Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and SalesForce are all fine and good, but I needed a way to tie everything together.

So, relying on my background in PHP and mySQL I set out to create a customized reporting system that ties Google, SalesForce and my SEO reports together.

Getting started with the Google API

Using the Google API “Getting Started” guide I navigated my way into connecting to Google Analytics using PHP and HTML that is hosted on my own site. You can find the guide here.

I setup a custom variable in Google Analytics and used this new variable to store a session ID for visitors on my client’s site. The ID is unique to all visitors. I then created a unique custom field in the SalesForce Leads table. I added the new custom SalesForce field to all my client’s lead gen forms. Now whenever a visitor submits a lead I not only capture the lead in Salesforce but also analytics information that is stored in Google Analytics.

For SalesForce I utilized the API Toolkit which you can find more information about here. My PHP coding displays analytics information for a specific date range or for the previous week. I’m able to retrieve time on site, hits, views, keywords, bounce rate, search engine usage and much much more. The information displayed is graphical and is both generic and specific to SalesForce leads.

With this detailed trending analytics broken down on the keyword level I can get really great conversion reporting on both an Adwords and SalesForce Leads level. Utilizing time on site, hits, impressions and other analytics I can very easily automatically track which keywords are performing well and which campaigns need to be adjusted in Adwords.

Everything gets automated and emailed on a daily and weekly basis. I get detailed reporting on every facet of my websites from what browser a lead used to what time of day my Adwords campaign performed the best, all without touching Google Analytics, SalesForce, Adwords or anything else.

What about SEO tracking?

Ah, the secret sauce. Using my custom code I can get detailed history information for keywords. I can show trending analytics like how keywords perform over time and even search engine rankings for each keyword. Based on an evaluation of information like on-site content and competitor content and current keyword rankings I can predict, to a degree, how my keywords should perform as well as have information on hand to adjust my site structure and content to better rank for certain keywords. This is far from all that my reporting tool can do but is a good example.

I’ve already been asked to release my code to the public but right now it’s under wraps and under development. I have plans of releasing the code in the future but it’s going to be quite a ways away. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below or email Steffan directly. Thanks.