If you are following the latest SEO industry news, you have probably heard about the Google "May Day" update. Google's Matt Cutts confirmed that this Search algorithm change mainly affects long tail searches (watch the video here).  Long tail searches can be obscure and/or rare queries where the set of fitting search results is relatively small. Most commonly however they describe those searches where at least 3-4 words (and often more) are used.After the May Day update many websites reported a significant loss of traffic, while others have seen improved traffic from search engines. After all, Google's Search index resembles an ecosystem where one site's loss is another one's gain.If you are using Google Analytics there is an easy way to check if and how this update has affected your performance in Google. In order to segment and analyze your long tail traffic you need to set up Advanced Segments using Regular Expressions. The nifty thing with Advanced Segments is that they allow you to analyze historical data, something which is not possible with filters, and to easily share them with others. Below I  have created 4 different segments which will hopefully help you get started with analyzing your long tail traffic. Simply click on any of the links to add them to your own Google Analytics profiles. >> segment single-keyword queries >> segment multi-keyword queries (>1) >> segment two-keyword queries >> segment three-keyword queries For those of you interested, here is the basic regular expression used in the examples above. When applied with the Keyword dimension ...Read More

Measure Your Long Tail Traffic With Google Analytics

A while back Google Analytics announced a new feature which allows users to add annotations to their traffic data for easier tracking of changes in website traffic. This feature allows users to make better sense of the data by incorporating a log of all internal and external changes which could influence the traffic to the website. This feature is especially handy when you manage several websites and want to keep track of updates across the different domains.Annotations now seem to be rolled out to all users and here are 8 suggestions on how you can use it in your SEO projects.In general you should make a habit of creating a note in Google Analytics for the following reasons:- Technical adjustments including server updates and migrations, change of hosting provider, changes in the code (scripts, CSS, etc), database updates and modifications, etc.- Structural modifications such as changes to your H-tags, URL structure, meta-robot tags, robots.txt, sitemaps submissions, etc.- Editorial updates including copywriting, experiments with call to action, page titles, link anchor texts, etc.- Campaign launches, both paid and organic, as well as offline campaigns. Changes in for instance AdWords budget should also be logged.- PR work including articles written about you, your company or product, or related stories which could indirectly stimulate interest in your content.- SEO related announcements including changes in search algorithms or introduction of new features, for instance launch of Google Caffeine, Personalized Search, and Real-Time Search.- New inbound links to track any positive effect on your rankings and traffic.- Seasonal ...Read More

8 Ways Of Using Google Analytics Annotations In Your SEO Projects