"Hands-free" isn't always a good thing...

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never liked doing keyword research.

Let’s face it: it’s tedious, time-consuming, and overwhelming, and that’s not even the biggest problem.

The core aspect of keyword research that many webmasters get wrong is finding keywords that THEIR readers search for when looking for information about their niche subject.

There’s a huge difference between THINKING you know what your readers are searching for and KNOWING what they are searching for, wouldn’t you say?

The following keyword research method is the easiest way I’ve even found to identify such search terms.

Oh, and did I mention it’s entirely hands-off, apart from setting it up, and entirely free?

Google Site Search

Chances are you have a search box on your site, and it’s most likely used by your readers to look up the kind of information they would expect to find on your site. Also, chances are your search box is powered by Google Site Search.

If you DON’T have a search box, stop right here and install it immediately! There’s nothing more frustrating than being on a site and not being able to find the information you are looking for. Search boxes keep your readers happy and your bounce rate low.

So, now that you definitely have the search box on your blog, have you ever checked what your readers are searching for?

If not, you are missing out on a vital piece of information that could tell you exactly what kind of content your readers want to see on your site.

In other words, TARGETED keywords.

Now let’s get down to business and set up a way for you to tap into this valuable information by tracking it in Google Analytics.

How to Track Site Search in Google Analytics

Setting up this process is very simple.

Note: since the new Google Analytics interface will soon become the default one for everyone, that’s the version I’ll use in the instructions below.

1.  From “Profiles” go into “Profile Settings”.

2. Scroll down just a bit till you see”Site Search Settings” and set up the parameters like you see them in the screenshot below:

Note: set “s” as the Query Parameter.

Just in case you are wondering why, “s” stands for “search” and is found in any search URL.

For instance, when I do a search for “web traffic” on my blog, this is what the URL for the search looks like:

4. Click “Apply” and you are all set.

I told you it would be easy, right?

Site Search Results

Depending on how busy your blog is, it might take some time to accumulate any actionable results.

My blog gets about 400 site searches per month, which is plenty enough to determine what kind of content my readers tend to search for.

Here’s where to find these stats in Google Analytics:

Marketing Takeaway

And there you have it.

Not only do you know now what content you need to write about, but also what content you might need to make more accessible to your readers, for instance in your sidebar.

Easy, perfectly targeted, hands-free keyword research – check.

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Initially, Matt Cutts said webmasters would only see (not provided) keywords in single-digit percentages which made it sound like it would be something that would be hardly noticeable. Maybe what Google didn’t factor in was how many people would be staying logged in to their Google accounts thanks to Google+, but regardless of whether it is a single-digit percentage or not, it is noticeable.

After a month, I decided to take a look at my own analytics. Compared to the keyword data you are still getting using an Advanced Segment for (not provided) traffic vs. all visits, it doesn’t look so bad and is as promised, a single digit percentage of 4.59%.

What bothers me is this…

The fact that (not provided) is now my top referring keyword. That’s 1,129 visitors in the last 30 days that I cannot analyze correctly. That’s 1,129 keywords whose bounce rate averages out to 83.97% that I won’t be able to work on.

Is it really about privacy?

Another thing that gets me is that this doesn’t really seem to be about user privacy. For one thing, if I was paying for Google AdWords, I would still get to see the keywords that users searched which led to paid search results. So if I was paying for it, I’d get it.

Then there’s the fact that Google is still logging your search activity. Sure it’s just for your own “personal” web history, but I’m sure whether or not you turn this setting on or off, they are still keeping tabs on your organic searches.

According to the Google’s document on Web History and Privacy…

“Over time, the service may also use additional information about your activity on Google or other information you provide us in order to deliver a more personalized experience.”

To see your web history since you first logged in to your Google account, click on this link when logged in. This is where you can “pause” and remove all web history items if you so choose to.

Of course, if you read further into the Privacy FAQ…

“You can choose to stop storing your web activity in Web History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in Web History Help. If you remove items, they will be removed from the service and will not be used to improve your search experience. As is common practice in the industry, Google also maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.”

Want see more real not provided numbers in Google Analytics?

The following are additional articles with real Google Analytics numbers related to the (not provided) keyword.

• How Much Data Will Your Site Lose With Google Encrypted Search Default? – Analysis after less than a week of this change going live shows how even .97% can equal the loss of keyword data for 195K searches.
• Quantifying the Impact of Google’s Keyword Referral Data Shutdown – shows a visualization of 60 sites’ analytics data plus SEOmoz’s own missing keyword data.

How has the new SSL search for logged in Google account users affected your Google Analytics? Do you believe privacy is the real motivator? Please share your thoughts on not provided in the comments!

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Yes, it sounds way too good and too easy to be true. BUT, I learned a variety of lessons from the book. One of which is the power of the niche. He talks about developing a product designed specifically for a small group of people, then advertising it in various trade magazines.

Of course, he’s not the only person I’ve heard recommend this sort of thing.

But why niche? Well…

1. The people who find your product are more likely to want it—Some people are concerned that if they market to an extremely specific niche, then they will cut down their sales possibilities to a small number. And while it’s true that less people out there will probably want your product overall, but we can assume that the people that DO find it will be more likely to want it. In other words, say you sell guitars. If people come to you searching for any old guitar, you may or may not get a sale. After all, what are the odds that you have the exact style and model they are looking for? But what if you marketed yourself as a seller of left handed guitars? They are much harder to come by and if someone is frustrated looking for one, by the time they find you they are more likely to buy. Now let’s take it a step up—what about left handed bass guitars? More niche, more high quality traffic. I’d venture to say your conversions would be higher.
2. It’s more reasonable to assume you can hit top search rankings quicker—Say you’re a web designer and you’re looking at targeting that keyword (let’s assume you’ve already hit it locally). The term “web designer” gets about 4,090,000 global searches a month. Wow. Good luck getting on page 1 for that! On the other hand, let’s say you decided your specialty was the restaurant industry. If you build a niche website and hit it with a keyword like “restaurant web designer,” you are looking at closer to 2,900 global searches a month. Not very many, right? But I’d venture to say it would still pay to get the top spot for that keyword—and it would happen much quicker too.

I know what you’re wondering, have I put this to the test personally? No, not exactly. But I am in the process. I recently wrote an ebook directed specifically at new, first-year teachers. The plan was to have it go live this past summer, except I hit a snag. State governments everywhere started slashing the hell out of budgets and suddenly the steady inflow of new teachers shut off. So much for that product.

What I learned in this instance is that not only is finding the right niche important, but timing is almost everything too. So I’m holding onto it for whenever the hiring starts up again. Who knows, I may just go ahead and release it toward the end of this year and see what happens. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So am I writing about something I really don’t know anything about? Nope. Because I have seen example after example of this line of reasoning working out. Car dealer website designers, MMA website designers, Civil War painting salesman, hospital wayfinding designers—you name it. It’s hard to argue with tangible results. So start to create niche sites today!

So my question for you is—what’s your niche?

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It is tempting to make SEO-related decisions simply based on search data, such as traffic volumes and competition. Yet, there is a far more important factor involved–profitability.

I have seen webmasters rank for ridiculously competitive keywords with tons of traffic, and have it bring very little value to their business. On the other hand, I know webmasters who rank for low-competitive keywords that convert better than their head keywords, and as a result, bring in much more profit.

There are a couple of factors that can cause this phenomenon:

1. The site’s product offerings do not match the searchers’ intent
2. The site offers good information, but does not brand itself well, so the viewers do not come back when they are ready to purchase

I have found that a large number of searchers type generalized keywords when they are conducting research in the early stages of the buying process. If you can provide that information and facilitate all the buying stages, you will do well with generalized keyword searches.

However, searches that are done in the later stages of the buying process are usually more specific, and these searches will include specific keywords that indicate their intentions, such as “buy,” “discount,” or “price.”

Identifying these keywords in your research and targeting them on your landing pages will help you cherry pick the best traffic from the search engines–traffic that converts well.

The Use of Brands in Searches

I have a close friend that runs a start-up ecommerce store that is a little over a year old that sells equipment to builders and construction workers. Let’s just call this equipment the standard “blue widget.”

He has good top ten rankings for both the head keyword “blue widget” as well as other mid-level keywords: specifically, “brand-blue widget”, where a specific brand or model number is used in the search. Originally, all he cared about and obsessed over was his head keywords. However, he didn’t see quick results for his new site, so he relegated himself to mid- level keywords.

It only took a couple of months to get the second spot in the SERPS directly after the manufacturer, and be the first ranking result to sell directly to the public. Of course, he found these rankings yielded great results and his sales shot through the roof.

About 6–8 months later, he finally achieved his head keyword rankings. Sales went up, but not to the levels that the specific brands were producing. He asked me to sit down with him to see what we could find in his analytics and how the search rankings were impacting his business.

This is what we concluded based on his traffic and conversions:

• Searchers in the later stages of their buying processes tend to search for the exact product that they want; therefore, conversion rates are much higher for brand and model-number searches.
• Searches around “blue widgets” resulted in high-page views and longer viewing times on the site, but not in direct sales for the first visit.
• The conversion rate was much higher for the “brand-blue widget” searches on the first visit. Three times as much as for the “blue widget” search. Most of the generalized keywords resulted in conversions on the second+ visit.
• The “blue widget” keyword search resulted in higher numbers of products in each purchase. The “brand-blue widget” searchers did not deviate from their intentions to purchase that exact product, even with up-sell or cross-sell offers.

My friend stated that based on his experience and the data which we went over, if he had to choose between the two keyword strategies that he would choose the “brand-blue widget” strategy without hesitation.

However, this strategy may not work for you effectively. If you sell a complicated service or product, you want to start engaging you customers early in their buying stages, to establish trust.

So, if you already have traffic data, you can easily set up custom reports within Analytics to ascertain the keywords that work the best for you and your company, based on the most important metric–profit.

If you don’t have good keyword data to rely on, you need to get it before making your final keyword target decisions. I have found running an aggressive Adwords campaign for about a month will often reveal which keywords to target, and which ones to leave alone.

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