Ranking #1 for decent traffic keywords, but not receiving any traffic?
-
A site I work on is ranked number 1 for a few keywords. To see how much a keyword is searched per month I rely on Google Adwords Keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). Using this tool I see that the keyword receives 880 local monthly searches and another keyword they rank #1 for receives 1300 local monthly searches. To me these keywords are not the biggest as far as traffic but they are not small by any means.
Now here is the issue. Like mentioned above, the site nmber 1 for multiple keywords. They have been ranked number 1 for these keywords for months. Looking in analytics the other day I notice that on a month to month basis both of these keywords are getting 1, or 2 visits. This past month (October) one of the keywords did not receive ANY visits, and that is being ranked #1 for a 1300 monthly searched keyword. It just doesn’t make sense. I would imagine getting at least 100 or so visits a month from these search terms.
Could someone please help me understand this a little bit better?
-
I'll just add that I wrote a post about this topic recently:
-
Any one else with any information on this?
-
When I originally replied I wrongly assumed the traffic numbers provided were correct. Yannick brought up an excellent point. The exact match searches are 16 and 36 for the two phrases involved. 52 is not a lot of global monthly searches and some of those are likely you or your site owner performing those searches. The bottom line, you have the #1 ranking on two terms without traffic so that is why you are not seeing any traffic.
Even changing the search query from "daytona beach insurance" to "insurance daytona beach" (shows 58 searches which is more then the other two combined) then moves your 1st organic result after all of the Google Places results.
My best recommendation for improvement is to grab a Google Places listing if you do not have one already. If you do have one, optimize it as you are not listed in the results.
-
I had a look, it is 1300 for broad, but only 28 for phrase, and 16 for exact, now to me, the words daytona and insurance, are not words i would expect to see in the same search term unless the were in a phrase or exact. so something does not seem right here.
-
Keyword tool = crap.
1. Did you look at the traffic for phrase match keywords? Or broad match?
2. Second thing you have to consider: the data Google uses in the keyword tool is also from search partners. For instance, in the Netherlands (where I live) google also adds keyword volume from a craigslist type of site. So me searching on the site for daytona insurance will add "a tick" in the keyword tool as well, even though google's results page wasn't shown for that search.
3. Did I mention that the keyword tool is crap? (With instant search on) Start typing daytona i... and see what starts apearing. Than compare the keywords that appear before insurance to the data you got for daytona insurance. See if that makes any sense.
Good luck! And remember, especially these days, rankings aren't everything. Traffic is!
-
I would highly recommend checking webmaster tools to see real Keyword data if analytics is showing conflicting information.
Additionally, how often are you doing searches for this keyword on your own machine. are you going to an agnostic computer and doing the search. Your search settings may be affecting your personal searches.
-
I agree with John. I took a look at your search results. I was checking to see if your title or other aspects of your search result was particularly bad and might lead people not to want to click on your site, but that was not the case. I also wanted to see if there was an advertisement, or possibly the #2 or 3 result was so compelling (i.e. Insurance for $99/yr!) that searchers would skip your result and click on the others. That was not the case.
It seems more likely you are not reading your traffic reports correctly. Perhaps a filter is set to where you are not viewing all the results?
-
Zgraph, you mentioned you use the Adwords Keyword tool..what other tools do you use? webmastertools or anayltics? You are clearly ranked 1st for "Daytona Beach Insurance" when view serp cloaked...it seems impossible that you would not have any visits.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does Google considers the direct traffic on the pages with rel canonical tags?
Hi community, Let's say there is a duplicate page (A) pointing to original page (B) using rel canonical tag. Pagerank will be passed from Page A to B as the content is very similar and Google honours it hopefully. I wonder how Google treats the direct traffic on the duplicate Page A. We know that direct traffic is also an important ranking factor (correct me if I'm wrong). If the direct traffic is high on the duplicate page A, then how Google considers it? Will there be any score given to original page B? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Bing & Yahoo Traffic
Traffic to my three sites from Bing and Yahoo has been declining over the past year. Meanwhile traffic from Google has been increasing. A year ago Bing and Yahoo brought in 34% of my traffic. Now it's only 19%. What can I do to optimise specifically for Bing/Yahoo? I have Webmaster tools. Or could it be that my customers (largely aged 60+) are moving over to Google? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | WTH0 -
Is it possible (or advisable) to try to rank for a keyword that is 'split' across subfolders in your url?
For example, say your keyword was 'funny hats' - ideally you'd make your url 'website.com/funny-hats/' But what if 'hats' is already a larger category in your site that you want to rank for as its own keyword? Could you then try to rank for 'funny hats' using the url 'website.com/hats/funny/' ? Basically what I'm asking is, would it be harmful to the chances of ranking for your primary keyword if it's split across the url like this, and not necessarily in the correct order?
Algorithm Updates | | rwat0 -
Are there any alternative ranking strategies for not a blog site other than on site SEO, speed improvement, building backlinks and social media engagement to improve rankings?
We own a horoscope website and looking for some SEO advice.However most of the websites are blog sites therefore most of the SEO content is about how to rank a blog site better. IE getting new quality content, use anchor text link out etc. However if your site is different by nature it is hard to find good advice on how to rank better in these scenarios. I would like to know if there are alternative ways of increasing rankings apart from the usual strategies of improving social media fan pages, building backlinks and optimising the site speed wise and making it accessible and understandable to crawlers and people too.
Algorithm Updates | | websitebuilder0 -
Home Page not ranking?
Hey guys, I'm working on a relatively new client and have noticed that all the initial rankings that we have point towards a sub page rather than the home page. Only a branded search appears to bring up the home page which seems really strange. Any ideas? Home page; www.geraldmiller.com Sub page (ranking); www.geraldmiller.com/dwi-dui-defense
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Big rise in "Keyword not defined"
Hi, all. Anyone else seen a massive increase in the Not Provided keywords in their analytics in the past couple of weeks. Probably related to this (source:http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-searches-172487) _In the past month, Google quietly made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity — except for clicks on ads. Google says this has been done to provide “extra protection” for searchers, and the company may be aiming to block NSA spying activity. _ Other than the unreliable stats from WMT, there doesn't seem too many ways which we can now find out what is sending traffic to our sites!
Algorithm Updates | | GrumpyCarl0 -
High ranking but low traffic, what gives?
One of our clients is in the top 3 spots on high volume keywords that get 20-70k hits in the US each month (per adWords keyword tool), but their daily traffic is in the low hundreds. What's going on?
Algorithm Updates | | optimalwebinc0 -
Which is better for SEO. 1 big site or a number of smaller sites.
Hello , I am about to create a website with product reviews for a certain niche. What i want to know: Is it better for me to have a site with all reviews , like nicheproductsreviews.com and then have nicheproductsreviews.com/product-one-review.html and nicheproductsreviews.com/product-two-review.html or buy multiple domains to have product name in the domain name, like product-one-review.com and product-two-review.com As far as I understand, first approach consolidates all pages on the same site , consolidating all the link juice to it. However, second approach lets me have the product name in the main domain URL. Which way is better for SEO and why?
Algorithm Updates | | voitenkos0