Google is Trying to Tell You Something, Are You Listening?

Article by Ileane

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by on November 18, 2012 · 128 comments

in Blogging Tutorials

Google has put so many awesome tools at the disposal of bloggers and small business owners that at times, it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. Google wants you to succeed with your online endeavors but let’s face it, we all know that they are getting more then their fair share out of the deal too.

Yet, as bloggers and webmasters, when we stop to think about all the perks we get from Google, (outside of Google Chrome) two things should stand out in our minds above the rest:

  1. Google Analytics.
  2. Google Webmaster Tools.

We should all be listening to what Google has to say

Most of us already know the importance of using Google Analytics and the wealth of information we can discover from checking our stats. Remember how diligently we would check our stats when we first started our websites? I don’t know about you, but I was there every single day, and some days I would look 3 – 4 – 5 times! Listening to Google Back then I was just hoping that I would get 100 visits on one single blog post.

As time passed, and we started using social media sites like: Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Pinterest etc., we got distracted and spent less and less time checking our stats or even thinking about Analytics.

In some ways that was a good thing.

It’s not good to be obsessed with checking stats all the time.

But let’s not get distracted by those “shiny objects” and forget about why we came here in the first place.

We all need to set aside a time – maybe once or twice a week – but no less than once a month, to monitor our progress with those two important tools I mentioned earlier (Analytics and Webmaster Tools).

Two Google Tools for the Price of One

What do I mean by “two tools for the price of one”? Well since they are both free Google resources, you know I’m not talking about the actual cost. I’m referring to the amount of time you’re going to save by checking your progress in one place rather than two. Isn’t that nice of me? You’re quite welcome. :)

In this video you’ll see how easy it is to Connect Google Webmaster Tools to Google Analytics

I know what some of you are thinking:

“What’s the real benefit of having data from these two tools in one place. How does this help me?”

The short answer is this:

It will be much easier for you to listen to what Google is telling you about all of the FREE traffic it’s sending your way!

Next, I’ll give you a more detailed answer starting with a screenshot from my “Search Queries” report in Webmaster Tools.

Webmaster tools Search Queries

I added the red numbers and arrows to help illustrate my point:

Using this report from GWT, I need to add up all the #1′s, #2′s, #3′s, etc. to figure out which post is getting the most attention. After doing some homework I’d see that #3 has the highest number of queries and impressions in Google search. The problem with this method is that we’re only looking at a small snapshot of the page, therefore a lot more “homework” is necessary on my part in order to determine which post is actually driving the most of the traffic from Google search.

Now let’s look at the break down of the “Landing Pages” found in the Search Engine Optimization Report of Google Analytics.

Search Engine Optimization Queries

It’s so obvious now that I didn’t even need to draw any arrows this time! It’s crystal clear that the page on my blog with the highest number of impressions in Google search is the one at the top of the list: How To Get Your First 2,000 Twitter Followers (many thanks to a guest post from my pal Amrik Virdi from Monetize Blogging).

More Benefits of Listening to Google

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I use the data from this Landing Page report to determine placement for my AdSense ads.

If you missed that post be sure to check out AdSense for Feeds Dies, AdSense for Search Rocks!

Once I started “listening” I developed this super simple strategy to determine which posts to place AdSense units on (because they get the most targeted Google traffic) and as a result, my AdSense earnings began to increase significantly.

I’m sure you’ll find other uses for this new found information. Try sorting the “Landing Pages” report by the “Clicks” column (instead of sorting by impressions as shown above) and you’ll have a much clearer picture of the content on your site that is most popular with your Google traffic. Use data from the Search Engine Optimization reports of Google Analytics in the following ways:

  • Write guest posts that will compliment those top landing pages on your blog
  • Increase affiliate sales by inserting the appropriate ad banners or links
  • Develop information products that you can use to build your email list
  • Repurpose the most popular content as videos, audio podcasts or SlideShare presentations

Google Analytics Integrations by Daniel Waisberg

Daniel Waisberg’s book on Google Analytics Integration

Integrating Webmaster tools data inside Google Analytics is just one simple step you can take toward reaching the goals you set for your site.

Daniel Waisberg from Online Behavior has worked as a Google Analytics Certified Partner for over 4 years. In he latest book, he explores more options for integration of Google tools into Analytics. The book is titled Google Analytics Integrations – Centralizing Digital Marketing and it is available on Amazon. In the book he shares insights and instructions for connectings AdWords, AdSense, YouTube and even FeedBurner to Google Analytics.

I hope you are going to take action and integrate Webmaster Tools with Analytics, or maybe you have done it already. Let me know what you think about combining these two power house tools from our friend Google!

 

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{ 126 comments… read them below or add one }

saad naeem November 18, 2012 at 6:42 AM

great post Ileane , i have always been looking at my GWT and always try to find out good keywords with good impression. Thanks for sharing this idea with your readers , and looks like i got a keyword to compete with, ” how to gain followers on twitter” LOL.

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 7:07 AM

Hi Saad, thanks for your positive feedback on the post. I was really surprised to see that the Twitter post is getting so much traffic from Google. I hope you find some nice surprises in your Google SEO Landing Page reports too.

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Thomas November 18, 2012 at 7:57 AM

Hi Ileane
I can’t believe that I have missed this in the past. I love to use both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools to learn about my traffic and to find out where I can improve. This is something all bloggers should do, if they don’t already have done it. Thanks again for the tip Ileane :-)

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 8:15 AM

Hi Thomas!

I connected my two accounts long ago but I wasn’t taking full advantage of the reports until now. I found a wealth of information in Daniel’s book that can be applied to Google Analytics.

Keep me posted on all the golden nuggets of data you find in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for stopping by.

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Kamal Hasa January 31, 2013 at 6:14 AM

Almost 90% of the new bloggers fail to to utilize the free utilities that Google has such as Google WMT and Analytics..

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Ileane January 31, 2013 at 6:33 AM

Hi Kamal! I sure hope that 90% of them come to this blog and find out what they are missing in Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics. :)

Thanks for your comment.

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Kamal Hasa January 31, 2013 at 6:35 AM

That’s the way it is. New bloggers get into this world and then do random stuffs instead of following some basic guidelines and tips which are essential. I do hope they find this article and benefit from this.

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Shalu Sharma November 18, 2012 at 8:02 AM

Google is trying to say things and its too often and my ears are beginning to hurt. Now I just ignore what bigg boss has to say and will concentrate on other means and resources. For one of my sites I have completely removed analytics and webmaster tools and loving it.

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 8:18 AM

Shalu, as long as you are getting the results that you want, that is what really matters.

In my case I find that I can optimize my blog more effectively when I know where traffic is coming in and going out – and what they are doing while they’re here.

Thanks for your feedback.

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Bivori November 18, 2012 at 8:44 AM

Shalu, it is something like the glasses irritates and you threw them away, but how are you tracking the performance of your site? Don’t you care where the traffic are coming and where are they taking actions?

And one more thing, the integration of Analytics from the very first day of your blog is very important. Though not you, in future somebody might be interested to get those data. I recently sold one of my website (seommotips.com) and it was the Analytics data, Google PR and Alexa ranking that convinced the buyer. Who knows in future you’d like to sell some of your websites and there is nothing to show?

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Shalu Sharma November 19, 2012 at 2:23 PM

Suresh, of course I care where the traffic is coming from but there are good alternatives and that is why I removed it. I don’t think one has to rely on these to make progress. Obviously they are good tools but there are others ways to look at stats. It also depends on personal taste. I might again go back to it.

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Bivori November 18, 2012 at 8:08 AM

“Let’s not get distracted by those “shiny objects” and forget about why we came here in the first place”

Most striking statement. Agreed to you Ileane. Those ‘shiny objects’ has been neither possible to ignore nor to glare at. I guess a more managed habit has to be developed ;-)

Integrating Webmasters with Analytics really has a lot to offer and I’ve integrated it bit earlier. Thanks for the wonderful post.

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 12:35 PM

Hi there! I’m happy to hear that you are already taking advantage of this integration.

I’m really surprised to hear that you sold SEOMMOTIPS! That was a great blog and I hope the new owner shows it as much care as you did. btw – did you update your user profile here on the blog to make sure the correct blog link is present?

Thanks for stopping by and for sharing this on Facebook.

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Chaitanya November 18, 2012 at 8:24 AM

I always use Google webmaster tool to track the traffic and search queries, it really helps a lot to optimize the post, in order to get good avg. position in search results. :)
BTW thanks for the post!

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 9:14 AM

Hi Chaitanya, glad to hear that you are listening to Google! Thanks for your comment.

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Chaitanya November 19, 2012 at 8:11 AM

Thanks for the reply Ileane :)

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Frank Thomas November 23, 2012 at 6:35 AM

I am agreed with Chaitanya that webmaster tools to for reviewing traffic queries.

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Norm November 18, 2012 at 8:58 AM

Another great post. I use both of these tools religiously but have never bothered to connect the two, even though I knew that I could.

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Perambur Kumar November 18, 2012 at 9:01 AM

Great Post.
I am working on both tools. Both of them working fine for me.
I love Google Products

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 11:09 AM

Good for you. Nice to have your comment.

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MaAnna November 18, 2012 at 10:24 AM

Ileane, you mentioned that you were surprised to find the Twitter post ranking so high. I’m wondering if any of these top three posts are what you want to rank for on your site. Since most of my income is from my services and not adwords, in the past, I religiously followed analytics and made a huge effort to rank for WordPress training. I’ve given up trying to get my whole site to the top for that. I’m being outspent in ads 10,000:1. Instead, I’m shooting to get to number one on related topics. Right now that happens to be alternatives to FeedBurner. Before that it was a social share widget that was having issues. I’m finding it particularly useful to write authoritative posts on trending topics in related fields. It’s bringing in a much more diverse audience to find my services. Analytics lets me know what to write more about, and more importantly, what services to highlight on those posts.

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 11:35 AM

Great to see you here MaAnna,

That is an excellent question!

I’ll tell you a little story that I have shared in my podcast on an episode a couple of months ago: When I started paying really close attention to GWT, I noticed that one of the posts here called “the benefits of using an iPhone” was getting a ton of traffic from Google. I absolutely did NOT want to rank for this particular post. Partly because I don’t have a smart phone and no plans on getting one, but even more importantly, I’m no longer in touch with the guest author who wrote the post which means comments aren’t being responded to. So I set out on a mission to do something about this – even though I had no idea what to do at the time….
Then one day as fate would have it, I was approached by another guest author who was able to do a follow up post called the Top 10 Best iPhone Apps for Bloggers.
Now this post is much more on point with the focus of this blog and the traffic is slowly migrating away from the older (outdated) post and transferring on to the newer more appropriate one. My thanks goes to Ahmed Raza who saved the day for me on that one.

MaAnna, this is exactly why I pay such close attention to these stats now and I encourage other bloggers to do the same.

Now as far as the Twitter post goes – any post that is related to social media is certainly a win for this blog and in this case I also heavily promote a site called JustRetweet. If you take a look at the post you’ll see I embedded a video I did for JustRetweet in the post using the LeadPlayer plugin. LeadPlayer is helping me get more views on YouTube but it’s also getting more sign ups for my email list.

One of the goals I’m currently working on is to embed relevant videos in each one of the top 25 posts that Google is showing favor to and I’ll let LeadPlayer or Viewbix do the job of getting more subscribers and YouTube views at the same time.

Thanks for that question and for taking the time to stop by and check out the post!

btw – look for a full review of LeadPlayer coming soon. Stay tuned.

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MaAnna November 18, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Thanks Ileane. I’m definitely looking forward to your review of LeadPlayer.

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 12:57 PM

I’m in the process of gathering the statistics before I make my final recommendation.

Both LeadPlayer and Viewbix are excellent tools for getting subscribers from embedded YouTube vids, but I haven’t used LeadPlayer for as long as I’ve been using Viewbix.

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Karri Avinash November 18, 2012 at 10:54 AM

Hi Ileane!
Thanks for such a nice post.. I was all there, but didn’t have the insight that you found out.. I integrated Google WebMasters Tool and Analytics long back, but didn’t know how to get maximum benefit from it. Your post guided me in the right direction.

Also one more question w.r.t the below quote.
“Once I started “listening” I developed this super simple strategy to determine which posts to place AdSense units on (because they get the most targeted Google traffic) and as a result, my AdSense earnings began to increase significantly.”

If you are using WordPress, how can I put AdSense ads, only on the popular posts? Is there any plugin you use?

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 11:47 AM

Hi Karri,

I’m happy that you learned a tip and took action! You are surely on the right path.

No plugin!! Please don’t use any plugins to put AdSense on your blog. I was doing that about a year ago, but I learned from my friend Lisa Irby that I wasn’t getting any performance reports when I used the plugin (in terms of best performing ad units and sizes).

Just go to your AdSense account and get the code for the size ad you want. If you’re not sure how to do this, let me know and I’ll do a video for you.

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George November 18, 2012 at 10:55 AM

Ileane. i used sem rush to run a check on the keywords your blog gets the maximum traffic for. It took 1 minute. Exactly the same results. First one how to gain twitter followers…

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Ileane November 18, 2012 at 11:51 AM

Good job George. I don’t use SEM Rush because I have Market Samurai. Like I said it’s not good to obsess over stats and since I’m already checking Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Market Samurai, I think SEM Rush would be overkill.
But thanks for letting me know how it works.

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Paula D'Andrea November 18, 2012 at 9:56 PM

I just got my Analytics & Webtools set up – great info!
Thanks Ileane

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Ileane November 19, 2012 at 5:27 PM

You’re welcome Paula. Keep me posted with your progress.

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Vladim November 18, 2012 at 10:35 PM

Ileane – I am bit skeptical to be honest about using only 2 sources to get your data from.
I like to combine all there is:
For indexed pages I use Google and Bing.
For backlinks research I use GWT, Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, Bing and Alexa.
For onsite tips – WooRank.
The issue with using only tools provided by Google is that you are dependent completely on what they will give you.
I really appreciate your article – great writing!

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Ileane November 19, 2012 at 5:38 PM

Vladim, thanks for your feedback. Are you using all of these tools to monitor one blog? Are you getting a lot of traffic on the site?

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Hadley November 18, 2012 at 11:30 PM

Google has always provided us with fantastic tools and will continue to do so. A lot of folks just don’t know how to use them properly. Social media is frequently seen these days as the new generation of SEO as well, and sites like Facebook & Twitter are pretty much the only ones online that Google worry about.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 5:20 AM

Hadley, don’t forget LinkedIn and Google+

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Fahad November 19, 2012 at 12:43 AM

Hello Ileane,

You are right that Google wants us to successful in our endeavor but we must be fair and honest.

Google webmaster and analytic are fantastic tools for any blogger to refine his/her blog.

I always check my most popular blog post through it and try to improve a little bit if there is a chance of it.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 5:21 AM

Hi Fahad,
You’re doing a great job I can tell. Keep up the good work.

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Aasma November 19, 2012 at 3:02 AM

Hey Ileane,

I didn’t know that we can even link Google Webmaster Tools with Google Analytics. After merging both data you can simply see more details at one place without opening them separately.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 5:23 AM

Aasma, it can be a nice way to save time. I would continue to check in with Webmaster Tools every so often though just to be sure they are no messages or warnings.

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Lisa November 19, 2012 at 5:10 AM

Hi Ileane, I love using the two. I use them mostly for my retail sites and recently learned that many keywords had changed in popularity. It was an eye opening experience. I have since started using excel spreadsheets to keep on top of them better. It can be overwhelming to learn it all at once so I try to focus on one area at a time with these tools. (One thing not mentioned often is about those that spend a lot of money on adwords – I see another comment referencing that. I find that on the retail side. One in particular is advertising everywhere- so some keywords I cannot compete but instead I go toward the long-tail keywords )
The book “Google Analytics Integration” looks wonderful. I may be purchasing that one soon or asking Santa for it. Thanks so much for the informative post and love your examples.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 6:49 AM

Lisa, at work we have the ecommerce reports in Google Analytics turned on for our website. I hope you are using those on your retail sites. I think Daniel has some information on his blog that can help you set it up if you haven’t done it yet.

If you are using AdWords you gotta get that book! He actually sells each one of the integration reports separately so if you just want the AdWords volume it runs around $5. Well worth it! Daniel works closely with Google so he knows what he is talking about.

Keep me posted!!

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Cristian Stan November 19, 2012 at 6:30 AM

Hey, Ileane! You wrote another great article. I’ll connect Google Analytics cu Webmaster Tools for my projects as soon as I can. Thanks for sharing!

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 6:50 AM

Hi Cristian, thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.

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Abdul Manan November 19, 2012 at 6:57 AM

Hi Ileane,!
You mentioned that you were surprised to find the Twitter post ranking so high. I’m wondering if any of these top three posts are what you want to rank for on your site. Since most of my income is from my services and not adwords, in the past, I religiously followed analytics and made a huge effort to rank for WordPress training.

I have given up trying to get my whole site to the top for that. I’m being outspent in ads 10,000:1. Instead, I’m shooting to get to number one on related topics. Right now that happens to be alternatives to FeedBurner. Before that it was a social share widget that was having issues.

I’m finding it particularly useful to write authoritative posts on trending topics in related fields. It’s bringing in a much more diverse audience to find my services. Analytics lets me know what to write more about, and more importantly, what services to highlight on those posts.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 6:54 AM

If anyone is reading these comments you might notice that what just happened is this person copied and pasted someone else’s comment!!

Can you believe that? It’s a shame that I need to go back and delete all of his past comments on this blog.

I’m leaving this one up as an example of how NOT to comment on blogs…..

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Aaron H. November 19, 2012 at 7:46 AM

Great stuff! Detailed and well-put. Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are simply invaluable tools and the fact that they’re free makes it all the more amazing. I suggest turning on the email notification feature in Webmaster Tools so that whenever Google tries to tell you something, you recieve an email instead of having to check the dashboard for new notifications.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 1:41 PM

Hi Aaron! Excellent point. I think the email notification is turned on by default, but it’s a good idea for everyone to check just to be sure.

Thanks!

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Veer Modi November 19, 2012 at 8:28 AM

Hi Ileane,

Very informative post. I have already integrate analytics with GWT. But I have not used technique which you teach today. I will soon going to use this.

Many Thanks, Ileane..!!

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 7:01 PM

Hi Veer Modi, I also had the accounts connected but just recently started taking advantage of this feature. It really is interesting to see that when I removed AdSense from my sidebar and from appearing on every page I started earning more since I use it only on the top pages getting Google traffic. I hope someone else tries this too and gets good results.

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Veer Modi December 4, 2012 at 10:53 AM

Oh, That’s so good.
I have implemented this technique and waiting for better results.

Thanks for such detailed reply, Ileane.

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Nwosu Desmond November 19, 2012 at 9:11 AM

Thanks Ileane for this post, it was so entertaining i wished it never ended. I am definitely one of those bloggers who are obsessed with the numbers (You know what i mean), and this post has opened up another dimension to the whole idea and i cant wait to implement the ideas from here immediately. Thanks again.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 7:03 PM

Nwosu, the numbers can hypnotize you if you look at them long enough. So don’t forget to keep your eye on the prize – it’s the “people” that really count!

Thanks for your lovely comment, I’m glad you stopped by.

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Stuart Crawford November 19, 2012 at 2:35 PM

It’s kinda common sense to at least try to integrate google’s own services into your sites, totally ignoring their new outreaches such as Google+ can’t be a good thing.

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Tanya November 19, 2012 at 3:11 PM

Great post Iliene,
I agree with you, I think keeping up with Google analytics can make or break someones website. How will you know who is reading or how many people are visiting.. If you don’t know whats popular and whats working for you. Without knowing that, you will most likely fail.

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 7:07 PM

Hi Tanya, one of the best lessons I learned about using Google Analytics comes from Avinah Kaushik – he says that “not using GOALS is a crime against humanity”. Of course he was exaggerating, but it wasn’t until I learned how to set up Goals in Google Analytics that I really began to see the power of what Analytics can do for a website.

Thanks for stopping by Tanya.

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babanature November 19, 2012 at 6:09 PM

Th is really a great post Ileane. One funny thing about me is i have the analytics and i also have the webmaster tool integrated to my blog but to be frank, i don’t use it because i don’t really know how to. I have grab a few things with your explanation and i’ll surely implement it to get a better result. thanks

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 7:12 PM

Babanature, it takes time to learn how to use Google Analytics. I hope you got a chance to check out the presentation I gave on the subject of social media tracking in Google Analytics. Here is the link for the slides http://basicblogtips.com/GoogleAnalyticsTrackSM_ROI.pdf

Let me know if you have any questions on it. But most of all be patient with yourself, there is always something new to learn and it takes time.

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Adrienne November 19, 2012 at 6:28 PM

Oh girl, aren’t you smart! I had no idea you could connect the two accounts but I tell you what… I’m heading over there right after I finish this comment and connect the two.

I check Google Analytics much more then I ever check Webmaster tools. I just find the Webmaster tools site not as user friendly. Okay to be honest with you, Google Analytics isn’t always the friendliest either but I would much prefer going to one place to check all my stats instead of two. This just makes it that much more convenient.

Thank you Ileane for sharing this. Awesome tips. Hey, you have a great week okay! Enjoy the family..

~Adrienne

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Ileane November 20, 2012 at 7:19 PM

Hey Adrienne!

You know what I did – one day I just decided that I was going to go through as many reports as I could in my Webmaster tools until I found something interesting. Once I realized that I could see my “Author Stats” and find out which posts I got my Google Authorship for, it was like something clicked in my head and I felt like I was getting somewhere.

Now, I go into GWT at least once a week just to see if I got Authorship for any of those new posts I published. That alone makes the trip worth while. :)

btw – I shared some pics of our family dinner on my Facebook page in case you want to take a look.

Enjoy the holiday and thanks for everything.

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Ti Roberts November 19, 2012 at 11:34 PM

Hi Ileane,

I don’t use too much analytics tools besides Google Analytics. I quickly realized after I began doing my traffic case studies that having proper analytics was going to be a necessity, especially for myself and my audience to get an accurate picture of my traffic stats.

I don’t really monitor my Google traffic as you know, but my analytics has been great for showing me where most of my social media traffic is coming from. I’m not the best at dissecting all the details of an analytics report and I’d like to learn more specifics about them in the near future.

Thanks for sharing this post with us. I appreciate you taking the time to break it down.

Ti

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Ileane November 21, 2012 at 5:12 AM

Hi Ti, you know what we should do – let’s get together for a Google Hangout On Air (maybe this weekend) so we can chat more about Google Analytics and broadcast live on YouTube.

How does that sound to you?

Hope you weren’t planning on spending all of your time this weekend at the Mall….

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Vivek November 20, 2012 at 2:27 AM

Really great post : Google Always try their level hard to keep Genuine publishers a step ahead of the spammers ( exactly what I got from Google webmaster help forum ).

Analytic and webmaster tools are the most essential and most advanced tools present in the market. Google analytic also offers the premium version with complete data update within every 15 minutes and lots more.
Considering the webmaster tools, its all in one feature packed tool. You have so many to explore and optimize…

Apart from them, google also offers many other web services like blogger, maps, picasa, and most importantly : Google plus : An innovative social media site.

Thanks for the post.

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Ileane November 22, 2012 at 5:00 PM

Hi Vivek, Google is doing a good job with tackling the spammers of the world but it’s a never ending task. Thanks for your comment.

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Soniya sharma November 20, 2012 at 5:29 AM

I am currently working on a Google Analytic tools that are web analytic. Google Analytic is provide the best visualization tools including dashboard ,scorecards and motion charts, which display changes in data over time. I have not worked with the Google webmaster tool. I have learn here about the Google Web master tool and try to work with the Google webmaster tools. Thanks for sharing nice post!

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Ferb November 20, 2012 at 6:56 AM

Hi Ileane, Google actually has too many tools and the feature you shared, it’s kind of hidden away and without your video, I think it might take me a long time to find that out.

Thanks so much – Ferb

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Ileane November 22, 2012 at 5:02 PM

Ferb, these reports are really tucked away and you can spend hours looking at all the data! I’m glad I pointed you in the right direction.

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Patrik November 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM

Indeed these two are of great help for bloggers. You have captured all the important information and put it across in an interesting way.

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Brian November 20, 2012 at 1:26 PM

I use webtools sometimes, but haven’t used analytics. I probably don’t use webmastertools enough. The one tool I’ve been using lately to see how likely one of my new blog posts will be seen is the keyword tool for google adwords. I use it to see how competitive my chosen keyword or phrase is and how likely I’ll be able to compete with others. I really like that it shows me how many monthly searches there are for my chosen keywords.

I need to get over to Google Analytics to find out all the other juicy details Google will give me. Thanks.

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Ana Hoffman November 20, 2012 at 3:44 PM

Why is it the most brilliant things happen to be the simplest and the most underused at the same time?

Great explanation, Ileane; hope more readers will actually pay attention.

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Ileane November 22, 2012 at 5:52 PM

Hi Ana,
Google Analytics has so many hidden features that I find myself getting lost from time to time. This is one feature that is pretty straight forward without a lot of fluff – you just need to know how to find it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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sonia November 20, 2012 at 3:53 PM

Great Post.
I am working on both tools….. cool

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Rick Noel November 20, 2012 at 4:48 PM

Excellent post Illeane. I agree with your response to Hadley and Staurt’s comment. Google+ is a strong 3rd (Search Plus Your World update, authorship impact on SERPs, Google+ Local are few key drivers for Google+) on the list and YouTube a 4th. Video marketing is still one of the most under-utilized tools in the Internet marketers toolbox. Thanks for sharing.

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Wade Harman November 20, 2012 at 10:48 PM

As usual, you have plotted out another way to get the most out of my blog! There are many tools to keep up with and this is a great way to find out how to monetize your posts properly. Thanks, by the way, for helping me on the Facebook deal too.

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Kevin November 21, 2012 at 12:18 AM

Great post. Google analytic with Google web master tool, great idea. You have listed out the information so nicely, enjoyed reading it.

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Vineet Saxena November 21, 2012 at 12:27 AM

Hi Ileane,
Google Webmasters and Analytics are two great tools to know everything about how Google sees your blog or website. Though I integrated them a long time ago, I haven;t spend much time on them.

Though after this I will using them more wisely to get something better out of them. Thanks for these awsome blog tips.

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Rajkumar Jonnala November 21, 2012 at 1:48 AM

Great article, thankyou for sharing it. Both these products of google are useful in tracking the traffic and to increase it. I love google tools.

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Ravi Singh November 21, 2012 at 3:54 AM

I am currently working on Google Analytic, it is tracking the traffic and to improve the traffic. But I have not use the Google webmaster tool, your tips are very nice to learning Google master tool.

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Rajesh Namase November 21, 2012 at 4:32 AM

If we use these two tools properly then we it’s very easy to know more about about stats, traffic, backlinks, landing pages, etc. I like these two tools very much. Google analytic with Google web master tool is really awesome.

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Lana November 21, 2012 at 9:54 AM

Awesome blogpost. I love Google analytics because it has helped me a lot in improving my blog. If anyone is not listening to Google, they are making big mistake because the only way to survive on the Internet as a successful blogger is to understand what GOogle is trying to make you understand.

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Priya N November 21, 2012 at 11:17 AM

Thanks for this excellent post. I am really listening to Google. I used to do a lot of research in both the tools to find out how can I improve my SERP for many of my pages & for keywords.
I think people should spend their time to investigate how their content are doing in search engine.

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Hadley November 21, 2012 at 1:23 PM

I’ve also just gone through the process of getting all our clients sites set up on a new Webmaster Tools account which was a bit of a pain!

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Woody November 21, 2012 at 1:33 PM

Yeah, it’s nice to listen to google, but some times it’s saying too less to understand what’s going on – frequent algorithm’s changes, sudden ranks falls etc…

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Ileane November 22, 2012 at 5:26 PM

Woody, I know a lot of people are frustrated over some of the recent updates like Panda and Penguin. The only advice I can offer is to keep building up your content and spend time networking on socila sites like Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube. Also, it’s a great time to start building an email list if you don’t have one already I recommend using AWeber.

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Clarkmartin November 22, 2012 at 12:57 AM

Hello Ileane
Your post is very important and useful. Thanks for share this post. Google has put so many awesome tools at the disposal of bloggers and small business owners that at times, it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. Google wants you to succeed with your online endeavors but let’s face it, we all know that they are getting more then their fair share out of the deal too.

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Kumar Gauraw November 23, 2012 at 12:42 AM

I use both of these tools now. I did not connected both together for a long time, but now I have and I think there is a value in doing so. I had lost almost 80% of m Google traffic die to some problems with the Google crawlers not able to crawl my site properly and GWT helped me fix that and since then, I understood why they both are important tools :-)

Thank you for a very insightful post.
Regards,
Kumar

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ileane November 30, 2012 at 9:44 AM

Kumar, that is fascinating! It just goes to show that we bloggers still need to log in to Google Webmaster Tools directly, just in case any warnings are there. We should get email notifications but you know how sometimes things go into the spam folder by mistake. It only takes 5 seconds to double check.

Thanks for sharing your story Kumar.

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Krishna November 23, 2012 at 5:29 AM

Thanks for Explaining that. I think the most imp things amongst all that google webmaster helps us is about the crawl errors like 404 etc, html errors like Duplicate title and descriptions, search queries and the country selection…

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Ralf Gretson November 23, 2012 at 9:23 AM

Internet is definitely evolving, so we are very fortunate to have all these great tools to make our lives easier. I have used many times Google Analytics reports to know the areas and topics that raise the most interest to my readers.

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Nhick November 23, 2012 at 10:04 AM

Great tips, looks like I’m missing a lot of valuable information already.. time to connect both tools now.. Thanks

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Samuel November 23, 2012 at 3:30 PM

Both tools are extremely useful and need to be used by each webmaster.

I use both myself :)

I see how you have been able to see which page is bringing you the most results Ileane!

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Jebengotai November 26, 2012 at 12:27 PM

i’m totally agree…we should use both tool to hear out Google clearly
..thanks again :)

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James November 23, 2012 at 9:00 PM

I integrated mine back when it first came out. it has helped a lot to cut down on my analysis time for my blog traffic on all my sites.

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ileane November 30, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Good for you James. I noticed that you are targeting your traffic more these days. I think moving is good for you :)

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Karen November 24, 2012 at 6:30 AM

I’ve always used the webmaster tools and specially analytics, I’ve found over the years of blogging that they are extremely useful and have allowed me to improve my blogs reach and more.

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Ileane November 24, 2012 at 7:16 PM

Hi Karen, I think you might have been the one who inspired me to check my stats more frequently. I remember back in the day when you would post some traffic reports that really grabbed my attention. I’m so glad you are still rocking the blogosphere!! Thanks for your comment.

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aranvir November 24, 2012 at 12:07 PM

Awesome info! I was honestly just thinking about something similar to this other day so, it was almost weird when I ran across this. You would be surprised how many people simply have no idea when it comes to this kind of stuff. Anyway, thanks for getting this cool info out there and I am sure I am not only one who appreciates you taking time to post this for masses.

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Jessica November 26, 2012 at 11:02 PM

I am working on both these tools, no one can neglect the importance of these awesome tools. You are absolutely right that we should listen what google say because it is an easy and keen way to get traffic, ranking and business from google search engine.

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tanvir November 27, 2012 at 1:40 PM

We are listening to Google and to you Ms. Ileane. Thanks for sharing this wonderful article with us.

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Justin Mott November 27, 2012 at 9:58 PM

Ok the end of this article really put it together for me. You can use the information provided to put together a better landing page so that you can increase sales or improve content value for that page.
I use the webmaster tool fairly regular but I haven’t applied a useful approach like this for it yet. Thanks for the post.

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Salman November 29, 2012 at 10:47 PM

Amazing video tute …

To be frank, I was ignoring that part completely and after connecting both accounts… I realized what I was missing !!

Thanks a ton !!

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Ileane November 30, 2012 at 6:55 AM

Hi Salman, I’m glad I can help! Keep me posted with the insights you find now that you have Google Analytics connected with Webmaster Tools. I’m sure you’ll blog about it soon. Thanks for your comment.

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Salman November 30, 2012 at 7:58 AM

I’d have blogged about it but as my niche is technology news and updates, I can’t ! BTW I’ve shared the video on a IM community and everyone there are loving it :)

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ileane November 30, 2012 at 9:35 AM

Salman, Thanks so much for sharing with your group!!

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Mark Brook November 30, 2012 at 2:32 AM

Hey,
How can a person who is watching and want his/her blog visible and looking for the traffic miss google analytic and webmaster tool.

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Techbymak December 2, 2012 at 10:21 AM

Awesome post Ileane ,
Thank you for sharing with US. I’m too using the analytic report for next decision to be implied on blog

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Ashley December 12, 2012 at 1:14 PM

If you haven’t already done it connecting Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools is essential. You just can’t get that kind of information about your traffic anywhere else.

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Andrew Legion December 23, 2012 at 2:52 AM

Thank Ileane, Really you are great poster. I always check most important blog through it and try to improve if there is a chance of it. I decide to use both of Google Analytic and Google webmaster tools to increase my traffic and i will try to find out where i can improve. Have you another advice for my traffic?

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Alka January 5, 2013 at 10:05 PM

I’ve connected one of my blog with Google Analytics as well as Google Webmasters Central and getting good stats for it but for my other blog, it is confusing. I don’t know what to do. Should I remove Google Webmasters or Google Analytic or both and try another website monitoring service ?

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Ileane January 6, 2013 at 6:34 AM

Hi Alka, first to answer your question – no, don’t get rid of Google Analytics or Google Webmaster tools. In order for me to give you a hand, I need you to be more specific about where you are getting confused. Can you provide some details so that I can try to give you a hand? Also, tell me if you are using WordPress on this blog or not.

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Graywolf January 6, 2013 at 11:13 AM

Nice! I’m still at the check-my-stats-every-hour stage. Now I’m doing the same thing with my google+ author page too. I think I spend more time doing that than actual research occasionally and have to block myself from going.

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Fiza Malik January 9, 2013 at 6:44 AM

Hi, Illeane

This is absolutely a traffic post. Certainly WMT is the best guiding resource of Google. You described it efficiently with illustration. Thanks foe sharing the informative read.

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Lee January 15, 2013 at 5:44 AM

Hi ileane
Webmaster tools and analytics are still new to me I am slowly getting used to all the information I know it all seems clear once you understand it all but your article has cleared a few points up for me.

So for that thanks lee

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Ileane February 3, 2013 at 1:08 PM

Hi Lee,

Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about Google Webmaster Tools or Analytic. I’d be glad to help.

Thanks for your comment.

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Anchit Shethia January 17, 2013 at 6:19 AM

Google Analytics has helped me a lot in managing my blog and traffic.
And even better, Webmaster tools is a boon to all web masters to configure, track and manage their websites.
I love using them to keep up with my blog.

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amely hopes February 2, 2013 at 3:55 AM

Every day google teams are pulling up there socks for betterment of us but few to some wierd tricks we also have to suffer from panda and penguin

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Nikhil February 4, 2013 at 3:00 PM

hey nice article, I never thought about connecting these two accounts, I always used to think that it’s just waste of time and useless thing. Thanks for this article

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MikeM February 5, 2013 at 8:07 PM

Very informative, I use the webmaster tool very regularly but I haven’t applied a useful approach like this for it yet. Thanks for sharing.

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tressa knight February 6, 2013 at 1:36 AM

From last one and a half year google is continuously telling to us move to white hat strategies for better results and we are not listening again a update arise everyone have to suffer a little bit

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Akhilesh February 10, 2013 at 4:30 AM

hi Ileane,
i am gogossiph.com
I did not know before that we can joing google wonderful tools together.
And when i tried it showing some problem but after watching videos it become easy for me …..
thanks :)

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Rohan Mod February 14, 2013 at 12:23 PM

i have been reading your blog since last 3 days and yet still i am hungry..being very honest i would like to say that i am following your every step .i just want to make a blog like yours.Thank you mam .you are my inspiration.

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Shinfo February 15, 2013 at 3:30 PM

Webmaster And Analytics are the only tools that you need to moniter your blog and improve it over time . There is no doubt in that . and ye I agree to the point that we shouldn’t be too obsessed by the stats (that i am -working on that) but checking them once in a month is also important

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Pam February 15, 2013 at 6:15 PM

I just wish Google could give us an SEO tool telling us what we are missing to get high SERPs. I mean, yes, GWT is great, and working together with GA is fine, but sometimes we really need more.

Thanks for the post.

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Pranesh February 18, 2013 at 12:24 PM

I’m a regular user of Google’s webmaster tools checking the search queries, links to the site and html errors. But as you said with social media my time with Google analytics have gone. May be I thought start working on it..thanks for the post.

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Brian Scott February 24, 2013 at 5:25 PM

Hello Ileane I am Brian. I was reading along and see where you stated listen to Google. I have seen a lot of webmasters say this so I can only conclude that there is something to it. Maybe I didn’t understand the article to well, so here is a question. Why should I care what Google thinks about the statistical aspects of any of my sites? How can I benefit from taking time from my schedule to read the complex data statistics they have? Thanks and great blog by the way.

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Pankaj March 4, 2013 at 9:48 AM

great seo tip. maybe this will help me to get some visitors from google. thanks for share :)

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sunil March 9, 2013 at 1:57 PM

Really Ileane i love your site.Your articles are awesome.Your tittle “listen to Google” is very attractive and content is really really awesome

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Oscar April 9, 2013 at 11:33 AM

This article is really really interesting. thanks illeane

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