7 SEO Insights Search Analysts Need To Succeed & How To Find Them

To be a successful SEO analyst, you must be able to use data in such a way that it provides you with a clear direction on where to focus your efforts for maximum impact.

You have access to a wealth of data, but how do you best use it to achieve measurable results that have a direct impact on revenue?

This article will provide you with the seven essential areas of focus you’ll need to succeed as an SEO analyst, as well as step-by-step instructions on the reports you’ll need to generate these insights.

Beginners will benefit the most from this, but even seasoned vets can learn something new!

1. Focus On Striking Distance Keywords

You can find your striking distance keywords in Google Search Console.

What Are Striking Distance Keywords?

Striking distance keywords are those that are near the top ten results on page one (top ten) or are currently ranking on the first page but are not in the top five positions.

So, why are they significant?

The value of striking distance keywords is that you are already ranking in search results and can achieve a top ranking with little effort.

You could push your keywords to the top of the SERPs if you update existing content and build more high-quality DA backlinks, for example.

Try our free high-quality Backlink Maker tool.

How To Find Striking Distance Keywords

To begin, sign in to Google Search Console.

Once logged in, go to the left-hand side and select performance, then impressions, and average position.

Deselect all other options. You should concentrate on impressions and average position.

After you’ve chosen these two options, scroll down and click impressions to change the data to show the most impressions for the search queries listed to the right.

First, you want to figure out which keywords have the most visibility (impressions) in Google search results.

Second, identify the keywords for which you are currently ranking in search results but are not in the desired positions.

The keyword “ADU plans” would be ideal because it has received thousands of impressions and is currently ranked seventh.

The average monthly search volume for this specific keyword is nine hundred.

What if the keyword was to be ranked first?

What To Expect From Focusing On Striking Distance Keywords

Once you reach position one, you’re in the territory of a 28.5 percent CTR (click-through rate), which means you could potentially produce 542 clicks per month for the example keyword “ADU plans.”

Of course, the number of clicks for your striking distance keyword target will vary.

However, this is a good way to determine where you should focus your efforts and which long-distance keywords are the most important.

The Profitability Of Focusing On Striking Distance Keywords

The cost of constructing an ADU ranges between $200 and $250 per square foot.

ADU sizes range from 600 to 1200 square feet, which translates to $120,000 to $300,000 in price.

It is safe to assume that the chosen striking distance keyword has the potential to generate significant profits.

You must always consider the profitability of your keyword targets as an SEO analyst.

Ranking for keywords is important, but ranking for profitable keywords is even more important.

What To Do Next

Dive into your striking distance data and prioritize identifying high-value, low-competition, and high-impression keywords in the SERPs to generate results from your data.

You’ll be surprised at how much gold you can find in Google Search Console.

2. Harvest User Interaction Data

The ability to think outside the box is one of the most important skills an SEO analyst can develop.

And data is required to fuel those creative insights.

It is critical that you implement tracking that can harvest data to inform your SEO efforts – do not rely solely on the data provided by Google Analytics or Google Search Console.

The Problem With Google Analytics

By default, Google Analytics does not display a large number of keywords that can be used to aid your SEO efforts. Instead, you are not given keywords for a large portion of your data.

What should an SEO analyst do? Think outside the box and use your site’s user engagement to collect your own keyword data.

Set up internal and external click events in Google Tag Manager. The goal of configuring click events is twofold:

To begin, gather keyword data from which you can create content to drive more traffic.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, convert visitors to sales by analyzing keywords that have been shown to drive conversions.

You will have invaluable data once you have configured GTM to trigger click events.

You’ll be able to see which internal keywords mentioned in your posts resulted in a conversion action, which you can add to your keyword list to expand on.

External click events will not provide conversion data, but they will show you trending topics that users have clicked on, which you can use to build out keywords to target.

3. Segment Conversions By Hour Of The Day

On Wall Street, the old adage is that “the trend is your friend.”

When you export data from Google Analytics into Excel, you can easily spot trends by using the conversions and traffic by hour report.

You can use this report to filter out data that will result in a false positive.

For example, if your eCommerce store sends an automated email campaign at 5 p.m. on Fridays, it’s not surprising to see a spike in transactions at this time and day of the week.

The goal is to identify data that your organization does not already have. Follow the steps below to create the conversion heatmap report.

Step 1

In Google Analytics, create a custom report called Flat Table. Choose Day of Week Name, Hour, and Default Channel Grouping to your dimensions so you can filter by traffic sources and choose sessions and transactions for your metrics.

Step 2

Before exporting to Excel, increase the number of data rows in Google Analytics.

Step 3:

Export data to Excel and create a pivot table with rows and columns for each day of the week and hour.

Step 4

Create a heatmap using conditional formatting.

While creating a heatmap from Google Analytics data is beneficial, Google Analytics does not support fully interactive heatmaps.

As a result, I recommend that you use third-party heatmap software to collect browser-based user interactions.

4. Analyze Branded vs. Non-branded Traffic

Using Google Data Studio is one of the most underutilized ways to make less work for yourself as an SEO analyst.

Google Data Studio can automate your reporting, allowing you to identify trends more quickly and efficiently.

Furthermore, Google Data Studio includes a number of templates into which you can plug and play.

The branded vs. non-branded report is one of the most useful reports you can download as a template to configure to your UA property.

Because Google Search Console does not allow you to quickly distinguish between branded and non-branded traffic, this report is useful for identifying trends.

Non-branded keywords may drive volume, but branded keywords give search engines insight into what your brand stands for, increasing brand visibility and authority.

Google prefers branded keywords. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, stated,

“Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

Because this statement comes from a former Google executive, you can be confident that incorporating non-branded vs. branded traffic into your SEO analysis is a wise decision.

5. Conduct A Content Gap Analysis

There are some truly fantastic tools available to significantly reduce your workload as an SEO analyst.

Ahrefs’ content gap analysis tool is one of those magnificent tools. This tool allows you to identify keyword opportunities that your competitors aren’t taking advantage of.

Enter a few competitors into Ahrefs to perform a top-level content gap analysis.

After you’ve entered your competitors into the tool, click “show keywords.”

When you click on the report, it will generate keywords that you are not ranking for but that your competitors are ranking for right now.

Once you’ve compiled a list of keywords for which your competitors are ranking, you can quickly fill in the blanks.

6. Use Behavioral Sequencing

Have you ever wondered how effective a particular page on your website was at facilitating a transaction?

Maybe a blog post? Perhaps a whitepaper?

You can gain a better understanding of what can convert visitors to sales by using the behavioral sequence report.

You can broaden your keyword focus as an SEO analyst for content that has aided conversion.

Follow the steps below to create this report:

Copy the path to the folder containing the page you want to examine.
Add a Segment by clicking +.
Select New Segment.
Navigate to the Sequences tab.
Select Landing page in step one and paste the folder path you copied into the blank box on the right-hand side.
Click the Add Step button.
Select Transactions in step two.
Choose between per session and per hit (your choice)
Choose the greater-than symbol “>”
Fill in the blank box on the right with zero.

You can drill down into any specific page in this report to understand what drove direct transactions – no more guessing about the impact of your content creation efforts.

7. Leverage Predictive Search

The predictive keywords generated by a Google search are one of the most useful SEO tools.

Use predictive text suggestions when conducting keyword research. Google provides predictive responses based on the volume of searches conducted.
By incorporating predictive keywords into your content, you can capitalize on topics that will generate clicks.

Use several Q&A predictive long-tail keywords throughout your content to increase your chances of appearing in PAA (people also ask) and FAQ search results.

Conclusion

As an SEO analyst, there are numerous approaches to data analysis, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Think outside the box!

Use tools, become familiar with the various types of reports that can help you understand the possibilities and automate wherever possible so you can spend more time analyzing and planning rather than wading through the weeds of too much data.

I hope the above reports assist you in doing so.

Congratulations on your success!