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How to Track Keywords Efficiently for WordPress

Nowadays, WordPress (WP) is one of the most popular hosting platforms and one of the best content management systems (CMS). That said, around 36.3% of all global websites are hosted on WP, providing this platform with a 63% market share.

However, like any other website, WP websites need SEO (Search Engine Optimization). With so many WP websites online, you have to make sure that your audience can easily find you, as well as easily access your content.

As you may already know by now, keywords are the essence of SEO. Therefore, have you ever wondered just how exactly do people find your website? The simple answer is that they use search queries and keywords to find what they’re looking for.

So if you want to rank high on search engines, such as Google, you might consider looking deeper into those keywords.

An extensive keyword analysis can help you create a solid strategy that will allow your WP website to increase its visibility, credibility and exposure in the online world. With that in mind, here are a few ways you can see the keywords people use to find your WP website.

Why should you track keywords?

As mentioned before, keywords are still the essence of SEO. For all you know, you might be targeting the wrong keywords, whereas your audience is using completely different search queries.

Other than that, you might be targeting more competitive keywords when there’s an alternative you didn’t even know about. Therefore, here are a few reasons why you should track the keywords that people are using to find your website:

  • Discover more relevant keywords with less competition
  • Structure your SEO strategy based on those keywords
  • Evaluate the performance of your marketing efforts
  • Filter out keywords that aren’t’ valuable to you
  • Expand your keyword list
  • Diversify your keyword list

Get help from Google

One of the best ways to start tracking keywords is to leverage Google’s free tools. More specifically, the Google Search Console (GSC). Adding the Search Console to your WP website is fairly easy. Here is a brief guide that will help you set everything up:

  • Create a free account on GSC.
  • One the left-hand dropdown menu, click “add property”.
  • Type in your website address, such as: “https://www.mywpwebsite.com.
  • Verify that you own the website – There are a few ways you can do this. For instance, add an HTML file to your server, add a meta tag, edit your DNS, connect to Google Analytics and so on.

After the setup, you’ll start seeing various data on your website. Don’t worry if you don’t see it straight away, it might take a few hours for everything to start, so be patient.

Right then, there are two ways to track keywords; one via GSC and the other via Google Analytics. It’s important to note that it’s advisable to link these two tools together so that you can enjoy better insights. Here’s how the process goes.

Website Analytics

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Google Analytics

By now, you might be wondering what the difference between Google Analytics and GSC is. Let’s stop for a while to shed some light on the matter.

The GSC tool is search engine oriented. It will provide you with insight regarding your general rankings and your activities. On the other hand, Google Analytics is a more in-depth tool that’s user-oriented.

For example, with Google Analytics, you can gather data about user actions, individual visits, page visits and activities, such as clicks, views, shares etc. In other words, you get more detailed information regarding whatever is happening on your website. The information is structured based on four levels:

  • User level
  • Session level
  • Pageview level
  • Event level

That includes the keywords people use to find you. However, the data gathered this way tends to be a bit complex. If you have trouble understanding the data, you can integrate a reliable SEO reporting tool and extract reports regarding keywords in a more comprehensible way.

In any event, tracking keywords in Google Analytics is also fairly simple. Once you log on to the tool, you can access the dashboard and select the Acquisitions tab > Search Console > Queries. Here you can find out about how your users got to your website.

As an example, you can discover if they came through organic search or paid ads. Also, you can determine if they clicked on a backlink or did they navigate from other sources.

Last but not least, you can determine if they typed something in their search bar which led them to your WP website. When it comes to keywords, Google Analytics can provide featured details, such as monthly volume for a specific keyword, the competitiveness of a keyword, CPC (cost-per-click in paid search) and so on.

Google Search Console

GSC is an interesting tool. It allows you to find out a lot of things about your website and how users interact with it. But let’s get to the matter at hand, which is using GSC to track keywords. The process is quite simple and it only takes a few steps.

First, log into your GSC and on the left side, you’ll see the “performance” tab. In this section, the “queries” tab will be selected by default, and that’s the one you need. This section can provide vital information regarding any relevant keyword and queries people use to find you. Here are a few things you can find here:

  • Impressions
  • Clicks
  • Average position
  • CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
  • Keywords
  • Queries

Tracking the keywords people use to find your WP site is of vital importance. Nowadays, SEO is a mandatory marketing strategy, mainly because the market is oversaturated and highly competitive. Without a reliable SEO strategy to help you make your way to the top, surviving in such a dynamic environment becomes increasingly difficult, especially for new websites.

Author Bio:

Jolene Rutherford is a marketing specialist – turned blogger, currently writing for technivorz.com. Interested in digital marketing and new technology trends. Love sharing content that can help and mean to people.

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