Google Analytics, Meet Webmaster Tools

Google continues to provide amazing ways in which search marketing professionals can improve their campaign efforts. The latest is this week's announcement that webmasters using Google Analytics to track site data can link verified sites in Webmaster Tools when using the same Google account. What does this mean to you?

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of connecting the two services is that users are able to access the Google Analytics Referring Pages report from within Google Webmaster Tools. This means that you will be able to "understand the overall trends in traffic volume from referrals, as well as the sites driving those trends," according to Google.

This is quite the important development for a few reasons, but perhaps most notable is that webmasters will be able to use the data to see if the sites that link to them most frequently or the content that is linked to the most on a website are actually driving traffic. Why is it important to know that? Well, should you be witnessing links that are not driving traffic you can assume that there is not a lot of value in them which might in turn encourage you to seek out those that do.

This might just be the first value proposition from connecting the two accounts - in the future you might see others. For example, it is completely possible that Google could take data currently available in Webmaster tools (information on impressions or average position for example) and show the relationship between a number of variables including unique visits, time on site, etc.