While high level analytics reports are great for keeping tabs on overall site performance, finding actionable insights in analytics is where the real value comes in. Here are three of my favorite reports for finding opportunities to improve your site’s SEO.
Organic Keyword by Landing Page
I know this report sounds a little complicated to set up, but 1. it’s not and 2. it’s worth it.
Using the custom report feature we’re going to pull key metrics for our top landing pages, and most importantly, what organic keywords are ranking and driving traffic to that landing page.
When you apply the report to your data, you will first see your list of top landing pages. Before you do anything else, use your default advanced segments to select non-paid search traffic. You’re looking at your top landing pages for organic search now. Clicking into a landing page will give you the top organic keywords that are ranking and bringing visitors to that specific page. From this list of keywords you should immediately be able to tell where you need to make adjustments to your SEO efforts – ideally this keyword list should have a very direct correlation to the content on that page.
Site Search Terms Report
If you have your site search tracking in Google Analytics (which you should) you have access to all the terms that your visitors typed into your search box. Not only is this great for site usability, but if you do have content related to those search terms, you may need to do a better job of optimizing those pages or making those pages accessible.
E-Commerce Revenue by Organic keywords
Looking at the total revenue generated per organic keyword is important, but the per visit value and conversion rate of those keywords are even better numbers to look at. Keywords with a high per visit value will either have an equally high conversion rate or low traffic rate.
If you are ranking lower than you would like on a keyword that has a high per visit value, this is a great opportunity to use that keyword to focus optimization efforts. If you already rank well for that keyword and search volume is low, there may not be as many opportunities to improve the revenue for that keyword. The keywords I’ve highlighted in green represent opportunities worth exploring to see if there is room to drive more organic traffic through those terms. If you don’t have an e-commerce site, you can still calculate per visit value by assigning an arbitrary value to a goal completion.
Hopefully this gives you some good ideas on how to improve your site’s performance based on analytics data. If you have any other easily-actionable reports that you use, please share!
