Search Engine Optimization

Keyword analysis are online version of “focus groups”. Keywords tell marketers what their customers want, their questions and concerns.

I recently found that detailed analysis of internal keyword data can reveal more.

Go to Google Analytics > Traffic Sources > Keywords. Set the time for at least a year (or was as long as your site is online).

You’ll see phrases that send most traffic at the top. Scroll down and set “Show rows” to 500.

Now scroll down the list and you will see all types of long tail keywords that sent traffic to your website. This is the information we want.

Go all the way up and click on “Export”, choose the format you like and save the file. I recommend CVS, since it’s easy to combine it with other reports. Keep in mind that when you export, Google only exports the keywords that you currently see on the webpage, so if you got 10,000 keywords Google will only export 500. To get all the data, go to page 2 and export, page 3 > export, and so on, until you have all the keywords.

One finished, combine all the files into 1.

Analyzing Internal Keyword Data

• Open up the excel sheet.
• Open up a new word document.

In the word document plug a new table 2 columns wide and around 20 rows long. Go back to your excel sheet and start looking for keywords that:

• Tell something new about your customers

  Sometimes it’s a certain product they’re looking for, or some information. Copy those keywords into the word document. Each unrelated keyword goes into a different row. Also keep an eye for related keywords. For example: “getting a mortgage in Canada” and “applying for a mortgage in canada” say exact thing, but are expressed differently. Collect those into one row.

• Indicate interest in service / product related information

  Certain types of information help with decision process of your customers. Identify those keywords. If this is a first keyword analysis – buckle up, you’re going to get a lot of insight.

Final list can grow over 100. That’s good.

Second column is the one for comments and is very straight forward. Look at the keywords and explain in your own words what the customer wanted to find. It’s important to have different version of key-phrases that have exact intent. This gives you more ground in the comments.

Once you write what customers intended, write what you need to do to deliver that. It may include a number of articles or some tools. Whatever it is – make this analysis a part of the groundwork of your site design or redesign.