(Note: this is part of a series of posts on the marketing makeover of a consultant’s Web site.)
When you’re looking at what key phrases for which to optimize your site, your Web stats can be a goldmine of information.
Fortunately, my client’s Web host collects information on what phrases people typed into search engines to actually find her site. Unfortunately, her traffic is so low and her search engine rankings so sparse that there’s not a lot of data to go on.
It does tell me, at least, that one of the phrases for which she already does rank isn’t actually pulling in any searches! To boot, it’s a phrase that seems to make so much sense. This is why it’s so useful to look at all the data. What makes sense in your mind may not make sense in your prospective clients’ minds.
I looked at the top 20 search strings for each month of 2006. Other than people searching for her name, there aren’t a lot of repeats. (Her name is unique enough that it’s not hard to rank for it.)
The stats also show some searches that aren’t really relevant to her business – names of clients in testimonials, for instance. I’m not surprised. I find weird things in my own site’s stats all the time. For example, “fat, dumb, happy” is a phrase I find a lot because it appears in one of my articles. What in the world are people searching for when they type that into a search engine? Whatever it is, I’m not selling it!
Once a site has been optimized, looking at the stats shows you if your phrases are pulling in the traffic you want. They may also show combinations of words you never thought of, and give you an incentive to optimize a page even more thoroughly for them.
SEO is an ongoing process, and looking at your stats and making tweaks to improve your rankings is part of that process.
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