Diving Deeper into Your Keywords
With over 150 different solutions tools listed on the Google Analytics Partners website, a marketer could be overwhelmed by the number of tools available to them, but they may also find themselves frustrated if they are not able to find a tool that does what they’re looking for. One of the tools that is listed on the Solutions page that I want to dive a bit deeper into is Keyword Hero.Keyword Hero is a tool that “gets your organic keywords displayed in Google Analytics” and allows marketers and businesses to see the metrics for each organic keyword (Keyword Hero, n.d.). Many times, keywords from the search engine reports page (SERPs) can be listed under “(not provided)” which doesn’t give marketers the insight they need to truly understand what their visitors are searching when they land on the website.
Where it All Began
Barnes explains that Google began encrypting search queries for searchers who were logged into Google in order to make search more secure (Barnes, 2017). Analysts were still able to see that a certain portion of their website traffic came from organic search, but they were no longer able to see individual queries; it’s important to note that this new standard only applied to organic search and not paid search ads (Kao, 2011).Marketers can use Google’s Search Console to get a better understanding of the organic traffic that’s coming to their website, but the majority of the time, the highest portion of keywords will be listed under “not provided”. Barnes notes that in September of 2017, 97% of the Branded3’s website organic traffic was listed under “not provided” (Barnes, 2017).
I Need a Hero
Keyword Hero uses a variety of different sources to provide marketers with data that fills in the “not provided” holes, however the company notes that these keywords that are provided are done so through a “probabilistic method” (Keyword Hero Google Listing, n.d.). However, Keyword Hero analyzes the history of the given domain by looking at the type of website it is and the content that is produced through GA. The tool generates possible keywords through Search Console and third-party data sources (How Does the Hero Do It?, n.d.).The Keyword Hero tool is able to be synced with Google Analytics so that identified keywords are now listed in the Top Keywords Report. Marketers can gain insights like page rank, bounce rate, conversion rate and the average session duration for each individual keyword. The tool also offers a Clusters feature which groups keywords together depending on visitor intent, allowing marketers to look at clusters data together, instead of spending time analyzing individual sessions (Keyword Hero, n.d.).
Keyword Hero claims to have the ability to pull up to 95% of the keywords that are currently listed under the ominous “not provided” cloud, compared to the 3-8% that marketers are currently able to view.
What’s the Big Deal?
Keyword Hero is a tool that sheds light on keywords that we weren’t able to access before, but why is this important from a marketing perspective? Rebecca Sentance notes that marketers have been developing “rough workarounds” since Google implemented secure search and are guessing what searches are actually bringing users to their websites (Sentance, 2017).Gaining a better understanding of the actual keywords that are leading users to your website can help marketers understand more about the intent that users have, they can then optimize and increase the functionality of their website based on the intent of the searcher. Optimizing and making the website more customer-focused will not only help to increase time on page and decrease bounce rates, but ideally it will help to drive purchases or conversions.
Insight on keyword positioning in the SERPs can also give marketers a better understanding of what their competitors are doing to rank above them. In 2017, the top 5 positions on a SERP accounted for 65.15% of total clicks, with 20.5% attributing to the first listing (Lincoln, 2017). If businesses want to gain traffic from organic search, it’s important that they rank as high as possible on relevant search pages. Traffic gained from organic efforts has a much higher probability to convert into a customer, when compared to outbound efforts. Rachel Moore at Smartbug reports that SEO leads have a 14.6% conversion rate, compared to 1.7% for outbound leads (Moore, 2016).
Understanding the intent of your audience can also help to drive a strong content marketing campaign because you have the information of what readers and customers want to see and read. Through Keyword Hero, users are able to see what keywords and landing pages are driving the most sales, which marketers can then replicate in order to continue to drive organic traffic to their site, which in turn will increase revenue and overall ROI. Marketers would have the ability to provide a more personalized buyers journey to their customers.
Rand Fishkin infers that Google began hiding this information because it would become too valuable to competitors and “people who have the potential to own a lot of the search ranking world.” (Sentence, 2017). While Fishkin may be onto something regarding the negative uses of information like this, if more businesses had access to this information and understood the benefits of how it could be used to reach business KPIs, it would make more people in the search world a stronger competitor, creating more worth to a strong SEO strategy.
Insights gained from Keyword Hero can not only help increase a business’s SEO game, but also help drive a more targeted campaign for paid search ads and social media strategy as well. When businesses see what keywords are driving qualified traffic to their site, they will have an idea of the type of information that customers are looking for. They can take this information and begin to alter their ad copy and business highlights in paid search and social advertising efforts.
References
Barnes, E. (2017, October 10). Keyword Not Provided: What does it mean, and what can I do?. Branded3. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://www.branded3.com/blog/keyword-not-provided-what-does-it-mean-what-can-do/How Does the Hero Do It?. (n.d.). Keyword Hero. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://keyword-hero.com/how-its-done
Kao, E. (2011, October 11). Making search more secure. Google Official Blog. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/making-search-more-secure.html
Keyword Hero. (n.d.). Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://keyword-hero.com/
Keyword Hero Google Listing. (n.d.) Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://www.google.com/analytics/partners/company/5107647938297856/gadp/5629499534213120/app/5707702298738688/listing/5634387206995968
Lincoln, J. (2017). Google Click-Through Rates in 2017 by Ranking Position. Ignite Visibility. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://ignitevisibility.com/ctr-google-2017/
Moore, R. (2016, June 10). What Percentage of Organic Search Should be Converting into Leads?. Smartbug. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://www.smartbugmedia.com/blog/what-percentage-of-organic-search-traffic-should-be-converting-into-leads
Sentance, R. (2017, August 8). A world without “(not provided)”: How unlocking organic keyword data leads to a better web. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on February 11, 2018 from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/08/08/a-world-without-not-provided-how-unlocking-organic-keyword-data-leads-to-a-better-web/
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