Although it’s only Tuesday, Rand Fishkin from Moz did a whiteboard session yesterday that focused on how SEOs and marketers should respond to Google’s recent decision to stop providing keyword data. If you are unaware of this, you can read more about it here.
The first four minutes of Fishkin’s video appear to be an attempt to educate SEOs by explaining the current environment, and I’m sure it was, but one could also make the argument that it was directed specifically toward the people at Google who made the decision. The tension is easily palpable. Fishkin states, “The agreement that marketers have always had—that website creators have always had—with search engines, since their inception was, ‘sure, we’ll let you crawl our sites, you provide us with the keyword data so that we can improve the Internet together.’ I think this is Google abusing their monopolistic position in the United States.”
Thank you, Rand!
To date, Google has not provided their intention for encrypting all keyword data.
Fishkin pointed out four major issues that we’re going to face now that we cannot see our keyword data.
An immediate struggle in finding ways to improve a page’s performance. Without keyword data, it is impossible to make changes that will actually help the visitor on pages that have high bounce rates or are simply not performing well.
With no keyword data, we will not be able to uncover certain content creation opportunities. We will not be able to see what our visitors are really asking or looking for, making it impossible to create new content around those areas.
Without keyword data, it is impossible to show business owners and corporate executives the value in SEO or ROI on specific campaigns or verticals.
It will be difficult to realize how search engine users actually see your brand. With keyword data, you can see how users are searching for your brand terms and get an idea of how your target audience sees your brand, campaigns, current events or general direction.
I’d like to pay some attention to the first and second bullet points above. As a huge content-focused marketer, I think that we’re going to have to come up with ways to manipulate the data we DO get to help us create better content. Fishkin gives us a great place to start.
He suggests three data points to study that will bring us to an idea of what keywords are bringing in traffic. He tells us to watch:
Pages receiving search traffic (via your traditional stats)
Rank tracking data (where your keywords are ranked)
Webmaster Tools data (I wonder how long we’ll still have this)
As Fishkin points out, by studying and understanding each of these data points, you can get a list of pages that are getting search visits, are targeting important search terms and are ranking with the potential to improve. You’re going to have to use some common sense and a little brain power. While you won’t get specifics, at least you’ll have a general idea about what is happening on your website and where you can focus attention for improvement.
In addition, it might be time to invest in a rank tracking tool if you don’t already have one.
My Take – Watch Content Types Too!
To add to Rand’s presentation, I think we’re also going to have to start paying a lot more attention to the type
of content we’re publishing on our websites and how those pages are
performing in search. We won’t be able to see keyword data, but we
should be able to find some correlation between a specific type of
content and the pages that are receiving search traffic.
Instead of looking at the keywords that are bringing the people in, you now have to look at the type of content that is on the pages bringing in the search traffic. These types of content could be top level informational articles, insightful detailed articles, interviews with industry experts, interviews with consumers, video pages, blog posts, current events or news, pictorials/infographics or even podcasts or streaming audio.
Take a look at which pages are getting the traffic from Google and categorize them into types. Eventually you should see a pattern of which type of content is bringing in the search traffic.
At this point, you would focus more energy on creating that type of content.
At the same time, you should be studying which type of content is being shared more by your visitors, which type has a higher bounce rate, which type has the best “time on page” and so on.
Leave a comment and let us know if you find any correlation.
The Bottom Line
Most importantly, you’re going to have to do this on a regular basis – daily if possible. Dealing with all of these changes doesn’t mean we still cannot go “old school” and maintain keyword lists and pay attention to their rankings. With keyword data, it was easier to see when a keyword phrase went up or down the SERPs. Now you’re going to have to go and look in the search engine itself.
The playing field has been leveled once again. It’s time to get back to work and build a new foundation of keyword and search engine understanding for your website.
It comes down to the fact that this didn’t happen to you and your business only. It happened to everyone. To put it plainly and simply, it’s going to come down to the amount of effort you put into understanding your website search visitors. And the quicker you come up with ways to deal with it, the more of an advantage you’ll have over our competition.
No more Google data word - the word is not listed
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Oleh
شادي الزمر
