Do you know what words people are using to find your website? If not, I encourage you to find out.

The easiest way to do this is by using tracking software such as Google Analytics which is free and fairly easy to install on your website. If you’re using WordPress software you can simply install and activate the Google Analytics plug-in.

Then simply log into your Google Analytics account every now and then and go through the various reports.

You’ll see one that shows what keywords were used by people who visited your site. Are there lots of searches on a particular word or phrase that you hadn’t considered before? If it’s relevant to your site, perhaps it’s worth adding this to your existing keywords.

I say ‘if it’s relevant’ because you’ll no doubt find some pretty weird and wacky keywords too.

For example, the most searched for phrase that one of my sites was being found for was ‘mcdonalds victoria point’. I had directions to a meeting venue on that site and it referred to the Victoria Point McDonalds as a nearby landmark. But would it be relevant for me to focus on that as a keyword?

No. People searching on ‘mcdonalds victoria point’ would no doubt be looking for information relating to that particular McDonalds, not details about small business brain-storming sessions.

However, I also discovered that a large number of people were searching on another term that WAS relevant and so I tweaked my site a little to optimise it for that keyword too. The result? Even more traffic now finds me for that keyword – and this is targetted traffic that is interested in the information I’m offering.

If you go through the process of checking your search stats regularly you’ll no doubt have a laugh at some of the weird search terms that come up. In fact, I’d love to hear some of them. Please check your site report and leave a comment below to share the strangest search term that your site was found for.

What Keywords Are People Searching For To Find Your Site? is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins