Tracking Google Bot Crawling in Analytics

Google Analytic’s is one of the best free tools to use if you want to improve your search engine optimization.

Now you can track how often Google’s bots visit your site and which pages they visit most.

Read more about how to use this plugin for Googlebot Crawl Issue Identification through server logs.

[plugit]WP Bots Analytics plugin allows to tracks search engine spiders via Google Analytics without editing your themes files.[/plugit]

Lets take a look at how to setup this plugin after installation. (Admin Dashboard> Settings > Bots Analytics)

Create New Web Property Profile

You’ll need to create a new profile in your Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics

Admin > Create/Edit/Delete Profile

To create a profile:

  • Click + New Profile.
  • Enter the general information (Name, country/territory, time zone).
  • Click Create Profile.
  • Select that new profile from the Profile Settings menu and copy the Profile I.D

Paste the profile I.D in the plugin settings.

WP Bots Analytics

Find Your UTMA Cookie

You’ll also need to find and add the first numbers of your __utma cookie to the settings.

There’s different ways to do this depending on which browser you are using.

Find UTMA Cookie

If you’re using Firefox, you can install the web developer extension and:

  • Right click your homepage
  • Go to Web Developer > Cookies > View Cookie Information

Copy the fist numbers before the dot and paste them into the plugin settings.

In this case i have highlighted them in this screenshot which are 96992031.

UTMA Value

I’ll be reporting more on these stats after i study the Google Analytic’s reports over the next few weeks.

Join 5000+ Followers

Get The Latest Free & Premium Tutorials Delivered The Second They’re Published.