. But does that mean we should stop investing in SEO? Hannah will cover what metrics we should now care about, and how strategies need to change.
Analytics for Local Marketers: The Big Picture and the Right Details
Presented by Rand Fishkin at MozCon Local 2016
Are your marketing efforts taking your organization where it needs to go, or are they just boosting your vanity metrics? Rand explains how to avoid being misled by the wrong metrics and how to focus on the ones that will keep you moving forward. Learn how to determine what to measure, as well as how to tie it to objectives with clear, concise, and useful data points.
SEO Reporting
Learn how to build efficient reporting strategies.
Being able to measure and report on your SEO efforts is important. Learn how to maximize your time with best practices that can help make reporting on SEO easier and more efficient.
5 Secrets: How to Execute Lean SEO to Increase Qualified Leads
Presented at MozCon 2017
I invite you to steal some of the ideas I've gleaned from managing SEO for the behemoth bad-ass Moz.com. Learn what it takes to move the needle on qualified leads, execute quick wins, and keep your head above water. I will go over my biggest Moz.com successes, failures, tests, and lessons.
Analytics to Drive Optimization & Personalization
Presented by Krista Seiden at MozCon 2017
Getting the most out of your optimization efforts means understanding the data you’re collecting, from analytics implementation to report setup to analysis techniques. In this session, Krista walks you through several tips for using analytics data to empower your optimization efforts, and then takes it further to show you how to level-up your efforts to take advantage of personalization from mass scale all the way down to individual user actions.
How to Operationalize Growth for Maximum Revenue
Presented by Joanna Lord at MozCon 2017
Joanna will walk through tactical ways to organize your team, build system foundations, and create processes that fuel growth across the company. You'll hear how to coordinate with product, engineering, CX, and sales to ensure you're maximizing your opportunity to acquire, retain, and monetize your customers.
More Than SEO: 3 Ways To Prove UX Matters Too
Presented by Matthew Edgar at MozCon 2017
Great SEO is increasingly dependent on having a website with a great user experience. To make your user experience great requires carefully tracking what people do so that you always know where to improve. But what do you track? In this 15-minute talk, I’ll cover three effective and advanced ways to use event tracking in Google Analytics to understand a website's user.
How to Use Domain Authority, Page Authority, and Link Metrics
Unclear on how to apply link metrics like linking root domains, Domain Authority, and Page Authority? Rand defines these terms and how to use them alongside your other SEO metrics in this Whiteboard Friday.
Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist
Hovering your finger over the big red "launch" button for your new website? Hold off for just a second. From a keyword-to-URL content map to sweeping for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking, today's Whiteboard Friday covers 5 boxes you need to check off before finally setting your site live.
Rankings Correlation Study: Domain Authority vs. Branded Search Volume
Is branded search volume as important as link metrics when it comes to ranking? Check out the results of this correlations study and explore how these factors might influence the SERPs.
Analytics Quick-Fire: Integrating Google Data for Local
Michael models three different report styles to address SEO progress through ranking and how to get your data into Google Data Studio with step-by step guides.
Michael models three different report styles to address SEO progress through ranking and how to get your data into Google Data Studio with step-by step guides.
Analytics Quick-Fire: Implementing and Measuring the Local SEO Funnel
Presented by Anita Bhatti at MozCon Local 2017
Let’s have some funnel fun! Learn how to set up your SEO funnel, uncover SERP opportunities, optimize your content to get more qualified traffic, and measure the success of your efforts.
Domain Authority
What is Moz's Domain Authority score, and how does it work? Learn in this article.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. Learn about the multidisciplinary and often complex CRO process in this article.
What does "Other" mean in the Acquisition section of Google Analytics?
Wondering what "other" means in the Acquisition > Channels view of Google Analytics? This thread in the Community Q&A provides an answer.
29 Advanced Google Tag Manager Tips Every Marketer Should Know
Presented by Mike Arnesen at MozCon 2016
Google Tag Manager is an incredibly powerful tool and one you're likely not using to its full potential. Mike will deliver 29 rapid-fire tips that'll empower you to overcome the tracking challenges of dynamic web apps, build user segments based on website interactions, scale the implementation of structured data, analyze the consumption of rich media, and much more.
Putting Trust into Domain Authority
Presented by Wil Reynolds (he/him) at MozCon 2016
Domain Authority is a trust sentiment, not a pure numeric value. Wil will show real examples of sites that build authority and trust by understanding and then solving users' problems. He'll also give you practical ways to use Google SERPS to uncover the many ways to best solve these problem.
Practical A/B Test Statistics: How to Run Better Tests and Get Cleaner Data
"Everyone should A/B test." Sounds like great advice, but if you're not careful, A/B testing can do your online business more harm than good! In this webinar, we break down the myths and misunderstandings surrounding A/B testing, focusing on 5 specific things you need to do to prepare for any split test.
Want to accelerate your learning?
Get certified with SEO Essentials.
Whether you're building a robust SEO team or leveling up your own marketing skills, this Moz Academy SEO Essentials Certification covers everything you need to quickly ramp up on fundamental SEO topics and develop a competitive SEO strategy.
Storytelling with Data
In the brave new world of big data and pushes to be more-and-more data driven, we still struggle to push our projects, ideas, and testing forward. In this webinar, we'll walk you through what’s missing: the story. We'll show you how to build a narrative, how to avoid common communication mistakes, and simple ways boost your storytelling with data.
Tracking Campaigns in Google Analytics: Have You Checked the Data?
The essence of marketing is being able to give credit where credit's due. Campaign tagging makes that possible in a significant way, but it can also quickly go awry. In this Mozinar you'll learn tips and tricks for setting up a campaign tracking framework and cleaning up campaign data that's gone off the rails.
Tracking and Reporting Content Success
Tracking success in content marketing can be tough, and effectively reporting on it can be even harder. Learn about collecting necessary metrics from a variety of tools, then walk through a downloadable spreadsheet designed to help you in your reporting efforts.
A Beginner's Guide to Google Search Console
If the name "Google Webmaster Tools" rings a bell for you, you might already have an idea of what Google Search Console is. This post shows you how to successfully set up Search Console for your site.
Storytelling with Data and APIs
For digital marketers, there is so much data to wrangle from so many different sources. In this webinar, we'll walk you through using APIs to connect your tools and resources, cutting your time spent in half and letting you get to telling your story.
How to Stop Spam Bots From Ruining Your Analytics Referral Data
Don't give spam bots a free ride on your website. Create an inhospitable environment for the invasive pests in a few simple steps.
Measuring Social Engagement
This Moz Academy video covers what social media engagement is, as well as how we measure, track, and report on it.
Finding the Right Time to Share Posts
When should you share content on social media? This Moz Academy video walks through how to identify when your audience is active on social so you can ensure your content is getting in front of the right people at the right time.
Measuring & Testing Social Media Efforts
In this Moz Academy video you'll learn about measuring and testing your social media efforts. We're going to walk you through a few reasons why, how, and what you should test when it comes to keeping track of social media metrics.
Measuring ROI in the Age of 'Not Provided': 5 Tips for Search Marketers
In this webinar, we'll guide you through advanced Google Analytics techniques that you can use today to help justify your marketing efforts, measure your search traffic, and segment your data in new ways.
When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this drastic change.
Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Presented by Rob Ousbey at Mozcon 2019
Google's algorithms have undergone significant changes in recent years. Traditional ranking signals don't hold the same sway they used to, and they're being usurped by factors like UX and brand that are becoming more important than ever before. What's an SEO to do? The answer lies in testing. Sharing original data and results from clients, Rob will highlight the necessity of testing, learning, and iterating your work, from traditional UX testing to weighing the impact of technical SEO changes, tweaking on-page elements, and changing up content on key pages. Actionable processes and real-world results abound in this thoughtful presentation on why you should be testing SEO changes, how and where to run them, and what kinds of tests you ought to consider for your circumstances.
Fixing the Indexability Challenge: A Data-Based Framework
Presented by Areej AbuAli (she/her) at Mozcon 2019
How do you turn an unwieldy 2.5 million-URL website into a manageable and indexable site of just 20,000 pages? Areej will share the methodology and takeaways used to restructure a job aggregator site which, like many large websites, had huge problems with indexability and the rules used to direct robot crawl. This talk will tackle tough crawling and indexing issues, diving into the case study with flow charts to explain the full approach and how to implement it.
How to Uncover Hidden Keyword-Level Data Using Google Sheets
Which keywords are driving your organic traffic? Keyword-level data doesn't have to be (not provided). Sarah Lively shares a smart solution using two free add-ons for Google Sheets.
How to Use Google Analytics to Track ALL Of Your Marketing
Google Analytics is an excellent tool for tracking the results of your online marketing campaigns. But what about more traditional channels like TV, print, and radio? In this webinar, you'll learn how to use Google Analytics to track ALL of your marketing efforts.
Integrating Analytics & CRM Platforms: A B2B SEO's Best Friend
B2B organizations are constantly looking for a "closed loop" reporting solution. This webinar explores integrating your CRM with Google Analytics and how to identify and optimize pages that drive qualified organic traffic.
Advanced Content Analysis in Google Analytics
With the right setup, Google Analytics offers far more than the standard built-in metrics for your content. This post shows how to use content groupings and custom dimensions to maximize your insights.
How to Quickly (and Correctly) Track Google Analytics Across Multiple Domains
Out of the box, Google Analytics handles being deployed across multiple domains or subdomains extremely poorly. This is easily the most common critical problem in Google Analytics, despite its being easy to fix.
How to Use A/B Testing to Amplify Your SEM
Paid channel advertising—or SEM—is a traffic acquisition technique that virtually every marketer has encountered. But, traffic acquisition is only half the marketing equation. In this webinar, you'll learn how to use A/B testing to improve the efficiency and return-on-investment of your SEM campaigns.
Architecting Great Experiments
Presented by Kyle Rush at MozCon 2014
A/b testing will no longer be a mystery after Kyle does a deep-dive on every part of the experimentation process.
Bad Data, Bad Decisions: The Art of Asking Better Questions
Presented by Stephanie Beadell at MozCon 2014
Stephanie Beadell will discuss the power of surveys and how if you're not asking the right questions, you risk making decisions on the wrong answers.
Supercharging Your Digital Analytics!
Presented by Justin Cutroni at MozCon 2014
Despite having lots of analytics tools, we too often settle for the default data and reports so let's look at a few ways that you can get more insightful, actionable data to make better decisions!
Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers
Presented by Annie Cushing at MozCon 2014
We've all been frustrated with not knowing how to corral data into cool, sexy visualizations, but now Annie will pull back the curtain and provide tips, tricks, and hacks to transform raw marketing data into works of art, in plain English.
Mad Science Experiments in SEO & Social Media
Presented by Rand Fishkin at MozCon 2014
Whether it's anchor text or sharing on Google+ instead of Facebook, Rand's spent the last few months formulating hypotheses and running tests, and now he'll share these fascinating results to help you.
International SEO and the Future of Your ROI
Presented by Aleyda Solis at MozCon 2013
Take a bold step into the international market. Aleyda will walk you through how to calculate the possible ROI of international sales, how to sell it to your boss or client, and the practical how-tos of international implementation on your site.
Attribution Modeling: Why You Must be Doing It and How to do It Easily with Google Analytics
Presented by Mike Pantoliano at MozCon 2012
Figure out what's working for your site with attribution modeling. Mike takes two basic tools: GA and Excel and turns them into a goldmine of information.
Link Analytics Through API
Presented by Richard Baxter at MozCon 2012
Learn how an everyday inbound marketer can make use of simple APIs to discover more about your links (or potential links). Are they good or bad? What do they say about your site? Who?s got the good stuff?
Badass Excel Tips and Tricks for Your Data
Presented by Annie Cushing at MozCon 2012
Take your everyday data and turn it into comprehensive analytics applicable to all internet marketers. Even if you don't love analytics.
Measure the Right Things and Achieve Magical, Analytics Awesomeness
Presented by Avinash Kaushik at MozCon 2011
As marketers, we often fall in love with the wrong metrics and optimize/report in ways that don't move the business goals forward. In this talk, Avinash will show a simple, powerful process to focus on and measure the right metrics, then customize your tools to make magical awesomeness an everyday event.
MozCon Video Bundle
Did you miss this year's MozCon? Now is your chance to experience what everyone has been talking about! We have over 19 hours of actionable inbound marketing knowledge.
The Mobile SEO Stack: Tools to Develop a Mobile-First SEO Process
With mobile usage on the rise, it's more important than ever to optimize for on-the-go users. But which tools support mobile SEO? Aleyda's compiled 28 tools that will help you answer all your mobile SEO questions, plus a handy graphic to download for at-a-glance reference.
Tasty SEO Report Recipes to Save Time & Add Value for Clients [Next Level]
By the end of this article you’ll know how to whip up intelligent SEO reports for your clients (or potential clients) that will deliver actionable insights any search chef worth their salt would be proud of. Jo Cameron combines basic metrics and a few culinary metaphors to take your client reporting to the next level.
How to Use Your Competition's "Top Pages" Data to Bolster Your SEO Efforts
By comparing top pages data from multiple sources against one another, you can get some really cool, powerful advanced SEO opportunities in your content and keyword targeting. Rand explains how in this Whiteboard Friday.
Mastering Google Search Operators in 67 Easy Steps
Google search operators are like chess – knowing how the pieces move doesn't make you a master. Dive into 67 examples, from content research to site audits, and level up your search operator game.
How to Fix Crawl Errors in Google Search Console
Search Console is one of the most powerful tools we have for diagnosing website errors. Learn how to prioritize and resolve your site's crawl errors in Google Search Console — those hundreds of 404 errors may not be so daunting after all.
Traffic and Engagement Metrics and Their Correlation to Google Rankings
Ever wondered about the correlation between site traffic and engagement and Google rankings? How do user-based metrics influence rankings? Dive into the data with SimilarWeb's Roy Hinkis!
Tracking Beyond the Pageview
Presented by Adrian Vender at Mozcon 2015
Typical engagement analytics don’t tell the full story of how people interact with your website. Adrian will show you how to use Google Tag Manager to turbocharge your content tracking and custom reports.
Segmentation Domination
Presented by Ed Reese at LocalUp 2015
Learn how to gain powerful insight by creating creative custom segments in Google Analytics. This session shows several real-world examples in action and walks you through the brainstorming, implementation, and discovery process to utilize segmentation like never before.
Social Engagement Metrics That Matter - Measuring, Tracking, and Reporting FTW
Let's be real here, measuring your social efforts is a pain in the butt. It's simple to track followers and see which platforms send you traffic, but how do you know that you're meeting your goals?