Keyword tracking is a crucial component of any SEO strategy. It informs your decisions and influences the following:
Visibility
- Visibility refers to how often shop your website or pages appear in search engine results for keywords.
- By tracking keywords, you gain insight into the visibility of your content (i.e. how well it ranks) in search engine results pages ( SERPs ).
- Greater visibility means more chances that people will discover your business when they search for topics related to your offerings.
Rankings
- Keyword tracking allows you to monitor search engine rankings for individual keywords, providing you with data that will help you decide which ones to focus your optimization efforts on.
- By tracking keywords, you’ll know which pages on your site rank for them. You could optimize existing content or decide to create new content that better fits what people are searching for.
- Regular tracking and monitoring helps you understand which keywords are gaining or losing position in search results, so you can make appropriate adjustments to your content.
Traffic
- Keyword tracking is the what are opportunity keywords and how to use them in your marketing strategy? foundation for measuring your search rankings, which directly impacts organic traffic.
- A higher ranking can lead to more visits. The top three Google results receive 54.4% of all clicks .
- By tracking keywords, you can identify which terms drive the most traffic and conversions to your site. This way, you can optimize your site to improve performance and attract the right type of visitors.
Advantages of keyword tracking for website optimization
Keyword tracking plays a key role in website optimization. Here are some of the benefits that improve your SEO strategy.
Improved orientation
- Keyword research and analysis helps you focus your content around relevant topics that interest your target audience.
- When your content matches what people are searching for, you capture their attention.
- By tracking keywords, you will learn which terms attract people who are really interested in your offers.
Greater relevance of content
- Regular keyword tracking ensures your content remains relevant
- As your industry evolves, you can track new keywords and update your content to meet changing user expectations.
- Identifying the best keywords for your content and then using them to optimize it can directly impact your rankings.
- By tracking keywords and understanding their intent , you can optimize your site to meet the needs of your potential customers.
Improved user experience
- When your content matches search intent , it improves user satisfaction. “Intent” is what the user intends to do with the search they’ve entered.
- Relevant keywords lead to better targeted content, which can lead to higher engagement.
How Keyword Tracking Works
The primary goals of keyword tracking are to compare keyword performance, identify growth opportunities, and inform your content strategy.
Google uses complex algorithms to rank web pages based on keyword relevance, content quality, backlinks, and user experience.
Many keyword tracking tools take these factors into account. One such tool is Semrush’s Position Tracking , which allows you to monitor your site’s rankings. You can get daily data on rankings for the keywords you’ve tracked, sites competing for your target keywords, rankings in different locations, and more.
This is an example of what one of the Position Tracking tool reports looks like:
Understand your positioning in the market
with the Position Tracking Tool
Here’s how to track keyword rankings for your website, from initial research to setting up a tracking tool.
Step 1: Research keywords
Keyword research is the process of discovering and analyzing terms and topics that your target audience is searching for.
Here are some ways to identify keywords.
Check out Google search autocomplete and related searches
An easy and free way to research keywords is to go to Google and look at the auto-complete options it offers in the search bar.
Google generates these to help people sault data save time and complete their searches quickly. The predictions reflect real, common search queries.
You’ll see the predictions populate as you start typing. Make a note of the ones that are relevant to your site.
When you enter a query into Google, scroll down and you’ll come to a “Related Searches” section. These are keywords related to your search that you might also consider targeting.