How to tell natural search traffic in Webtrends?

Hi,

My company uses webtrends tracking software. I want to determine what percentage of our traffic comes from natural search and I am having trouble determining that. Does anyone know how this can be done in Webtrends? For instance, the referral links may say Google or Yahoo, but we are also running paid search campaigns so it's hard to tell if this is paid traffic or natural traffic.

Thanks a lot.

Joe

Put tracking codes on your PPC ads and configure your Web analytics program to look for and separate out the unique information in the tracking code.

For example, a common referral code for Google ads is ?source=google&kw=keyword1+keyword2

There are other parameters that can be used and some analytics programs require specific formats and wording so check yours before adding the tracking codes.

In the Web Analytics program I use most I go to Settings and create a Campaign for Google PPC configured to detect "entry page url" "contains" "source = google".

This provides tracking for all traffic sent by Google ads separate from traffic coming from natural search results.

Actually, there's asimpl eway to do this with WT. Webtrends uses a specific URL string to tell the software how to parse campaign data.

I'll see if I can dig up the URL string tomorrow at work and post it here.

You might need to contact WT tech support to learn how to configure the software to track campaigns, as it's not intuitive nor is it easy, IIRC.

In the end, it's basically a different version of what Rose suggested - just the "way" Webtrends likes to see things.

Thanks Duane. Although Webtrends is very popular I don't have any clients using it because I specialize in smaller entrepreneurial businesses.

It this a specific tracking code to append to the urls in ads or can Webtrends tell natural from paid clicks in another manner?

Alrighty then - here goes:

www.mysite.com/product.htm?WT.mc_id=mycampaignid&keyword=keyword1

Webtrends recognizes the WT.mc... as the string it must track.

IF/WHEN you have campaigns turned on and programmed, using this string will allow WT to track each item individually and show you the results in the reports.

You could break out this string by keyword if you like, so each PPC would track individually.

There is some leg-work to get all this running, though - it's not as easy as updating the "targetURL" in your ad and it's done.

1 - You must speak with Webtrends about how to set up campaigns in the software itself - it's not automatically running, so files must be updated.

2 - If you want to track PPC ads at a keyword level,, in Yahoo it's a snap as each keyword allows for a arget URL to be entered. With Google Adwords you'll need to create one ad per keyword and use the assigned target URL you have created with the string - remember to edit the string for each keyword.

When you edit this string, the reports should show you traffic based on that parameter, so you'll want to be creative AND descriptive in what you use:

~ mycampaignID= - tells Webtrends to assign this traffic to the specified campaign ID, such as Google.

~ keyword= - tracks all activity for this keyword, as assigned to this campaign. So, Google campaign, keyword1 data.

Now, to help get your head wrapped around this even more, I'll suggest reading the follow docs from WebTrends User Help Library:

You'll need to come up with your own campaign ID's. The 'how to' on campaigns can be found here. This may even get you around having to call Webtrends. if you already have a service contract - USE IT - trust me on this. If not, read, learn & apply.

This bit covered integrating your organic search campaign tracking into Webtrends, but it requires you to be using WebPosition software. I personally do not use WP nor would I recommend it to anyone.

Anyway, hope this helps get you started on the right path.

Duane

Thank you again, Duane. This information will really help Joe and others using Webtrends. It also illustrates why I've recommended simpler tools like IndexTools to small businesses instead of the better known and complex analytics programs like Webtrends and Omniture.

In IndexTools you can configure this type of tracking quickly and easily. Simply click on Settings, select some parameters from drop down boxes, type in the tracking you're using and save.

You do still have to manually add tracking codes at Google; however, since you have to use the automatically generated tracking Yahoo provides you don't have to add them at Yahoo.

For those who have free Google Analytics (formerly Urchin) you can do all this without adding any tracking codes at Google.

If Google Analytics supports Yahoo's automatic codes it will be much simpler to set up, use, and maintain tracking using Google Analytics - giving that program a huge advantage.

Just to follow up on this post:

Our in-house Webtrends guru finally tracked down the info I was previously after to help with this explanation...

OK, so you want to separate organic from paid using Webtrends - no problem. Here's how to do it:

WT tracks ALL inbound traffic from engines - it doesn't distinguish between organic and paid - just separates by engine.

Sure, you could use specific words in the target URLs from your PPC account, then search for those using the functionality in WT, then copy and paste the data into a spreadsheet to get a full comparison.

OR, you could use this little bit of track-trickery specific to Webtrends:

WT.srch=1

...and I quote from Chapter 18 of the WebTrends Query Parameters manual:

"The Search Engine parameter in the query string of the URL from a referring search engine identifies the link as one for a paid search engine phrase. WT.srch=1 is used by custom tables and visitor history to identify a paid search engine from a reference to an organic search engine. Only WT.srch=1 has meaning. No other values are defined or recognized."

So, in that target URL you are constructing for Yahoo PPC, for example, you can do the following:

http://www.domain.com/this-example-rocks.html?WT.srch=1

This will then track as a visit from Yahoo, but Webtrends will show you this data in the segmentation report specific for PPC in the Marketing section.

I'm pretty sure you could also add "&source=keyword" if you wanted to after the WT portion to further allow you to see, through searching in WT, which keywords did what, too. BUT, this data's available through your PPC account in greater detail.

Anyway, just wnated to close the loop on this one in case folks asked again in the future.

Duane