Google Analytics for your Business, Part 2: Keyword Strategy
Now that you know how to analyse your website with Google Analytics, it’s time to take those traffic statistics and improve upon them. (If you haven't yet, read Part 1: An Introduction)
The first element to consider is the importance of keywords in Google Analytics.
You can find your keywords by clicking on 'Traffic Sources' in the left menu, then click on 'Overview', for more detail click on 'View full report' in the bottom right of the screen.
Once you’ve identified which keywords (or phrases) earn the most hits for your website, you must then figure out how to optimise your website around those keywords.
This does not mean you just start peppering your site keywords in the hope that it’ll make your site more prominent in search engines! Most Search Engine Algorythms identify this behavior which results in a negative ranking for the site.
Ensure you implement your keywords where they will work most effectively and ensure they are used within context. Most importantly, continue to write for the people who visit your site. An overuse of keywords can make your writing sound incoherent and you reduce the likelihood of users subscribing to or referencing your material.
What are your top 10 Keywords?
One good idea is to take a look at the top ten keywords that generate traffic for your site and work with them. These are listed in the Traffic Sources - Overview section of Google Analytics. Here are some ideas of how you could implement these keywords:
- Use keywords as anchor text for your URLs
- Place your top ten keywords in images on your website (alt text)
- Add title tags and Alt tags containing the top ten keywords
- Write blog articles with Titles and content that include the keywords
Where are you visitors spending the most time?
Go back to your keyword report and sort your results by Average Time on Site. The top keywords will be those that have led to people spending the most time on your website.
Even if these keywords are not the most popular in the general sense of most searched, they are causing people to spend plenty of time on your pages. Take these keywords and implement them into your site in the same ways you do with your top ten keywords. This could lead to more, longer lasting traffic.
Try this method out and let us know how it goes in the comments. In Part 3, we will focus on those sites that are referring quality traffic to your site and how to take advantage of them.
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