Sigh. To think that there was once a time that Custom Reports in Google Analytics didn’t exist seems hard to fathom today. We leverage Google Analytics custom reports on a daily basis .. and you should too. Earlier this year Google released Solutions Gallery, their recommended list of dashboards, reports and advanced segments. If you are heavy on Analytics and haven’t seen this, stop reading, open a new tab, and check it out. However, one of the items that we found missing was on mobile search.

To help our SEO clients, we’ve created a master report that can show everything we need to know about users who came from a mobile search. Here’s a look at what we call The Mobile Search Report and the tabs included to help you analyze your mobile search traffic:

NOTE: This mobile search report only takes mobile & tablet traffic into account, we’ve excluded desktop views. You’ll see overall visits in most of the report tabs so that users can compare organic search visits to overall visits.

OS Mobile Overview Tab

This first tab is simple – it shows users the most popular operating systems driving search, the device brand and the phone name. To see more details on what devices your mobile search users are on, simply click on the OS name. Since not every site leverages e-commerce, we’ve only included “Goal Completions.” Additional goals or eCommerce can be added with a bit more customization.

ALL Mobile Keyword Data Tab

This is the go-to tab for viewing mobile keywords that drive traffic to the site. See all the keywords driving traffic as well as goal data, avg visit duration, pages/visit and visits. Want to know more about the keyword? Click on the keyword in question and see which pages users are arriving on.

OS Mobile Keyword Data Tab

If you want to find out any slight search usage differences between operating systems — this is your tab. Click on the iOS to see the main keywords that drive traffic for each system. This tab is great for users who are trying to find out if there are small subtleties between different operating systems (auto-complete, auto-correct, etc).

ALL Mobile Search Content Tab

This tab shows the main landing pages for all mobile search content. The “visits” column lets users see just how much mobile search traffic compares to overall mobile visits. Clicking on each will take users to an operating system screen to see what system visitors are using.

Search Engine Overview Tab

We’ve placed this tab last because, in all honesty, it’s mainly Google.  Each of the search engines can be clicked on to show the keyword that reeled your visitors in.

Download The Mobile Search Report

The Mobile Search Report can be quickly downloaded to help you start tracking your mobile search traffic more effectively. Simply add to one of your Google Analytics profiles:

… and you are ready to roll. Feel free to customize this to match your site’s goals as we’ve made this version high level to work for all sites.

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