Q: How can web analytics help me decide which search terms to optimize for?
A: Your analytics program should show you very deep data about your visitors’ usage of your website, including what terms they typed into the search engine, on which page of your site they first entered, where they clicked from there, and even for what terms they searched in your website’s search field.
Armed with that information, you can see trends emerge. If many visitors find your website for the same few terms, you can add pages of content and fine tune your product titles and descriptions to support those terms. In this way, you capitalize on the success you’re already seeing and grow it from there. That addition of new content will also keep the search engines coming back to look for more.
When you view the search terms visitors enter in your in-site search, you understand what they really want to see. If they enter terms that deliver zero results, they are likely to leave the site. What did they want? Were they just misspelling the names of items you carry? If so, that’s an easy fix – set synonyms in your eCommerce platform so that the appropriate products will come up. Were they looking for items you don’t carry? You may want to consider expanding your offering, or adjusting your content so that it won’t attract visitors who are looking for those products.
By regularly reviewing the actual behavior of shoppers, you will be able to optimize for real results.