Not so long ago, you could look at your Google Analytics account and easily see the search phrases being used to find your site. Don't confuse these with keywords, which everyone says are dead...even Google (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html). Metadata keywords in and of themselves are not really of much value, but using them in your content...well, that is the real "Google juice". Google calls these search phrases "queries", but about two years ago, the most critical ones vanished from Analytics, showing "unavailable". If you were using AdWords, you could see them, so it looked like a heavy-handed approach to marketing Google AdWords. It was really more like a repositioning to Google Webmasters Tools.

Presented June 24, 2009 Dahlonega Lumpkin-County Chamber of Commerce Nuts & Bolts Presenter: Beth Snider This session included an overview of Google tools for businesses and a look at top-level Google Analytics reporting. Discussion included understanding what reports indicate, how to translate indicators into changes that may be required on your site, and a basic understanding at how Google indexes your web site. 3by400-GoogleAnalytics (downloadable PDF)

If you’re a long-time Getting Informed reader, you will remember multiple previous references to the importance of web statistics, or stats, in understanding the effectiveness of your web site. In the past, most web site owners were just happy to see that cheesy hit counter increasing…you know, the one that looked like a digital readout. Today, it seems that the statistics being provided are bigger and better—and quite overwhelming for most site owners. And just to confuse things, the term analytics comes along to see if you’re paying attention. Analytics are statistics in a way that speaks to the average person rather than to the classic statistician. In short, analytics are where the rubber meets the road. But for the purposes of this discussion, information about site viewing data will be called statistics.