Google Friendly Visitor Tracking

This tracking system is also used in our new search engine optimization tools. In the past we have avoided making too much of search engine optimization. There were just to many changes and too many hucksters out there to make promises concerning search engine placement. However, this too has begun to mature and we now have significant tools sets to help increase relevant search engine traffic.

First of all, we have found that if you simply utilize proper mechanisms and embed relevant keywords, that search engines are doing a much better job of filtering out irrelevant content and including relevant content. The general principle still is that the more relevant your content is to your keywords, and the less general your keywords are, the better you will in the search engines. The NewfangledCMS gives complete control over meta keywords, descriptions, and most importantly page titles. FYI, a page's title (not necessarily the title that appears on the web page, but rather the text that appears at the very top of the browser itself above the browser buttons) is one of the most relevant keyword placements on the page. Often companies waste this important spot with general "Welcome to…" phrases rather than essential keywords. For example, we've used "web design and development specialists" (try typing that into Google!) for our title rather than "Welcome to Newfangled Web Factory." Another example is the title of one of our newsletters called "Splash is Dead!" The title is meant to appeal to people, not the Google spider bot. While this might be a provocative title, it's not a good title for someone searching Google for information about splash pages. So in the knowledge base I renamed it "website splash pages" (type that into Google too).


There's not much magic here. It's just good clean Google friendly formatting and relevant information. We've just provided the tools to maximize these opportunities. Our tracking system however is kind of magical, in that it provides instant Google stats when you're logged into the NewfangledCMS. These stats not only show results, they also help you to refine your keywords. They might even affect the content in your site. I'll describe a few such scenarios we've already experienced in the past few weeks, after I describe how the Google reporting works.

When logged into the NewfangledCMS, the Google tracker displays a "Google stats" box on each page. This box displays the number of times Google has hit that page directly. This would mean that a link to the page appeared in a Google search result and someone clicked it to go to your page. In addition to this count of Google hits, it also tells you exactly what phrase was used in Google to get them your page. The Google status box also keeps track of when the last time Google indexed your site and specifically indexed each page. This helps you know when any changes you may have made would likely take effect in Google. The Google status box is displayed page by page when you're logged in to the NewfangledCMS. Additionally, there is a Google statistics page in the NewfangledCMS that tells you the total Google visits to-date, the most used key phrases leading to your pages, and of course, a session by session breakdown of whatever else each particular user looked at on your site after reaching it from Google. The most looked at pages from Google visitors is also reported. As with anonymous visits from alias links mentioned above, if any of these Google visitors ever fill out a site form, their identity will be associated with all past and future sessions.


This search engine capability not only increases site traffic, but in my estimation is even more useful in helping me further refine my keywords and my site content. For example, our email newsletter page currently shows up as top listing in Google when searching for "email newsletter tracking." We are getting lots of Google hits on this page. So I added more information about our email newsletter application. We've also gotten a bunch of hits on the phrase "web development pricing." As a result I simply added the words "web development" to a couple instances on our home page and pricing page in order to improve our position on this phrase. There are many other minor adjustments I've made as I've reviewed Google activity throughout our site.