SEO Blog

At last, Google have provided its AdWords advertisers with the ability to see statistics for the search network.

AdWords Search Partner Statistics

The search network (not to be confused with the content network) includes sites such as AOL and ask.com. All good stuff, but up to now you couldn’t see the data for these sites as it formed part of the general data from search traffic generally.

With access to these stats, AdWords account owners will now be able to review the Click through Rate (CTR) and conversions from Google’s search partners and be able to make a rational decision as to whether this is good quality traffic.

Well done Google and we look forward to seeing this data available in the reports. Oh, and being able to create search partners only campaigns!

When it comes to tracking and analysing statistics for a website, you will find that most web hosts will provide some kind of statistical package as part of your hosting arrangement.

However, these vary in quality and very often only give a superficial level of detail. If you’re a small business and serious with your Internet marketing efforts, be it search engine optimisation or pay per click, then you will want (need) to have a professional analytics package. There are many solutions out there, such as the brilliant Clicktracks Analyzer, but these solutions are often out of the reach for many small business owners.

So what to do? Well, at Impact Media we always recommend our search marketing clients use Google Analytics. Despite being totally free, this is no lightweight solution. Once you set-up your Analytics account, you’ll be provided some code that you simply add to every page of your site. From this point on, your site will be tracked, and not just for Google. You’ll be able to see stats for total visitors, for all search engines as well as direct traffic and pay per click. In particular, if you’re using Google AdWords, you’ll benefit from enhanced reporting capabilities.

From a single account you can manage multiple sites and even share data with other users. Reports can be exported and your data can be ’sliced and diced’ in many different ways.

All in all, Google has provided individuals and businesses of all sizes, a great way to get the most out of their website statistics and we definitely recommend it!