Understanding how to pull custom reports in client’s Google Analytics accounts can provide insights on everything from when to launch campaigns to understanding how effective different digital PR tactics are at driving traffic. Additionally, monitoring keywords provides another tool to uncover the exact words people are using that lead them to land on a particular website. You can then use these same keywords in everything from website copy to pitches. You may even be surprised by what you find.
First, make it a habit to review a website’s organic keywords. To find these, simply click on “Traffic Source” on the left-hand side of your screen, followed by “Sources” > “Search” > “Organic”. Take a look and make note of any surprises, or which keywords are driving the most traffic to what site pages. In order to make the most of the data your report is retrieving, you will want to change your report’s view to “Ecommerce” or “Goal Set” (depending upon your website’s functionality). This will focus your analysis on ROI, which is a much better measure of the success of your keywords as opposed to number of visits.
The Three Components of Your Report:
1. Targeting: This element of your report gives you a basic side-by-side snapshot of “Page Title” and the keyword that is shuffling it traffic. From here, you can add specific metrics to discover if you are targeting the best keyword for a certain page: i.e. unique visitors, goal completions, goal conversion rate, and average page load time. Within targeting, red flags to look for are whether a majority of the people landing on a specific page are going elsewhere and/or not converting. Based on the traffic estimates and conversion rates, you may want to experiment changing the page that you are optimizing for a particular keyword.
2. Engagement: This second component focuses on the level of engagement of each visitor visiting your site via a specific keyword. As much as you may want to drive traffic to your agency or your client’s website, if visitors are not actively engaging with pages in the end their visit is not worth much. This segment of the report will allow you to pinpoint problematic keywords with low engagement rates and likewise opportunities where keywords are performing well.
3. Revenue: This final component will allow you to assess just how much money each keyword is making you and worth the most to your agency or client. Revenue within your report takes into account the number of transactions that occur (whether someone has signed up for your services, purchased an item from your client’s line, etc.) in addition to the revenue generated and the value of organic traffic per visit for each keyword.
Another way to use keywords to inform pitches and content development, like blog posts, is to figure out what keywords are being searched most often in your client’s product category, and then create content that uses those keywords so that your client’s website or blog can begin to rank for those terms, thus sending more traffic to your client’s site. While the Keyword Planner tool was created to help businesses using AdWords, it can also be used to surface language, pitch and content ideas.
Once you understand what keywords are successfully driving the interest of potential customers, you can begin to use them strategically in all PR communication as well as overall digital brand strategy. Use your top brand and category keywords in your social media bios, press center, press releases, bios and website copy. Each month, note where your target keywords result in a first-page search result on Google. Over time, you will begin to see your digital efforts are moving the needle so that your client’s website is now appearing earlier in search results, thanks to your strategic use of keywords.
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