In our last post we examined the impact that Google's "not provided" is having on our web marketing efforts. Now it is time to discuss ways to measure performance and trends with the decreased percentage of real keyword data in Google Analytics.
If you are fortunate enough to have a history of prior keyword data in Google Analytics then one thing you can do is to examine historical performance. As any financial advisor will tell you, prior performance is not an indicator of future success however when we look at historical data we can at least see what keywords were driving traffic to a particular page. If you have a page about "blue widgets" on your website you can look at the percentage of traffic that the top keywords were driving to your site and apply that percentage to future traffic numbers in order to gain some insight into the current volume of that keyword. Clearly this is an inexact science and you need to factor that into any equation.
Another important piece is to look at keyword rankings. You'll still be able to look at your site's rankings in free tools like Google Webmaster Tools as well as paid tools such as MOZ.org. By looking at keyword rankings and click-through rates, combined with organic traffic volume to those pages you can gain insight into current search volume trends.
As you build new pages on your website it will be more and more important to not have an "everything" page. Since branded and non-branded keywords will all be combined into a single bucket every page, as it always should, needs to have a very clear keyword focus. Define the sets of keywords for each page, give the URL a search friendly name and it will make measurement of that page's performance that much easier when querying in Google Analytics. Using custom segments in Google Analytics is yet another way to start group pages by keyword theme (ex. branded) so that you can look at week over week pseudo-keyword performance.
Lastly, as you build for the future, remember that you are building for users here. What might help users in finding exactly what they are looking for (ex. related content) may also give you additional keyword insight and help you refine your content strategy.
Written by Dave Curtin
Dave is the founder of Boston Web Consultants, a provider of web marketing and development services. Dave has been immersed in the web for over 15 years, helping companies build a better online presence. He is passionate about web marketing, Boston Sports and being a Dad. You can connect with Dave on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.
