Critical SEO Data Analysis Strategies

Thanks to the rise of technology, AI, automation, and sophisticated bots, marketing has rapidly evolved into a data-driven decision-making industry. Gone are the days of marketing leaders making choices backed by their gut feelings and experience alone. Without data backing your theories and ideas, most companies will see your input as meaningless and incredibly risky. The world of SEO is a minefield of data. Knowing how to use Google Analytics for SEO, what other tools to leverage, and the best strategies to create impactful marketing is a challenge but worth the time and effort. If you’d like a helping hand, the Digital Authority Partners Las Vegas SEO agency is just a few clicks away.

To the untrained eye, search engine optimization data analysis appears to be a lot of numbers and charts on a screen – which is correct if businesses aren’t applying thorough data analysis strategies. Analysis tools capture copious amounts of data, much of which many companies never use, as they either don’t know what it means or have no idea how to make it relevant to their business.

Numbers such as users, unique users, bounce rate, click-through rate, time on site, and conversion rate are the basic metrics marketers monitor for reporting. However, SEO data analysis goes much deeper than that. It should be used to guide your thinking, evidence your ideas, and uphold your strategy. According to Digiday, 84% of consumers say the experience a business provides is equally as important as their products or service – that includes online experience. So, let's talk about how you can evolve your analysis to gain valuable SEO insights and transform your business.

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Optimize Striking Distance Keywords

Often, many marketers attempt to reinvent the wheel when it comes to keyword optimization, searching for new keywords to rank for rather than refining the work they’ve already done to improve their position for existing terms. Striking distance keywords are the terms your website ranks for that are within a close range of being in the top 1 to 5 positions. 

You’ve already done the hard work of claiming a high-ranking position for these keywords. With slight alterations and a little additional effort, you could see yourself on the top spot. To find striking distance keywords, you’ll need to log in to Google Search Console and select the impressions and position options. From here, you’ll be able to pick out the keywords that offer the most value to your website and assess how much work is needed to rank for these terms.

Our top tip would be to look for those words that offer a high number of impressions, averaging a position of between 5 and 20. Now, imagine the level of traffic you can generate if that keyword ranks in position 1.

Non-Branded & Branded Keyword Data

Organic visitors to your website will either be using non-branded or branded keywords. While non-branded searches provide the opportunity for a greater volume of traffic, branded searches often lead to greater click-through rates and conversions. Google Analytics and Google Search Console aren’t your friends here, but an automated report from Google Data Studio is. 

When used in conjunction with conversion data, you’ll be able to pinpoint increases in conversions and see if they were due to branded or non-branded terms. In addition, you could cross-reference this with other marketing campaign data, enabling you to discover what motivated the spike in branded searches.

User Journey Analytics

Creating the most efficient and effective user journey can be done by analyzing user journey reports in Google Analytics. This tool gives you the ability to see on which page users entered your website, the pages they visited, which page they left on, or the content that inspired them to convert. With a high volume of data, you will then be able to conduct trend analysis and discover and find the most popular, optimal user journey. 

From here, you will be able to refine your website content, making your desired user journey as easy and informative as possible. You’re now backed by the knowledge of the information your users want to see, harnessing this to guide them to the most relevant areas of your website, giving them everything they need to know to convert.

A Content Gap Analysis

Have you considered finding gaps in the market that neither you nor your competitors are taking advantage of? Coming up with new ideas for content is incredibly challenging. However, there are tools that give you the inspiration you need, and better yet, the ideas are backed by numbers. 

Being able to easily see the keywords your competitors rank for means you highlight potential areas to target, claiming additional traffic, and taking the top spot. Often, these are keywords you won’t have found or thought of when doing other keyword research, as they may be obscure and something that doesn’t immediately come to mind. 

Predictive Search Terms

When doing keyword research for SEO analysis, the search predictions that Google suggests are amazing resources to find long-tail keywords. These predictions are based on the most popular and frequently searched terms. While keyword-finding tools are useful, the data they provide can be inaccurate, and you must take some numbers with a pinch of salt. The predictive terms don’t give you any data, but they’re coming straight from the Google algorithm, adding extra value to them.

In Summary

Data is your friend, and there are many tools out there you can leverage to make it work best for you. What can be a time-consuming process will lead to the creation of complex SEO strategies with meaningful goals rather than a simple outline of which keywords you want to rank for. Adding SEO data analysis to your reporting routine will empower you to pinpoint opportunities, highlight areas for improvement, and avoid catastrophic rank-busting errors. Another element to data analysis you should look into is how to calculate SEO ROI. This enables you to prove the value of other data analysis work you’re doing.

While it may seem daunting at first, learning how to dissect this data will bring great reward to your business. Alternatively, if you haven’t got time to waste and need access to information as soon as possible, enlisting the assistance of an expert SEO agency may be just what you need right now.