ClickThrough on Google Webmaster Tool and Traffic Source in Google Analytics [closed]

Question

I'm new to SEO and website management, but eager to learn. I manage a newly revamped site and I'm tracking it on Google Analytics and in Google Webmaster tools. The Webmaster tools show that I get about 3200 impressions and 180 click through's a week. Google Analytics show that no traffic comes from search engins, all of the traffic is direct. On average, I get about 60-80 visitors a day, shouldn't Google Analytics show at least a few of those visitors as having come from the search engines?.

What does that discrepancy mean? I can't seem to wrap my mind around it...

Thank you in advance, Svetlana

Answer 1

Here's one possible scenario.

• Google Webmaster Tools tracks searches and clicks TO your domain
• Google Analytics records page views and keywords ON your domain
• So between leaving Google and reaching your pages with the GA tag, the keywords are getting stripped

Things to check:

• Analytics is correctly configured on every page - make sure the tracking tag in use on the homepage is that same as the internal pages
• You might have JavaScript redirects that are stripping out the referrer and keyword information - browse your site with JS disabled and see if everything behaves properly
• You might have meta-refreshes that are redirecting visitors and losing the referrer info. Disable meta-refreshes and try browsing the site.
• You might have some server-side redirects that strip the referrer information - use a tool like redbot.org to see what headers are being returned when you request your site

---

Update: here's my generic simple .htaccess. I've modified it for your case to redirect to Home.html. Let me know if it works.

Update 2: I've added in the redirect to www. based on Paul Irish's HTML5 Boilerplate, which has the most comprehensive .htaccess I know:

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Start rewrite engine
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

# Turning on the rewrite engine is necessary for the following rules and features.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
</IfModule>


# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Suppress or force the "www." at the beginning of URLs
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

# The same content should never be available under two different URLs - especially not with and
# without "www." at the beginning, since this can cause SEO problems (duplicate content).
# That's why you should choose one of the alternatives and redirect the other one.

# By default option 1 (no "www.") is activated. Remember: Shorter URLs are sexier.
# no-www.org/faq.php?q=class_b

# If you rather want to use option 2, just comment out all option 1 lines
# and uncomment option 2.
# IMPORTANT: NEVER USE BOTH RULES AT THE SAME TIME!

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

# Option 1:
# Rewrite "www.domain.com -> domain.com" 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

# Option 2:
# To rewrite "domain.com -> www.domain.com" uncomment the following lines.
# Be aware that the following rule might not be a good idea if you
# use "real" subdomains for certain parts of your website.

# <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
#   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
#   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\..+$ [NC]
#   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (.+)$ [NC]
#   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L]
# </IfModule>

# Installation directory
RewriteBase /

# Protect hidden files from being viewed
<Files .*>
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny From All
</Files>

# Allow any files or directories that exist to be displayed directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# Rewrite all other URLs to Home.html
RewriteRule .* Home.html [PT]

Note: you'll have to rename or delete the existing index.html for this to work.

Answer 2

Got it! I guess I renamed the file in my published folder and forgot to delete the original file on the server :) Duh!!!