Do you know how to use Google Analytics "Content by Title" reports to track Trends?

Keeping on top of your website analytics can be daunting given the vast number of reports that are available in Google Analytics.

1. Content by Title

Using the Content by Title report is an excellent way to view the improvement in pages that have been created for specific keyword terms.

Figure: From the Content Section of the Analytics report pane, choose Content by Title

2. Setting Date Ranges

Choose the date range you want to view (eg 12 months)

3. Filter By Key Term

Filter the report by the keyword term you are interested in viewing (eg TFS or SQL Server or SharePoint, etc). This assumes that you have used these keyword terms in the titles of the pages (see Rules To Better Google Rankings for more details on best practices for increasing your Google presence).

The overall trend of your pageviews should be increasing.

4. View by Day, Week and Month Trends

Figure: Use the ‘Graph By’ options to show trends for Weeks and Monthly visits

5. View Segments

Figure: Add Segments to compare your traffic sources including Search, Direct and Referral traffic. You can also compare with paid search traffic (if you are using AdWords to drive traffic)

Figure: The main segments to keep an eye on are the Search Traffic and Referral Traffic numbers – ideally both should be increasing

Figure: You can export the report to PDF and Excel, or email it to your boss. Or, print the report and stick on your company noticeboard in a prominent position

Figure: You can also view the sources of the traffic to see which sites are sending you traffic by clicking on the Pivot View

Figure: You can also show bounce rate by including it in the second dropdown. Other metrics include Average Time on Page and Exit rate

6. Add To Dashboard

Figure: Add the Report to your Dashboard

Figure: Now the report will be available from the Dashboard to check regularly. Click the ‘view report’ link to drill into the details of the above