Traffic Diagnosis
In this section SEO Tradies Audit - Part 2 - we will be looking at page behavior metrics from the Behavior Report in Google Analytics, and the initial steps for identifying the reasons behind low traffic.
Metrics - Behavior Management
To start, we will utilise Google Analytics to identify the top-ranking pages where users first enter from Google, assess their impact on conversions, and evaluate user engagement on key pages of your site.
Here are some key points to consider:
1. Utilise the Behaviour > All Pages report in Google Analytics to simultaneously review these metrics.
2. Identify pages with high entrances, which indicate the pages through which users first land on your site from Google (use the organic traffic segment). These are typically your best ranking pages.
3. Evaluate whether these pages contribute to conversions and have page value.
4. Assess user engagement metrics such as average time on page, bounce rate, and percentage exit on content pages.
For instance, homepages and blog posts should ideally have an average time on page longer than 1 minute and low bounce rate and percentage exit, while contact forms and lead magnets may have a higher bounce rate and percentage exit due to users having potentially completed their purpose (hopefully converting) and exiting the site.
Low Traffic Pages - Keywords
Website traffic is crucial for online businesses and blogs, especially for those with a blog as they can effectively target informational queries with high traffic potential. If a website with at least 30 pages or blog posts is experiencing low traffic, the first area to focus on is keyword targeting.
Key points to consider:
- What are the targeted keywords for this page/blog post?
- Is the issue related to the competitiveness of the keywords?
- Is it a matter of low search volume (traffic potential)?
- How are the target keywords utilised on this page/blog post?
- Are the target keywords incorporated into the title, meta description, URL, and heading tags (H1-H6)?
- Is the usage of target keywords frequent in the body content?
- Are there any keywords without a relevant page/blog post to target?
If so, consider creating a new page to target these keywords. To thoroughly assess this, access to Google Search Console for organic clicks impressions and average position, as well as a keyword research tool for search volume and difficulty metrics, is essential.
Low Traffic Pages
The next aspect to consider is search intent and content, which addresses whether the page or blog post is suitable for targeting the specific keyword and whether the content meets Google's standards.
Key points to consider:
- Is the page/blog post aligned with the search intent?
- What type of content is dominating the top 10 ranking results for the keyword, and does it align with our page type?
- Is the content the best answer for the target keyword? This may require some manual analysis to evaluate whether the content effectively addresses the query.
- Assess the rough content length that Google is ranking in the top 10, keeping in mind that long-form content may not always be the optimal approach.
- Consider the content angle and whether it effectively addresses the search intent.
It's important to note that the success of content is not solely dependent on length. For example, an article with fewer than 600 words but strong visual elements might outperform longer content. This highlights the importance of understanding search intent and creating content that serves as the best answer for the user's query.
A valuable approach to enhancing content quality involves analysing the search queries that drive traffic to your website and then optimising your content to provide the best answers to those queries.
Here's what you can do:
1. Use Google Search Console's query report to identify specific pages/blog posts that require improvement. Look for queries that are experiencing an increase in search impressions, using the 3-month comparison filter and sorting by impressions.
2. Revise the title, headings, and consider adding 1-2 additional paragraphs of content to further enhance the relevance of those topics.
3. After 3 months, revisit the report to assess any improvements in rankings for those queries within the search results. This approach often yields positive results.
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