Google Search Console. So much power packed into such a simple (free!) tool.
Search Console is a data-tracking tool that allows website owners and administrators to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot their site based on its search performance and traffic. This tool is especially useful for businesses using a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy because it allows you to track and monitor your search ranking (and tons of other data points) on Google.
But even if your business isn’t using an SEO-based strategy, Search Console is a handy tool you can use to improve your website, understand your audience better, and increase your site’s conversion rate.
In this post, we’ll share three ways our favorite Search Console metric, Top Queries, helps businesses analyze and optimize their site—and take their lead generation to the next level! Ready for more customers, conversions, and revenue? Let’s get optimizing!
Here’s how to use Search Console’s Top Queries metric to improve your website:
- Find your best-performing queries (aka, keywords)
Tracking your top queries—and how well they perform—is hands-down the best benefit of Google Search Console. Here’s how to find this metric:
When you navigate to the Performance section of Search Console, look just below the performance chart. You’ll see the Queries tab, and your list of Top Queries right below it.
These are the top searches, or keywords, your site ranks for. You’ll probably see queries like your company’s name, your industry and the city your business is in, or the name of your top products or services.
How does Google get this info? When your website shows up in Google’s search results, some users will click on your site, while others will scroll right past it, and choose another result. Google tracks both of these numbers—your site’s clicks and your impressions.
Clicks: The number of times your website is selected from the results for that particular query. This doesn’t count your Google Ad clicks.
Impressions: The number of times your website showed up on a user’s screen, but they clicked a different result. Again, this only counts organic (unpaid) results, not your Google ads.
Your Top Queries listed in Search Console are the search terms that received the most clicks. And by watching this metric, you can see how well your site is optimized for your particular product or service, how compelling your website pages are, and which keywords could use more attention.
- Track your keyword performance over time
If you’re using an SEO strategy, Top Queries shows how well it’s working. While any SEO strategy can take some time to generate trackable results, soon you’ll start to notice the keywords you’ve been targeting begin to garner more clicks and impressions. That’s a huge win! And a major momentum boost for growth-focused businesses.
If you’ve made website changes recently, monitor your Top Queries report closely. Some website changes, like removing a landing page or updating your services page, may accidentally remove strong keywords that used to drive traffic to your site. If you notice a drop in your site’s performance, check your Top Queries to see which keywords you’re missing and which pages have lost their lead-generating impact.
- Understand which leads you’re actually attracting
Some websites attract a lot of the wrong kind of traffic…. These low-quality leads may look great on your search traffic report, but they just don’t convert into profitable sales and closed deals. That’s where Top Queries comes in.
When you review your site’s list of Top Queries, are there any keywords that jump out as unusual or unrelated to your company?
Here’s an example: Say a financial services company posts a how-to article about real estate investing. But Top Queries shows that the article is getting significant traffic for the search query “real estate agents in Omaha”. And as a result, their site is drawing significant attention for the wrong keywords! Judging by the keyword, these site visitors aren’t looking for financial services—they want a real estate agent! A quick edit of the article to remove the phrase “real estate agents” can change the traffic flow and improve the quality of site visitors.
If you notice any unusual queries that are driving traffic to your site, a quick edit to remove these accidental keywords can improve the quality of every lead that lands on your page.
At MediaSpark, we LOVE data like this
Top Queries is just one metric from Google Search Console. But there are dozens more that can be tracked and optimized. We believe data is the key to a high-impact, ultra-targeted, cost-effective marketing strategy. And we believe any brand can become a household name with the power of well-harnessed data. Interested in learning what MediaSpark can do for you? Let’s Chat!
