Lumar allows users to integrate their websites Google Analytics and web crawl data, to gain unique insights and identify issues with traffic driving pages.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, goals and user behaviour. It is a free tool for websites owners but is also available as a paid for service called Google Analytics 360.
Why integrate Google Analytics with Lumar?
Integrating Google Analytics data with Lumar allows users to further enrich their reports. Lumar users will be able to:
- Investigate non-indexable, redirected and broken pages with traffic.
- Quickly identify orphaned pages getting traffic.
- Use our 250 metrics with Google Analytics data to create customised reports.
To get these special reports Google Analytics needs to be added as a crawl source to a user’s Lumar project.
How to set up Google Analytics in Lumar
There are two ways a user can connect to a Google Account in Lumar, through the Connected App page or the Lumar property settings in a Project in the Sources step.
This guide mentions views, accounts and properties in Google Analytics. To find out more about the Google Analytics hierarchy read the following official guide.
Connect Apps method
1. Navigate to the Connected Apps page.
2. Click on the “ADD GOOGLE ACCOUNT” button.
3. Login to your Google Account which has the Google Analytics profiles you want to include.
4. In the Connected Apps page, users can manage what Google Accounts are connected in Lumar.
5. Once a Google account is connected, navigate to the Sources settings (step 2) in the project you want to include Google Analytics data.
6. Choose the Google Analytics Source (a blue tick will appear when selected).
7. Select the Google Analytics view you want to use in project crawls, you can use the internal search function to quickly find a view.
8. Once selected, the Google Analytics view will appear on the right of the list.
9. That’s it, Lumar will now fetch URLs in the selected Google Analytics view during the crawl.
Lumar property settings:
1. In the Sources settings in step 2 scroll down to the Google Analytics Source and choose the Source (a blue tick will appear when selected).
2. Click on the “ADD GOOGLE ACCOUNT” button.
3. Login to your Google Account which has the Google Analytics views you want to include in crawls.
4. Select the Google Analytics profile you want to use in project crawls.
5. Once selected the Google Analytics view will appear on the right of the list.
6. That’s it, Lumar will now fetch URLs found in Google Analytics during the crawl.
Configure Google Analytics settings
Once Google Analytics is integrated, Lumar allows users to filter the requested landing page URLs from the API.
To filter the data, simply select the date range and minimum number of organic search visits to a URL.
The following filters can be used to alter the URLs which are extracted by Lumar:
1. Date range: Select a date range (7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days).
2. Minimum visits: Group data by minimum number of organic search visits to a page.
By default the date range for Google Analytics data is 90 days.
Google Analytics metrics extracted
The following metrics are extracted from Google Analytics:
- Visits
- Bounce rate
- Page Load Time
- Pageviews per Visit
- Time On Page
Google Analytics allows you to create custom metrics (goals, revenue, etc.), however, Lumar will only extract default metrics.
Frequently asked questions
How does Lumar choose the protocol and hostname for the URLs in Google Analytics?
Lumar uses the primary domain in the project settings (step 1) when fetching URLs from the Google Analytics API.
For example if the primary domain was https://example.com then Lumar would append the primary domain to the relative URls fetched from the Google Analytics API:
- https://example.com/about-us
- https://example.com/mens-shoes
- https://example.com/t-shirts
If the primary domain inputted into the project settings is not the canonical domain, then Lumar will still crawl these URLs and they will be reported in whatever state they are in when crawled by Lumar (most likely redirected or canonicalised if not the preferred domain).
How does Google Analytics work with Lumar?
Lumar adds Google Analytics data to a project/crawl by:
1. A client connects to their Google account in Lumar.
2. A user then chooses the Google Analytics profile they want to include in a crawl.
3. Lumar sends a request to the Google Analytics API.
4. Google Analytics API accepts the Lumar request.
5. Lumar uses the primary domain in the project settings when fetching URL data.
6. Lumar crawls URLs found in the Google Analytics data.
7. Lumar saves certain metrics for each URL found in Google Analytics (see “Google Analytics metrics extracted”).
8. All Google Analytics data is saved and pulled into a clients crawl and reported on.
The client can’t see the Google Analytics profile they want to use in a crawl?
This is usually due to the Google Account which has been connected. If the Google Analytics profile has not been set up in the connected Google account then it will not appear in the list.
How can the Google Analytics data be extracted?
The Google Analytics data can be extracted by visiting the Pages in Analytics report.
All the Google Analytics data crawled by Lumar can be exported to a CSV with metadata and other on-page SEO signals.
To visit the report in Lumar simply go to the relevant project and input “Pages in Analytics” in the ‘Search reports’ bar in the top left corner of the screen. Alternatively, once in the relevant project, navigate to Source Gap and then Analytics, and ‘All Reports’.
The HTTP not HTTPS in the Google Analytics profile list is in Lumar, does this matter?
Lumar uses the protocol and domain name from the primary domain settings in the project. As long as the client is selecting the correct Google Analytics profile then this shouldn’t matter if they select the HTTP profile.
Is it possible to add multiple Google Accounts to Lumar?
Yes, Lumar allows multiple Google Accounts to be added. Also, any profiles in Google Analytics will be consolidated into one list in the Sources settings.
For example all the Google Analytics profiles under seo@gmail.com and marketing@gmail.com would be consolidated into one list in the Analytics Source settings in a project set up.
Can Lumar help with Google Analytics line limits in 360?
No, Lumar will not help in this situation. Google Analytics API will still use the same sampling thresholds as in the UI. For more information around line limits and sampling thresholds please read the following guide.
Any questions about Google Analytics and Lumar?
If you have any further questions about Google Analytics and Lumar don’t hesitate to get in touch.
