Even if you are well established in the online world but are still struggling to find a better spot on search engines, you surely are lacking something important.
Now, think of the time when you last checked if your SEO startegies are working well not. Can’t remember? Then, it’s probably time that you go back and check them.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to keep your website going for long and help in making your website to the top.
If you need help with your SEO and want to improve your performance online, this piece will definitely help you. It doesn’t matter if your are a beginner, have an SEO agency or offering SEO services, the process mentioned here is for everyone.
Listed down you’ll find a step-by-step guide for beginners who want to conduct an SEO analysis for their website or even for their clients.
| WHAT YOU’LL LEARN HERE:
• SEO Data Analysis is important for maintaining a website’s long-term success and achieving a higher ranking in search engine results. • SEO analytics include gathering and studying various set of data to improve a website’s visibility, understand current trends, and identify areas for improvement. • The process has 4 step: planning the work, using the right tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics, setting up an report with SEO score, and reviewing and analyzing the gathered data. • It is a regular and continuous process for maintaining effective SEO results, ensuring traffic and conversions to the website. |
What Is SEO Data Analysis?
The term SEO data analysis also known as SEO analytics means gathering and studying different types of raw data set to make your website appear better in search engines.
Doing this helps you figure out what to focus on, get permission for SEO projects, and make smarter choices to boost your website’s visibility on search engines.
Whether you are running an SEO campaign or are handling a large website, SEO analytics is a must to understand the SEO performance of your site.
Performing an analytics not only helps in understanding the current situation and reasons behind ongoing trends in the industry but also allows you to identify gaps, propose strategic responses, and estimate the expected outcomes of recommended actions.
Based on data produced you can get a detailed report on SEO. On the other hand, marketers can make informed decisions and understand the dynamic use of search engine optimization effectively.
4 Step-By-Step Beginner-Friendly Process To Do An SEO Analytics
SEO analytics is just like taking the right dose of medicine that makes your SEO project healthy. If done correctly, your website can definitely perform well and rank well on search engine results page.
Step 1: Plan Out Your Work
It’s easy to find yourself lost in the maze of analysis, losing sight of the ultimate goal. To avoid this, start by asking yourself what you want to know.
This simple question serves as a guiding light. Once you have a clear direction, you can plan which tools are necessary and decide on the specific reports to extract.
Good planning is the secret to running a successful SEO project. Rushing ahead without a thoughtful plan can lead to extra work and cause you to overlook valuable insights that could make a significant difference.
Based on your plans, first list down the areas you want to look at. Whether it is technical SEO analysis, content optimization, image optimization and so on.
Then, divide the work into different teams. Taking the time to lay out your course ensures a smoother journey through your SEO analytics reporting.
Step 2: Make Use Of The Right Tools
To get accurate data points on what you should be working one, it is essential that you use the right SEO tools.
-Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an excellent tool for businesses to understand how their business and website is performing on Google’s search results by giving the business owners the required data.
GSC data takes into account two kinds of searches, which are branded search and non-branded search. Branded search is when the audience searches for the business name, URL of the website, or the brand.
On the other hand, a non-branded search is when the audience has searched for keywords that are coincidentally related to your website. The clicks, impressions, and Click-through Rate (CTR) number for the last 90 days would be calculated in this data.
(Source : Google Images)
It gives you information on how Google crawls and indexes your website and helps find problems that affect how well it performs in searches, such as crawl errors, security problems, and manual penalties.
To set up GSC to analyze data for SEO projects:
Step 1: Visit Google Search Console and sign in using your regular Google account.
Step 2: Add a property after logging into your Google Search Account. You can enter your website’s Domain or URL Prefix to move to the next step.
Step 3: Depending on your selected option, you’ll next need to verify your website.
>If you choose Domain Property, the sole method for verifying your website is through your DNS provider.
• You can find a list of DNS providers in the dropdown list from which you can choose.
• When you find your DNS provider, you will see comprehensive instructions unique to that service. If your DNS provider isn’t listed, you may simply select “Any DNS service provider” instead.
• Once completed, copy the TXT record for your DNS that Google has provided.
• Open your domain’s website in a new tab after copying the TXT record, then log in to your domain’s account (for instance, Hostgator, GoDaddy, etc.).
• Then, find the domain you want to set in your list of ones.
• You will have the choice of managing your DNS records. Look for anything that mentions DNS and click on it if you can’t locate one.
• A page displaying the Domain Management page will then be opened, displaying a list of your DNS Records. Once you do, select “Add” to make a new one.
• You will then see a list of options with dropdown lists. First, choose TXT under “Type,” then type @ under “Host” and select 1 hour under “TTL.” Paste the TXT record you previously copied in the provided “TXT Value” space, then save the work.
• Following these procedures will add a new TXT record for Google Search Console.
• Click on Verify and create your Google Console account after adding your TXT record to Google Search Console.
Keep in mind, though, that it could take up to 72 hours to update the DNS entries. Therefore, you can always try again if your verification is not displayed.
>On the other hand, if you choose URL Prefix Property, you can use an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager to verify your website.
Step 4: Your Google Search Console will be created when you complete the appropriate procedures, choose the methods you’ll use to verify, and click on Verify.
-Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a useful too that can help you collect data from multiple sources in a single platform. This will further give you essential SEO insights on which you should work on.
Also, your website is made of certain keywords which are searched by the audience to reach your website. The performance and SEO ranking of these keywords can be determined using this tool.
(Source : https://ahrefs.com/rank-tracker)
-Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most common SEO reporting tool, used to track website traffic. The report received through Google Analytics would be vast and would take a lot of time to manually sort it out. That is why an SEO dashboard can be created to segment the data easily.
Metric in Google Analytics helps you to compare the organic session every month. You can do this for the current year or the previous one based on your need. It’s useful to keep track of major changes to your site, like if you started a PBN rental campaign for instance.
You can also garner a report where you will determine the seasonal changes in traffic generation on your website. The report will be available since the time of inception of your website. The day to day changes in organic search traffic will also be derived through this analysis.
(Source : Google Images)
See also: An introduction to link prospecting to improve search traffic.
Step 3: Set Up Your SEO Report
Before you initiate the SEO campaign, the first thing that you need to do is prepare the report analyzing certain necessary data.
-Examine The Page Speed
Why would someone choose a website that’s loading slow over the ones that are faster?
When I browse the internet, if a website takes even more than 2 seconds to load, I prefer switching to a different website. And this is what many online users do.
So, if you don’t want your potential customers to leave your website, check your page speed. Even if your website is 1 second faster than your competitors, you can expect a lower bounce rate and an increased user experience.
You can check your site’s speed using Google PageSpeed Insights. The tool will show if there are any issues that slowing down your website. Make a note of them and work on it.
-Enable Caching
When a user visits your website, their browser downloads various resources such as JavaScript files or images. By enabling caching, the browser will download all the important files at once which will improve the loading speed of your website.
Since the browser will not download the same resources again and again, it will make your site more efficient and user friendly.
– Minimize HTTP requests.
If you see your website generating more than 50 HTTP requests, it’s essential to prioritize reducing this number. You can start by removing unnecessary images and optimizing their sizes.
Doing this is crucial for providing a smoother browsing experience to your visitors, especially those with slower internet connections or accessing your site from mobile devices.
-SERP Visibility
SERP visibility is an SEO metric that calculates a website’s position and authority in organic search results when users enter queries on computer devices.
This visibility metric provides valuable data insights into several aspects, including how effectively you target specific keywords, the accessibility of your pages for Google’s crawlers, the effectiveness of your titles, and the overall optimization of your website.
You can use free SEO tools like Google Ranking Check to assess your website’s visibility on both mobile and desktop devices. This will offers detailed and actionable insights into search visibility for specific regions and time periods according to which you can then work on your strategies.
-Images
Many users while glancing through a content want things to be simple. Images are a great way to visualise and summarize the content so that people that understand what the content wants to convey.
But using large image or video files could be a problem for SEO. The website’s speed will slow down and visitors might even leave the page.
You should ensure that each image inserted is well-optimized for SEO because this also impacts how Google ranks your site. To do this:
• Check your image’s descriptions
• Update/add alt texts and file names for the images
• Optimize your images for mobile devices
• Compress the image files in such a way that it doesn’t lose its actual quality
-Content
Doing a thorough content analysis of give you a chance to improve your site’s ranking. Also, by keeping your content always updated and relevant to the currents trends can further enhance visibility and increase click-through rates.
To do a website content analysis, make sure to check these important elements:
Page Title: Have your title within the range of 50-60 characters. Ask question using words like, Why, What and How while also including the main keyword you want to rank for.
Target Keyword: Focus on one keyword and rank higher for that instead of using multiple keywords.
Meta Description: Write the meta description in such a way that it falls within the character limit and includes a relevant keyword.
-URL
URLs are a way to help the online visitors to navigate a website easily. It also plays a significant role in improving the rank of a website.
To make sure, your URL is well and running, you can use Google’s free URL Inspection Tool that will give you information regarding Indexing, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and Structured Data problems.
-Backlinks
Backlinks are those links that one website gets from another website through an anchor text. For your website to perform better, it is essential to check how many backlinks are pointing to your content and if there is chance of them being spammy.
You can use Ahrefs to check your backlink profile and also see the number of backlinks your competitors have. The more backlinks you have, the more credible and authoritative your site will appear online.
-Internal links
Internal links are those links that take a visitor to a different page of the same website. These links are very important to structure your site, making it easier for search engines like Google to understand your website is all about.
This further benefits users as they get a smoother experience while navigating your site. While working on your search engine optimization efforts, it is important to check your links to avoid issues like broken or outdated content.
This will ensure your site looks professional and improves user experience.
Step 4: Review & Analyze SEO Data
Once the report has been established, it will help you not only visualize data but also form an understanding of your website’s performance to form an initial strategy to improve your SEO.
Take this data to derive the main points presented in the report and send a compact email to the designated person. You can add the link of the report as a supporting document for each of the findings.
The areas that need SEO optimization need to be focused on more, and you need to formulate proper SEO strategies for these.
Make sure that you create a priority list so that the assigned people can take care of the task. Also, keep an organized record sheet with you so that you can keep track of the progress that is being made on each of the tasks that have been deemed as important.
These skills will also help you when it’s time to do a technical SEO audit for yourself or for a client.
Conclusion
Data analysis is an essential component of any SEO project. You can learn a lot about how your website is doing and spot areas for improvement by analyzing different data sets and user behavior. It is a continuous process that must be regularly tracked and improved.
You can ensure that your SEO efforts are always current and effective in bringing traffic and conversions to your website by frequently analyzing the performance statistics for your website and making adjustments as necessary.
FAQ
How does analytics help improve SEO?
SEO analytics is the process that collects data and analyzes your SEO data for search engines. It is helpful for SEO by enabling you to identify the SEO efforts you should value, get permission for SEO plans, and make better choices to boost SEO.
What are the different types of SEO analysis?
The 5 different types of SEO analysis are Content Audit, Site Audit, Off-page SEO, On-page SEO and Technical SEO.
What are the tools for SEO analysis?
The most effective SEO analytics tools you can use are Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Ahrefs.
