How to Use Google Analytics to Hack Your SEO and Get Results!
Google Analytics is a goldmine of data for not only how your SEO is performing today but its potential for the future. Your website, for example, may be getting additional search traffic you didn’t expect on keywords you weren’t aware of. Many companies choose to invest in paid keyword research tools and SEO oversight software but Analytics remains as one of our favourites.
What sort of SEO information can I see in Analytics?
As the most popular SEO software for high quality small business websites, Analytics can share information like the average page ranking, click-through rates, and how much your pages are appearing in Google search results. This information is traditionally used to determine how successful a given campaign is. There are ways to dig deeper into Analytics though and flip the purpose of the app on its head, using it as an optimization tool.
Connect Google Analytics with Google Search Console
If you want to maximize the full scope of information you’re getting from Google Analytics, you have to sync it up with your Google Console. Integrate one into the other by first signing into Analytics and then selecting your website to connect to Console. Choose ‘Admin’ in the left taskbar, navigate to where you want to enable Console data sharing, and select ‘Property Settings’. Choose ‘Adjust Search Console’. Your website’s URL should be there which confirms it’s verified. Once completed, you’ll be able to access search console reports under Analytics’ Console tab and then under ‘Acquisition’, then ‘Search Console’, and then ‘Queries’.
Understanding keyword intent will spell out your keyword report for you
What is the intention of visitors coming to your site after they clicked – this is keyword intent. Creating a strategy on keywords should involve an understanding on how you intend to drive traffic and to determine what users are actually searching for. The wrong keyword intent in a campaign could mean you get people clicking but they’re bouncing very quickly. That’s simply because the intent of their search is not being satisfied with what’s on the page. Here are the primary types of keyword intent:
Transactional intent – a user wants to buy a product or service from you.
Navigational intent – a user is looking for a specific website.
Informational intent – a user is searching for the answer to a question.
Investigational – a user is looking for answers and information relating to a potential purchase.
How to do keyword research the right way
When it comes to using Google Analytics to do SEO keyword research, it’s a little different from other methods. Data in this software isn’t presented naturally in the best way to decipher SEO keyword insights. That said, you can create a profile filter by going to ‘Admin’, clicking on ‘Filters’, and adding a filter. Through this method you can exclude any branded keywords and employ various filters to determine the insights on specific keywords.
Take a struggling page and re-design it to match search intent
If you have high bounce rates on specific SEO pages, it may because content doesn’t align with search intent. Sometimes, a whole site has a high bounce rate and if that’s the case, there may exist deeper issues. That said, if some pages are bringing in a lot of traffic but not converting prospects into customers, jump into Analytics. Go to ‘Behaviour’, then ‘Site Content’, and ‘All Pages’. You will be able to look at all your pages and see key metrics on them.
Want to go further? Click on ‘Advanced’, select ‘Source – Medium’ and type in ‘Google / organic’. This will give you the chance to see your top pages and clicks from Google, excluding any referrals or paid campaigns you may have launched. Sort results by the ‘true percentage of exits’ and bounce rates. Do keep in mind blogs and articles are most likely to have a higher bounce rate. Find the problem on the pages with the high bounce rates and make a change!
Optimizing SEO on underperforming pages to rank higher
Content is becoming longer and more high-value, SEO optimized to rank high. But what about content that’s underperforming – well, that doesn’t have to be the case forever. It’s worth a website’s time to optimize older, underperforming blog posts than it is to write new, shorter content. Following this route, you can improve traffic and engagement in a big way.
Go to ‘Search Console’ under ‘Acquisition’. Choose ‘Queries’ and go to ‘Advanced’. Set ‘Average Position’ to greater than ‘10’. This provides a list of keywords ranking well for your site, which aren’t on the first page of your report because the site’s performance isn’t great. A look through these pages, you have the opportunity to optimize by including the right keywords, lengthening content if there’s an opportunity to do, improving the URL structure, and investing in other search engine optimization techniques.
Learn how to funnel traffic to high-conversion pages
The ultimate result of SEO is to convert a visitor. For a quick fix, send users to pages already converting. Go under ‘Conversions’ tab under ‘Goals’ and then, ‘Reverse Goal Path’. This Analytics path will show the steps a user took and pages visited prior to a conversion. Find unexpected landing pages that may be helping users complete or start the conversion process. Sending more people to the pages that are working – as long as they’re relevant – helps to cultivate more conversions while you’re strengthening other aspects of your site’s SEO.
Create a custom alert to keep an eye on search traffic
Algorithm updates occur on search engines like Google and others. How these changes affect one’s website can cut into search traffic in unexpected ways. If you experience a sudden change across your data, you don’t want to be surprised by it and you won’t to figure out what it is. You can create a ‘Custom Alert’ in Analytics, allowing you to see a decline in search traffic. This freedom allows you to jump on top of your search data and solve problems as they’re occurring.
Where can you find link building in Google Analytics?
Link building is a high ranking SEO strategy used by sites to connect to new audiences and get clicks. In Analytics, you can identify potential opportunities by monitoring referral traffic – this is when someone has linked to your blog unsolicited. If this happens often, consider contacting these sites to see if there’s a way to share backlinks or to generate further attention for all parties. For information on referral traffic, go to ‘Acquisition’, then ‘All Traffic’ and then ‘Referrals’. Everything you need to set up some link building is right there, data waiting to be mined.
Do I absolutely need to use Google Analytics for my website?
No, you don’t – but it’s strongly recommended. Here’s why. Analytics is a Google product, connecting you almost directly to the world’s largest website search engine. Though other software may provide other insights, if you know how to use Analytics, there’s a lot of data to peruse and hopefully use towards an updated, more optimized search engine strategy. It’s arguably underrated, for all the information it contains.
No SEO strategy in digital marketing should go unmonitored post-launch. If something’s not working or if it’s having the opposite effect on web traffic, you don’t want to find out after spending $1,000s on it. Give your strategy just enough time to produce a result and then, if nothing’s happening, consult with your digital marketing agency to determine next steps.
The insights on Analytics are oftentimes just what’s needed to identify where problems exist. The solution’s not necessarily clearly stated all the time but for those who can read the data and interpret it, the opportunities for improvement exist. Install Analytics and Search Console, sync them, and begin your journey today.
