Are you eager to uncover the keywords that drive traffic to your website? Understanding these keywords is vital for achieving digital success. This article will guide you in finding keywords in Google Analytics 4. You can gain valuable insights into your audience’s search behavior by identifying the keywords that drive traffic to your site. This knowledge will enable you to optimize your content and marketing strategies, attracting more organic search traffic and boosting your online presence. So, let’s dive in and get started.

What are keywords?

Keywords are specific words or phrases that users enter into search engines like Google when looking for information online. They act as a bridge between what users are looking for and the content available on the internet. By understanding and effectively utilizing keywords, website owners and marketers can enhance their visibility in search engine results and attract relevant site traffic.

For example, let’s consider a blog about healthy recipes. Some potential keywords that users might search for could include “easy vegetarian recipes,” “gluten-free desserts,” or “quick and healthy meals.” By strategically incorporating these keywords into the blog’s content, such as recipe titles, headings, or meta tags, search engines can better understand the relevance of the blog to these specific search queries.

Using the right keywords is crucial because it helps search engines match user queries with the most relevant web pages. When a user enters a keyword into a search engine, it scans its index to find web pages that contain that keyword. The search engine then ranks these pages based on factors like keyword relevance, website authority, and user experience to provide the most relevant and helpful results to the user.

Conducting keyword research is essential for website owners to identify the most popular and relevant keywords in their niche. Once you have identified the relevant keywords for your website or blog, you can optimize your content by naturally incorporating them. 

In conclusion, keywords connect user queries with relevant web content. Understanding and incorporating relevant keywords into your website or blog can improve your visibility in search engine results and attract targeted traffic. Effective keyword usage is a fundamental aspect of search engine optimization and can significantly impact the success of your online presence.

Types of keywords

There are three main categories of keywords: search keywords, paid ads keywords, and organic search keywords. Let’s explore each category with examples:

1. Paid Ads Keywords: These keywords are used in paid advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads or other advertising platforms. Advertisers bid on these keywords to display their ads when users search for them. Examples of paid ads keywords include:

• “buy iPhone online”
• “discounted gym memberships”
• “cheap flights to Bali”

2. Organic Search Keywords: Organic search keywords are the terms that users enter into search engines like Google, Bing which lead them to your website without clicking on paid ads. These keywords are crucial for search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Examples of organic search keywords are:

3. Website Search Keywords: These are the keywords that users enter into the search bar on your website to find specific information or products. They provide insights into what your audience is looking for. For instance:

• “best smartphone under $500”
• “home workout routines”
• “travel destinations in Europe”

• “how to lose weight naturally”
• “vegan recipes for beginners”
• “digital marketing trends 2024”

Understanding the different types of keywords will help you tailor your marketing strategies accordingly. Search keywords help improve the user experience on your website, paid ads keywords drive targeted traffic through advertising campaigns, and organic search keywords enhance your website’s visibility in search engine results.

Benefits of keyword research

Keyword research identifies specific words or phrases people use when searching for information online. It involves researching and selecting the most relevant keywords to target in your website’s content, SEO strategy, and advertising campaigns.

Keyword research offers several benefits for website owners, marketers, and content creators. Here are some key advantages of conducting keyword research:

1. Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Keyword research helps you identify the specific words or phrases your target audience uses to search for information online. By incorporating these keywords strategically into your website’s content, meta tags, headings, and URLs, you can optimize your website for search engines. This can lead to higher search engine rankings, increased organic traffic, and improved visibility in search results.

2. Targeted Traffic: By understanding the keywords that your audience is using, you can attract more targeted traffic to your website. Targeted traffic refers to visitors genuinely interested in your products, services, or information. Optimizing your content with relevant keywords enhances the likelihood of attracting users who are more inclined to engage with your content or convert into customers. 

3. Content Planning and Creation: Keyword research provides valuable insights into your target audience’s topics, questions, and interests. By identifying popular and relevant keywords, you can generate ideas for new content, blog posts, articles, or videos addressing those topics. This helps you create content that connects with your audience, increases engagement, and establishes expertise in your industry or niche.

4. Competitive Analysis: Keyword research allows you to analyze the keywords your competitors are targeting. By understanding their keyword strategies, you can identify gaps or opportunities in the market. This information can help you refine your keyword targeting and develop unique selling propositions to differentiate yourself from competitors.

5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: For businesses running paid advertising campaigns, keyword research is crucial for optimizing their PPC ads. By identifying high-performing keywords with good search volume and low competition, you can create more effective ad campaigns, improve click-through rates, and maximize your return on investment (ROI).

6. Long-Term Strategy: Keyword research is an ongoing process that helps you stay updated with evolving search trends and user behavior. By regularly conducting keyword research, you can adapt your content and marketing strategies to align with changing search patterns, new industry terms, or emerging topics of interest.

In summary, keyword research is a valuable practice that offers numerous benefits. It helps improve SEO, attract targeted traffic, guide content creation, analyze competition, optimize PPC campaigns, and ensure a long-term strategic approach to your online presence.

How to find Paid Ads keywords in Google Analytics 4

There are several options to view Paid Ads keywords in Google Analytics 4; for Google Ads, you can create a Google Ads keyword performance report in GA4 Explorations while using UTM parameters to track other paid ads keywords. Let’s dive into these options in detail below.

Integrate Google Ads with Google Analytics 4

You have to integrate Google Ads with GA4 to view Google Ads keywords. To do this, go to the GA4 admin page, under the Product links section, locate and click the “Google Ads links” option; this opens a window where you need to click on the link button to add the necessary details about your Google Ads account. With this, your Google Ads integration is successful.

Build Google Ads keyword performance report in GA4 Explorations

To build a Google Ads keyword performance report in GA4 Explorations and see your Google Ads keywords, click on “Explore” in the left-hand menu and then click on the “+ New Exploration” button to create a new exploration report.

In the report, click on the “Add dimension”; in the search bar, type “Google Ads Keyword text” if you would like to view the keywords you used in bidding your ads, or you can type “Google Ads query” if you want to report on the search queries people are entering to see your ads. Once you have imported your chosen dimension, you can add metrics, filters, and segments as needed. Finally, name and save your exploration report. Now, you can view the report to see your Google Ads keyword performance.

Use UTM parameters to track other paid ads keywords (Bing, Meta)

To track keywords from other paid ads platforms like Bing or Meta using UTM parameters, first you will need to generate a unique UTM parameter for each ad campaign or keyword you want to track. UTM parameters are tags added to the end of your ad URLs to provide additional tracking information.

Start by adding the UTM parameter “utm_source” to your ad URLs. For example, for Bing ads, you can set the value of “utm_source” as “bing” and for Meta ads, you can set it as “meta”.

Next, add the UTM parameter “utm_medium” to specify the medium of the ad, you can set the value of “utm_medium” as “cpc” (cost-per-click)

Additionally, you can include the UTM parameter “utm_campaign” to track specific campaigns or promotions. Set the value of “utm_campaign” to the name of your campaign or promotion.

Most importantly, you can use the UTM parameter “utm_term” to track individual keywords. Set the value of “utm_term” to the keyword associated with the ad.

Finally, make sure to append the UTM parameters to the destination URL of your ads. For example, if your ad URL is “www.vakulski-group.com”, you would add the UTM parameters like this: “www.vakulsi-group.com?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=campaign_name&utm_term=keyword”.

By using the UTM parameter “utm_term” in your ad URLs along other UTM parameters, you can track the performance of different keywords from other paid ads like Bing or Meta ads in Google Analytics. Once your ads are running and driving traffic to your website, simply create an exploration report by clicking on “Explore” in your GA4 property, then click on the “+ New Exploration” button to create a new exploration report.

In the report, click on the “Add dimension” button, In the search bar, type either “session manual term” or “first user manual term”. Once you have imported the dimension, add other metrics, filters, and segments as needed. Finally name to save your exploration report.

Now, you can access and view the report to see other paid ads keywords by selecting it from the “Explorations” section in your GA4 property.

If you’re still struggling to grasp the concept of UTM parameters, we recommend reading our detailed article on this topic. It will provide a comprehensive explanation of UTM parameters, how to create them, and how to use them effectively in your marketing campaigns. Understanding UTM parameters is crucial for optimizing your marketing efforts and maximizing your return on investment.

How to find Organic Search keywords in Google Analytics 4

You can find organic search keywords in GA4 by viewing the Google Search Console collection report, but first, you need to create a Google Console account and integrate it with GA4 before viewing the organic search keywords. Let’s look at how to achieve this in detail below.

Create account on Google Search Console

If you already have a Google account, simply go to Google Search Console; the welcome screen shows the options for verifying your website, which you can follow to create an account and create a property for your website. If you already have a Google Search Console account with a property added (website), all you need to do to add a new website is to locate the upper left-hand menu and select “add property.” The same two options for verifying your website would be displayed for you to proceed.

Integrate Google Analytics 4 with Search Console

Now that our Google Search Console account is ready, we need to integrate it into GA4. To do this, go to the GA4 admin page, under the Product links section, locate and click the “Search console links” option; this opens a window where you need to click on the link button to choose your search console account and link your property. Once done, then the integration is successful.

Publish Search Console Collection Reports in GA4

After integrating GA4 with Search Console, give it some time (up to 24 hours) for the data to be available in GA4.

To view the Google Search report in GA4, you need to publish Search Console Collection Reports in GA4. To do this, navigate to your GA4 Report Library, Admin->Report->Library. Locate the search console card, click on publish, and it will be added to the reports list under report in GA4.

The Google Organic Search Queries report provides insights into the specific search queries that users enter in Google while the Google Organic Search Traffic provides insights on the landing pages.

Why are keywords (not provided) in Google Analytics?

Keywords are marked as “not provided” in Google Analytics due to changes in how search engines handle organic search data. In the past, Google provided the keywords users searched for when they landed on a website. However, to protect user privacy and enhance security, Google started encrypting search data for users logged into their Google accounts. This encryption resulted in the “(not provided)” label appearing in Google Analytics, indicating that the specific keyword data is unavailable.

Focusing on creating high-quality, relevant content and optimizing for user intent rather than specific keywords can help mitigate the impact of the “(not provided)” issue.

How to unlock (not provided) keywords in Google Analytics 4?

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the “(not provided)” keywords are not directly unlockable as they are encrypted and not provided by Google. However, a few third-party tools can help you gain some insights into the organic keywords that are driving traffic to your website. Here are three such tools:

1. SEMrush: SEMrush is a popular SEO tool that provides keyword research and competitive analysis. It offers an “Organic Research” feature that allows you to analyze the organic keywords driving traffic to your website. While it may not provide the exact keywords, it can give you a good understanding of the organic search landscape and the keywords likely contributing to your traffic.

2. Ahrefs: Ahrefs is another comprehensive SEO tool that offers keyword research and backlink analysis. It provides insights into the organic keywords driving traffic to your website. While it may not provide the exact keywords, it can give you valuable information about the keywords likely contributing to your organic traffic.

3. Moz: Moz is an SEO software suite that offers various tools for keyword research, link building, and site optimization. Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool can help you identify relevant keywords and estimate their search volume. While it may not provide the exact keywords, it can give you insights into the potential keywords driving traffic to your website.

4. Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner is a free tool within Google Ads that allows you to research keywords for your paid advertising campaigns. While primarily designed for advertisers, it can provide valuable keyword insights, including search volume, competition, and related keywords. This data can inform your content strategy and optimize your website for relevant keywords.

These third-party tools can complement your keyword research efforts and provide valuable insights into search volume, competition, related keywords, and other metrics that can help you optimize your content strategy and improve your website’s visibility in search results.

How to find Your Website Search Keywords in Google Analytics 4

To find the search keywords used within your website, first, you need to ensure that your GA4 is tracking your site search; then, you can create a report to see these search keywords used within your website. Let’s see these steps in detail below.

Enable enhanced measurement in GA4

You need to enable enhanced measurement to ensure that GA4 tracks these keywords. To do this, follow these steps:

Firstly, go to the admin section in GA4. Then, select your data stream. Next, locate the enabled measurement setting and turn on the site search option.

After that, under the Site Search section, select “Show Advanced Settings”. In this section, you will find five default query parameters that GA4 recognizes: q, s, keyword, search, and query. The URL uses these parameters to identify search keywords.

Moreover, you can add up to 10 parameters in total. Therefore, if your website uses other query parameters to store search keywords in the URL, you can enter them here.

Once this setup is complete, GA4 will begin to track the keywords used by your website users and store them as “search term”.

Create a GA4 Explorations report to see website search keywords

Now that you have ensured GA4 is tracking the search keywords of your website, you can see them in GA4 by creating exploration reports. To create a GA4 Explorations report to see website search keywords, In the left-hand menu, click on “Explore” and then click on the “+ New Exploration” button to create a new exploration report.

In the report, click the “Add dimension” button; in the search bar, type “search term.” Once you have imported the search term dimension, you can customize the report by adding other dimensions, metrics, filters, and segments.

Give your exploration report a meaningful name. Finally, click the “Save” button to save your exploration report.

Once saved, you can view the report for website search keywords by selecting it from the “Explorations” section in your GA4 property.

Other ways to find keywords

Apart from Google Analytics, there are several other ways to find keywords for your website. Here are a few methods:

1. Keyword Research Tools: Utilize keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz Keyword Explorer, or Ubersuggest. These tools provide insights into search volume, keyword difficulty, related keywords, and other valuable data to help you identify relevant keywords for your website.

2. Competitor Analysis: Competitor analysis entails studying the websites of your competitors to uncover the keywords they are prioritizing. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs offer features for competitor analysis, allowing you to observe the keywords driving traffic to your competitors’ websites. This information can serve as inspiration for the keywords you should target in your content.

3. Social Media Hashtags: Monitor popular hashtags related to your industry on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This can provide insights into the language and keywords used by your target audience.

4. Customer Surveys and Feedback: Conduct surveys or gather feedback from your customers to understand the language they use when searching for products or services similar to yours. This can provide valuable insights into the keywords and phrases you should be targeting.

5. Internal Site Search: Analyze the search queries made by users on your website’s internal search function. This can give you insights into the specific keywords and phrases users use to find content on your site.

6. Industry Publications and Blogs: Read industry publications and blogs to stay updated on the latest trends and topics. Pay attention to the keywords and phrases used in headlines, subheadings, and content.

Remember, it’s important to consider search volume, competition, and relevance when selecting keywords for your website. Combining these methods can help you build a comprehensive keyword list to optimize your website’s content and improve search engine visibility.

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Our expertise can help you uncover valuable keyword opportunities, optimize your website’s content, and drive targeted organic traffic to your site. Contact us to leverage industry-leading tools and strategies, ensuring your website is optimized for maximum visibility and success in search engine results.

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Takeaways

In conclusion, finding keywords in Google Analytics 4 is essential for optimizing your website’s performance and driving targeted traffic. Google Analytics 4 provides valuable insights into the keywords that drive traffic to your website. You can better understand how users find your site by analyzing search keywords, paid ads, and organic search keywords. 

This information is crucial for optimizing your SEO strategy, improving your paid advertising campaigns, and ultimately driving more targeted traffic to your website. With the proper keyword analysis in Google Analytics 4, you can make data-driven decisions to enhance your online presence and achieve your business goals.

Frequently Asked Questions