How to track Universal Search traffic with Google Analytics Martijn Beijk opened his Searchcowboys-account with a blast. His post "How to track Universal Search traffic with Google Analytics" was the first ever Searchcowboys post to go "hot" on Sphinn. He actually taught a lot of people some great Analytics insights. How to track Universal Search traffic with Google Analytics After reading the post by Heini van Bergen on setting up filters on Google Analytics something caught my attention. Something I was looking for, since I started researching Local Search Optimisation. I wanted to know how many people were actually clicking the blended results you see in Universal Search. Google Analytics measures these clicks as Google (organic). But what if my link appears in the SERPS twice? How do I know which link was clicked? And if my link is listed in the SERPS more than once, which one of them is converting in a better way?
Looking into the SERP source code can give you a lot of insight. Google is showing parameters for Overview of parameters:
Unfortunately not all links from Universal Search boxes can be monitored in this way directly, for example those listed from Local Search results. The following are specified by the parameter oi
Measured indirectly Setting up the filters Step 1 : You can also create separate filters for some of the Universal Search items instead of all of them.
 Also, you might consider filtering out the &gl and &hl parameter so you know which engine the search originated from. What can we do with all this information? Nice to have all these filters setup and to gain some more insights in clicks from the organic search results, but what use has it? Set up these filters and you will know! Feel free to share your experiences. RELATED POSTS: Google giving away exact ranking position? CommentSite Migration SEO Concerns - Th...0 comments  About nine months ago I was facing a sizeable site migration project at my employer at the time, and I was tasked with mapping out the best way of handling this migrat...... read more
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Comments (27)
Great! you did it :)
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:24
Very cool. Honest!
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:32
Great post, Martijn!
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:34
Hi Martijn,
interesting post. Did you check if the 'oi' parameter actually survives the redirect round-trip? When I try this on my Firefox the document.referrer seems to get cut off, in any case it doesn't show the parameter. Which would mean the GA tracking code can't see it either.
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:36
Oh man, that is awesome. I've been screwing around with their SERP source code to change the styling of the search listings, but I completely overlooked the parameter values. Thanks for sharing - I'm adding these filters to some clients today.
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:38
@Arian
Hi, thx for commenting and yes I did check, the screenshot shows an example for a tattoo related website.
The oi isn't available in all cases (news, local, youtube). Although you sometimes see local oi appearing.
I would recommend just to set up a testing profile, capture all organic - full referrer traffic and build an advanced segment. Once you get the hang of it copy your profile and install the filters, customize to your needs.
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:45
Way to go Martijn!
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:47
after some quick testing it looks like the URL parameters that are part of the 302 are not visible in the document.referrer, while parameters like "revisions_inline" are visible because they are part of the original SERP URL.
what do you think?
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:54
MArtijn, just saw your reply, thank you. But I can see the "oi" in the URL of the intermediate Google redirect page when I look at sitewide links, for example. But when the browser loads the landing page, it doesn't state the intermediary page as the referrer, but rather the original SERP URL. which means GA can't see the parameter either. Does that make sense?
Vr 16 jan 2009, 16:57
I think the fact that this post went front page on sphinn in under 40 minutes of submission is a testament to its usability. Excellent work.
Vr 16 jan 2009, 17:57
Great! Wil read more in detail this weekend but already looking forward to reading it now!
Vr 16 jan 2009, 18:38
Nice Effort!
Martijn!
Vr 16 jan 2009, 19:59
Very Good post. I have a query where can I see the results of Universal search items. Is it in User Defined or somewhere else. Please specify
Za 17 jan 2009, 04:51
Interesting post. I'm using Google Analytics and it has been very helpful .. I'm going to try some of the suggestions ...
Za 17 jan 2009, 10:35
Very nice article.
@rishil: well said
Zo 18 jan 2009, 07:17
Haven't had the time till now, but definitely worth the read, Martijn. Hope we can see more of this in the near future :)
Zo 18 jan 2009, 13:33
Great post. Thank you, Martijn!
Zo 18 jan 2009, 23:07
thx for all the comments!
another tip:
to capture a bit more than just the search query you can use the following as extract B:
google.(.*)/.*hl=([a-zA-Z-]+)&?.*q=([a-zA-Z0-9+]+)
and make sure to change the output, and adjust to your likings.
For example:
engine:.$B1 hl:$B2 query:$B3 oi:$A2
Vr 30 jan 2009, 22:38
Nice post, but I think it's fundamentally flawed. Sure, you can track search traffic from other google properties (like google images, google local etc) using filters. This is very useful and advisable.
BUT, it still doesn't let you track traffic from blended serps as far as I can see. The referrer is the same whether you're clicking on a local one-box or a regular listing in the serps.
Am I missing something? Please let me know as this would be amazingly useful to have but I don't see how it's possible.
Tom
Wo 18 feb 2009, 14:59
@Tom
the local box is a difficult example but also there you will see that a different referrer URL will be transfered containing the specific parameter value for that item.
Wo 18 feb 2009, 15:06
Hi Martjin,
In principle yes, but when you get redirected through a Google URL that contains the oi parameter this is a 302 redirect and the referrer will NOT contaion the oi parameter.
Have you actually used this in practice? I'm happy to be proved wrong but as far as I can see it won't work.
Wo 18 feb 2009, 15:12
@Tom
I'm just telling what I see right here in my analytics package. It contains lots of oi parameters, also for local results, blog results, spelling corrections, revisions, blended(mobile), etc.
I will have to match these to server logs, something I haven't done so far. But how to explain that these parameters are passed to analytics if they are not in the referrer?
Wo 18 feb 2009, 15:33
I was just wondering if anyone here is looking for more traffic? I work with eZanga.com and we have tons of traffic Search,CPV, and Display) Search Arbitrage works great!
Ma 13 apr 2009, 23:56
Great post. I’ve been looking for a way to do this for a while. I’m surprised Google Analytics doesn’t have something built in to accomplish this since it’s inaccurate to say that something that was the result of google product search is organic which is the way it shows up in GA.
My question is, is this retroactive? I just added this filter and I don’t see any results even though I know the client has been using Google Product Search.
Ma 24 aug 2009, 08:25
How do we separate Google Shopping results on Google Analytics? Would be interested to see a post on this
Thanks
Do 3 dec 2009, 11:57
Hi Susie,
It should be possible to tag all your URL's in your XML feed you supply to Google Base.
Zo 6 dec 2009, 22:37
Thanks for the heads up on Tagging the Base Feeds. I was wondering if that was possible.
Wo 9 dec 2009, 15:02