I been using analytics for a while now to keep track of my stats. But i have some questions - I notice in my keywords section that it will show the searched words people used that brought them to my site from Google. BUT sometimes my site will be pages deep in Google, where people most likely never go as far. I can do a specific search and when my site shows up, I don't click on it. I just close it out. Then I'll check my analytics a little later and see that the very search phrase I used is indeed in the keywords section of analytics. So obviously all of the keywords in your analytics account arent actually from visitors coming to your site.. but people that have used a search phrase and your site just showed up in Google ??! Also, I had my ip address blocked from showing up in my stats so that when i visit my site/search for it, it won't show in the stats.. but something tells me that it's still counting me as visits and such. Can anyone elaborate?
For me, google analytics only show the keywords that people used to come to my site. I use to check my search ranking using few keywords, I am in 400+ place, and google analytics never show these keywords.
Not sure if this will help, but - One of the things to remember with Analytics is that it counts the initial source of each visitor as the ongoing referral source. What I mean is, if Visitor A finds your site by searching for "keyword" it will show up as 1 visitor for "keyword". If that person happened to like your site and bookmarked it right away, and then visited your site 3 more times during the day using their bookmarks/favorites, your stats will show 4 visits from a search for "keyword", as opposed to 1 visit from a search for "keyword" and 3 direct visits. I don't know if this "memory" of the initial referral source lasts longer than a day (meaning, if the same person visits the following day using their bookmark, will it show up as a direct visit or a visit from "keyword" - I don't know). You should also keep in mind that filtering out your IP might not be enough, unless you have a dedicated IP address. You may want to filter out your whole city, or even state (if you're in the US). It's possible that it's your own traffic which is being recorded. Verify it by cross-examining the data - look up the visitor from that keyword, and find out where they came from geographically - was it your location (roughly)? Check the browser type and screen size, do they match your browser and screen size? If so, it's probably your traffic showing up.
I think it's maybe a cookie issue. When you search something and when you enter to a website (not by clicking on the result) you count as a visitor. It's like when I am checking a goal page directly and it counts as a conversion. I think it's similar.
Google Analytics sucks. I use statcounter.com and am very pleased with the results. It will show you keyword activity and it will only count for when people actually click through to your site.