Web analytics and organic search

VIEW TRANSCRIPT Hi! Are you curious about how you can use web analytics tools to see how you’re performing in organic search results? In this video, we’ll touch on monitoring organic search traffic, using data to gain valuable insights about how your site is evaluated by search engines, and how you can troubleshoot SEO issues uncovered by analytics. OK, let’s jump in. Search engines are an important source of traffic for most websites. In fact, they’re very often the single biggest source of traffic to a business’s website. But are you getting more or less of that traffic from search engines over time? What do all of those searchers actually do after they get to your website? And most importantly, how can you improve your website to make sure the search engines are sending you people who are interested in your products and services? If you’re thinking that web analytics has the answers to these questions, you’re spot on. No matter which web analytics tool you’re using, you’ll be able to monitor how many visitors are coming to your website from organic search results from the different search engines. If you’re paying an agency or consultant to maintain your website for you, you should ask them for access to your website’s analytics data. Once you’ve got access to that data, one of the first things you’ll want to check out is how your traffic from search engines is trending over time. If you’re getting more visitors from search engines, that’s great. But, if your traffic is trailing off, you’ve probably got some work to do. Either way - before you can make any decisions, you’ll need to know the “why”, and that means we need to dig deeper. If you’re using Google Analytics as your web analytics tool, you can dig deeper by learning which keywords people are typing into Google before they reached your website. That data doesn’t necessarily come from the analytics tool itself, but because Google Analytics can integrate data from Google Search Console, you get to see that kind of information. Remember our example of the guesthouse? You might see that people are searching for things you wouldn’t have expected, like “luxury guest houses in Glasgow” or “cheap Glasgow bed and breakfast” to find your website. This can help you get a sense of what your visitors are really looking for, and you can respond to that by building the right content and pages to fit their needs. You’d also be able to see whether you’re getting more or fewer visitors from any given keyword theme, as well as whether or not visits to those pages end up with actual bookings. Let’s say you’re noticing that you used to be getting more traffic for a certain search term, but that traffic has been gradually declining. What can you do to turn things around? Well, you might start by taking a look at some of the content on your site. How can you ensure that your content is as relevant as possible to users who are looking for that luxury guest house? Could you rewrite some of your text to focus on the fact that you’ve got a high-end guest house? Remember, you’re not re-working your content to suit a search engine. You’re working on it to make it match your existing business better. And to make it as relevant and useful as possible to people who are searching for luxury guest houses. If you want to know even more about optimizing your pages, check out some of the other videos on SEO. Now, what about the opposite scenario? Maybe you’ve found that you’re getting more traffic from people searching for keywords around that luxury guest house theme. That’s great - but how can you build on that? Again, you want to focus on what’s relevant to the people who are searching. What are some of the exclusive, high-end features of your guest house? Have you included content on your website that talks about your gourmet breakfast? The fancy cocktails you’re offering on Saturday afternoon? Adding more useful content about the luxury aspects of the guest house could help search engines point more relevant users to your website. If you’ve invested some time in improving your content, you’ll want to know what the impact is, and web analytics can show you this. If you’re expecting your content to be more relevant to people searching for luxury guest houses, Google Analytics can show you whether that effort is translating into more visitors reaching your website. Pretty smart, huh? So far, we’ve been focusing on analyzing the amount of traffic, or visitors, that are reaching your website after searching. That’s really important. But keep in mind that even more important than the amount of traffic you’re getting is the quality of the traffic that you’re getting. After all, what’s the use of attracting loads of people to your website if nobody’s going to book a stay at your guest house? Remember, analytics doesn’t just tell you where people are coming from, it also tracks what they do on the website. So take a look at the themes that are driving conversions on your goals, as well as visits. If all this work on luxury themes has got you more traffic, but people aren’t engaging with your content, they’re not signing up for your email newsletter, and they’re not reserving their rooms, you may want to investigate why, or even consider shifting your focus somewhere else. Web analytics can be a great tool for your SEO efforts, helping you measure how much traffic you’re getting from search engines, where you might be able to make improvements, and the impact of changes you’re making to your website.