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
-
Log-in page ranking instead of homepage due to high traffic on login page! How to avoid?
Hi all, Our log-in page is ranking in SERP instead of homepage and some times both pages rank for the primary keyword we targeted. We have even dropped. I am looking for a solution for this. Three points here to consider is: Our log-in page is the most visited page and landing page on the website. Even there is the primary keyword in this page or not; same scenario continues Log-in page is the first link bots touch when they crawling any page of our website as log-in page is linked on top navigation menu If we move login page to sub-domain, will it works? I am worrying that we loose so much traffic to our website which will be taken away from log-in page sub domain Please guide with your valuable suggestions. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
The importance of meta keywords?
Hello, Is adding meta keywords still worth doing nowadays? I have been reading and hearing some different opinions about it. For a ' beginner ' in this field it is hard to find a definite answer to this questions.. Thank you for reading(and answering) my question!
Algorithm Updates | | EPPD0 -
If I optimize for a long tailed keyword, will I also catch the short keywords within it?
Say my long tailed keyword has three words in it that I also consider keywords. Will I catch the searches for those short keywords, or just the long tailed keyword phrase?
Algorithm Updates | | Scratch_MM0 -
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 -
How to find which keywords bring traffic to a particular page on my website ?
I have been using Google Analytics and SEOMoz tools for a while now. I know which are my top landing pages and some of the keywords which bring me traffic. But I don't know which are the top searched keywords for my website as these are "not provided" by Google Analytics. More importantly, I want to know which keywords are directing traffic to a particular page on my website. Can anyone help ?
Algorithm Updates | | EricMoore0 -
How do search engines calculate ranking?
On SEOMoz, I can see that when people type in X keyword, my website comes up at Y place. For example, if someone googles "Mobile Productivity", a page on my website comes up at #10. How is that #10 ranking calculated? I would've guessed it's based on some combination of linking root domain and page authority, but I see sites that rank below mine that have higher scores on both. For example, on the aforementioned 'Mobile Productivity' search, my site comes up #10 with a Linking Root Domain score of 2, and a Page Authority of 29. But Honeywell Products and Services comes up #13 on the same "Mobile Productivity" search (ie, BELOW my site), even though they have a Linking Root Domain score of 40 and a Page Authority of 72. Similarly, Mobileproductivity.com comes in at #1 for that search with scores of 7 and 31 respectively, but mpifix.com comes in at #2 with scores of 61 and 47 respectively. How are the search engine rankings calculated? Thanks in advance, Julian
Algorithm Updates | | MobileDay0 -
Severe ranking loss in a week
Hi all, I rank for around 40 keyword in the first and second pages in google.com.qa, this week im not even in the first 5 for all keywords on that search engine only. Adding to that also any keyword contains qatar on this campaign or my other website also lost position not less than 20! Normally i lose and gain 1 to 3 postions a week but this week it was scary. I thought i was pinalized but when i search for my website or site:my adress i find loads if pages. Any help ? Thanks for your time reading and answering
Algorithm Updates | | ali8810 -
How can Chrome rankings vary wildly from Mozilla and IE8?
Our website (www.theideapeople.com) has generally ranked on page 4 on Google search for the phrase "charlotte web design" for the past year...regardless of which browser I used. Oh, and my browser location is always set to Charlotte, NC. I also have the Moz toolbar installed and logged-in. Today, I Googled the same keyword using Chrome and we were on page 1 in 4th position! The other browsers still showed us on page 4, as usual. Has anybody else noticed this wild variance with Chrome? Is Chrome learning that I work at The Idea People?!!
Algorithm Updates | | theideapeople0