How Google Analytics Can Help Your SEO

Search engines use algorithms to determine a website’s ranking in their search results. There are many factors that these algorithms take into account when determining your ranking. Luckily, Google Analytics can help you monitor some of these important factors. Google Analytics will help you pinpoint problem areas in your website that could be hurting your SEO. Plus, once you make the necessary changes, it will help you verify that your changes were effective.

Here are a few areas that Google Analytics can help you improve your search engine optimization:

Bounce Rate

A bounce rate captures how many people jump on your site and then quickly jump off. This is usually an indication that your site was not what the visitor was looking for. If your bounce rate is too high, it indicates that your website may be optimized incorrectly. Showing up in search results that do not reflect the content on your website could negatively affect the ranking of your website as a whole. Your bounce rate should be lower than 60%. If you have a higher bounce rate than 60% it could mean a couple of things. First, it could mean that your website is optimized for the wrong keywords. If people search for “fishing hot spots” and instead end up at your seafood restaurant website, then you better believe they are not going to stay on your site very long. Another deterrent is your design and content. If your site does not have clear and user-friendly navigation, or if the layout of the page looks messy or out-dated, people are less likely to stick around. In addition, if the content you provide is not relevant and easy to read, people might jump off because they don’t want to waste their time. Of course, there are also times that people just bounce off for no particular reason, and that is why having a 55% bounce rate is average. If your rate is too high, read our few simple tips to help improve your bounce rate percentage.

Number of Pages Visited

A well optimized website is going to have superb internal linking. These links help search engine spiders craw your website more easily. It will also help visitors move through the website and as a result will view more pages. The more pages and time a person spends on a website the better. It tells Google and other search engines that you have valuable information on your website. Using your Google Analytics you can check the number of pages the average visitor looks at on your website. If it is under 2 pages per visitor, you may want to consider beefing up your internal link structure and adding content to encourage more engagement on your website.

Average Time on the Site

Just like with the number of pages people visit on a site, the average time also helps indicate your website’s value to search engines. The longer people are on the site demonstrates that your website is able to engage its visitors, which is looked at favorably when determining your ranking.

Referral Traffic

Internal links are important, but inbound links can be even more important. Inbound links are when external websites link to your website. These link relationships help build a network of connections. The more inbound links you have, the more reputable you look, and as a result, you will rank better. By looking at the referral traffic on Google Analytics, you can see the websites that have inbound links to your website. By looking at the types of sites bringing in referral traffic, you can get out and seek out similar websites to establish a link relationship. You can also expand the link relationships you already have to help drive even more traffic.

Keywords

In your Google Analytics you can see the top keywords people are using to find your website. This can tell you a lot about the optimization of your website. If the list of keywords is relevant to your products and services, then you have a very well optimized website. If they don’t seem to match, or if the only keyword people can find your site with is your company name, you may want to consider getting your website optimized by a professional. If people cannot find you using search engines, it won’t matter how nice your website is or how great your product or service is.

 

All of these areas will help the overall success of the optimization of your website. If you find you have problem areas in your website, we have SEO experts that can help you fix these issues, and organically optimize your website to help you bring in new business. Contact IWD today for a free consultation and estimate.

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