What is the role of analytics in refining your SEO strategy?

Google Analytics is a very flexible and versatile resource that gives any business looking to improve SEO a range of tools with which to do so. If your SEO strategy has been missing the mark, or you’re just looking to make improvements, then what you may be lacking is insights and data. No matter what your business or industry, Google Analytics is a vital source of this kind of information and so has a key role to play in refining and developing a successful SEO strategy.

Why is Google Analytics so valuable?

Well, first of all it’s free and it just doesn’t make sense not to utilise all that valuable data and analysis when there is no charge for doing so. In so many cases, it is the insights that are gleaned from Google Analytics that make it possible for businesses to start seeing genuine ROI from an SEO strategy that may previously have been lacking in results. If you’re looking to get the most from the content that you’re generating for SEO purposes then weaving the insights from Google Analytics into your SEO strategy will help you to do it.

A note on setting it up

There are some features of Google Analytics that will enable you to see data that is more tailored to your business. For example, if you use personas you’ve created to save an advanced segment and set up a customised date range you’ll get more accurate insights that are generated by established personas, as opposed to just new visitors.

How can analytics help you to refine your SEO strategy?

Goal setting

Use the goals function in Analytics to help provide data for your SEO goals. For example, if your target is to keep people on the website longer with more engaging pages, start tracking how long visitors spend on one page.

Content that attracts visitors

If you’ve set goals then you’ll also be able to analyse which content is doing particularly well, both in terms of site surfing and also the content that brings people to your website. Look at the Landing Pages Report if you want to focus on how people get to your website i.e. what content is most likely to attract an organic search audience.

What your site needs more of

By delving into the Site Search Reports you’ll get a good idea of what people who visit your site are the most interested in. This can be used to work out the kind of content that will be genuinely useful and that is most likely to work for SEO.

Content that performs well

Insights into content performance are incredibly useful when it comes to refining the content you’ll need to achieve your goals. Google Analytics’ Content Drilldown Report provides data on everything, from the most popular content through to bounce rates for sections of content. Factor that into your SEO strategy to produce an insightful plan based on actual data.

There is a lot that you can do with Google Analytics when it comes to SEO strategy. If you’d like to find out more, contact our team today on 020 7100 0726.