Top Search Queries: Data to Help You Know How to Get Found

As I reviewed the information in the Google Webmaster Tools for one of my clients today, I noticed something different in the information being presented in the Top Search Queries report – it has expanded and now contains a lot of great information on how your site appears in the search results for various keywords. It just so happens that Google reported this new feature update in their blog just today: More Data & Charts in Top Search Queries. I love stumbling into something new!

Not only have they improved this report by giving you a significantly larger number of queries in the report, they have also provided detail that can help you determine how to improve your site’s ranking. And from a marketing perspective, this will help many small business owners determine how their websites are doing and what types of improvements they need to make to get better rankings.

What you get

You get the number of impressions and click-through information for each search query and each position that your site’s pages appeared at in the search results associated with that query. Plus you also get the pages that were linked to from the search results for that search query.

What can you do with this information?

Review the results for the top keywords to see how and why visitors are coming to your site. Make sure your site is being found for keywords associated with your business. Then find your top keywords using the search feature and review how they are working. Look at your position in the search results. If you see “3rd page +”, your site needs work for that keyword. Now use this information to:

• Determine how to get better ranking for your important keywords.
• Review your SEO for each page of your website to ensure you are including the right keywords on each page in the right places.
• Review your blog posts to ensure you include the appropriate tags and get into the habit of creating tags for your posts on a regular basis.
• Develop a content strategy to help you gain more visibility for your more important keywords.

Don’t forget to use the Google AdWords External Keyword Tool to get the search volume for keywords it determines from your website.

Let’s just say I learned a lot about my own website ranking and which keywords need some work while I was reviewing the changes to help you take advantage of this information. Now it’s time for you to do the same. What does your Tops Search Queries report tell you?