Purpose: Discover keyword improvement opportunities based on phrases that convert and/or send traffic from page Two in the Google SERPs. I call these "Page Two Performers" or "Diamonds in the Rough" because if a keyword converts well and is sending decent traffic from the second page of results, getting it to the first page will have huge pay-off and often only requires minimal time investments.
Prerequisite: You need to be able to see at least which page of the SERPs visitors are coming from. You could also alter this to be a "Below the Fold Performers" report if you use a filter to see what the exact ranking was, as opposed to just the result page number. Any of the below should do the trick:
- Yoast's Track Rankings with Google Analytics Filter: I have profiles set up with this filter for most of my older clients and it tracks the page on which the click occurred (e.g. Page 2 of Google).
- Yoast's Track Rankings and Sitelinks Part II: This is an updated version of the above that gets you the actual ranking that was clicked (e.g. Position 13) but some may prefer the older way of doing it since the data is consolidated a bit more at the keyword level, which makes it easier to make use of when you have a low-traffic site or are looking at low-traffic keywords that bounce around between spots on the same page.
- Show Keyword Position Using Filters and Advanced Segments: This one from Bryan Casson was posted here by Jill Whalen and is the new NEW way of doing it. I haven't experimented with this one much, but it looks promising.
The Report: This is one example of how to run the report based on the old filter as linked to the in the first bullet above.
#1 Open Google Analytics and go to: Traffic Source --> Search --> Organic to see keywords used by organic search visitors.
#2 Select: Secondary Dimension --> Content --> User Defined Value to show the page or position of the keyword.
#3 Click "Advanced" to open up the filtering options and input: Include --> User Defined Value --> Containing --> page: 2. As an optional addition you can add another dimension to Exclude --> Keyword --> (not provided).
The above report should show all of your traffic from page 2 of te search results. Or if you used a different filter you can adjust it accordingly to show certain positions (such as #6-10 for the Below the Fold Performers version of this report).
You can further weed out some of the noise by choosing to only see keywords that resulted in a goal conversion, those that had over # amount of visits, etc...
The Concept: Find keywords that are performing well from improvable positions and then look for ways to give them a small boost.
Example: On buybluewidgets.whatever, a retail site that sells blue widgets, you notice that "blue widget X or blue widget Y" is sending traffic to your "blue widget Y" page from the second page of the SERPs, and that it sent over 40 visitors last month, which converted at about 25%. That is a diamond in the rough! The reason the page ranks is because of a user-generated comment in the reviews section on the "blue widget Y" page where one shopper said: "If I had to choose between blue widget X or blue widget Y I'd definitely go with the X model".
You have some choices here. You could add that phrase again on that page, such as answering their comment or updating the product description to include that phrase, or you could create a blue widget comparison chart optimized for that specific phrase. One decent link into the ranking product page with that exact phrase either in the link or in the same paragraph as the link from a reputable source, such as a guest post at the Blue Widget Blog comparing those to models, would probably be all you need to get your product page ranking on the first page for that phrase.
Work smart, not hard, and always be on the lookout for low-hanging fruit... even if you think the tree has been picked to death.
