Track Google traffic

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Published on Jan 16, 2024 and edited on Feb 21, 2024 by Iron Brands

Google is the world's most popular search engine, accounting for more than 85% of the search market.

Marketing your business on Google can help you reach the right audience at the right time and drive them to your website. Tracking the Google traffic to your website is important since it offers you many useful insights, which we will explain in the following section.

  1. Why is tracking Google traffic important?
  2. How does Simple Analytics track traffic from Google?
    1. Steps to Track Traffic from Google Using Simple Analytics
    2. Let the Data Flow In
    3. Set Up a Goal to Track Google Traffic
  3. Final Thoughts
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Why is tracking Google traffic important?

Tracking Google traffic can help you determine how many visitors come to your site through Google. It enables you to monitor which keywords and search queries are bringing traffic to your site.

By measuring and analyzing traffic, you can discover more about your keywords, user behaviors, and performance in Google search results, allowing you to have better knowledge of your customers, deliver tailored messaging, and optimize your SEO strategy.

It also helps you evaluate the performance of your Google advertisements and adjust your ad budget accordingly. When tracking Google Ads, you might want to setup UTM tags to be more accurate.

The data collected is valuable since it will assist you in enhancing your content, driving more leads and visitors to your site, refining your marketing strategies to rank better, and optimizing your ad spending to improve your ROI.

How does Simple Analytics track traffic from Google?

Simple Analytics is a privacy-friendly web analytics tool which innately tracks all possible data and metrics related to your website traffic.

Once you add the Simple Analytics script to your website, it starts collecting important metrics related to your visitors' interactions.

For a complete list of tracked metrics, you can refer to the documentation page.

Steps to Track Traffic from Google Using Simple Analytics

Start by creating your account on Simple Analytics (if you haven't done this already). This will prompt you to add your website and install the script onto your website.

This is really easy and works the same as if you would add Google Analytics to your websites. The script enables Simple Analytics to start tracking page views on your website.

Let the Data Flow In

After you've installed the Simple Analytics script, you'll need to be patient and give it some time to gather data. The script will start collecting information as visitors come to your website from Google.

Track Google traffic

Set Up a Goal to Track Google Traffic

Now that you have some traffic flowing into your website, it's time to create a goal to track traffic coming from Google. Follow these steps to set up the goal:

  1. Log in to your Simple Analytics dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the “Goals” section.
  3. Click on “Create Goal” or “Add New Goal.”
  4. Give your goal a descriptive name, like “Traffic from Google.”
  5. Choose the “pageview” event from the list of available events.
  6. Under the filter options, select “Referrer hostname – is – Google” to track traffic specifically from Google.
  7. Save the Goal.

Google Traffic Goal

Once you've set up the Goal, consider marking it as “important” to have it appear on your visitor dashboard for easy monitoring.

Final Thoughts

By tracking Google traffic, you can make informed decisions regarding your website's performance, marketing efforts, and content strategy through data-driven insights.

Following the procedures outlined above, you will be able to easily monitor your Google traffic using Simple Analytics, which will lead to more effective and efficient marketing strategies for increasing traffic and sales.

At Simple Analytics we believe in an independent internet that is friendly to website visitors. If this resonates with you, feel free to give us a try!

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