Case Study - increasing traffic with GSC Analyzer

Google Search Console Analyzer is one of Pulno’s key functions. With its help, I can quickly detect keywords that generate website traffic but do not appear in title tags, headers or content. This enables me to immediately add those missing items to the website in order to gain more traffic from search engines. Now that we have covered the theory, it is time to test GSC Analyzer in practice.

TL;DR: Using GSC Analyzer allows you to increase your rankings within 2 weeks of implementing the changes on the website

Table of contents

1. Who will not benefit from Google Search Console Analyzer
2. Case study
3. Test results
4. Conclusion

Who will not benefit from Google Search Console Analyzer

GSC Analyzer is not the best solution for all websites. Its effectiveness will be low for:

• websites that get no traffic from Google
• websites that are not connected to Google Search Console data

For websites that get no traffic from Google, I suggest conducting an analysis with Pulno first ,fixing the detected issues and acquiring backlinks. Even if a website does not generate clicks from Google, it could still generate impressions.

These phrases do not generate clicks but have a few impressions.

In the second scenario, I recommend connecting the website to Google Search Console and then integrating the data with Pulno. 

Case study

In one of my previous articles, I described some of my favorite practices related to GSC data. In this case, I decided to choose a different tactic.

I decided to gather all the phrases:

• for desktops (most conversions for the analyzed website come from desktops). By limiting myself to a single type of device only, I increased the readability of the report.
• from the previous month. Google Search Console data appears with a few days of delay. I want to have full insight into the current rankings of the pages.

Additionally, I conducted another analysis in Pulno to make sure that the data regarding headers, title tags and content is current. The report returned over 2.500 results:

At this point, it was clear to me that the best solution was to facilitate the process by exporting data. The easiest way to work with data is in the xls format in Google Drive, primarily because it allows many people to work on the document. The document required additional processing, which I described in the article on checklist preparation, such as locking the top row, hiding the “device” column and setting a filter. There was an abundance of phrases, so I limited them to those with a minimum of 50 impressions per month because they have the greatest potential for acquiring more traffic. The next step might be the optimization of phrases with 20-50 impressions per month.

Exactly 166 phrases met the requirement of a minimum of 50 impressions. Due to cannibalization, some phrases displayed more than one page. For that reason, I sorted the results according to keywords so that I could see the pages that rank high for the same phrase. It is common that several pages rank for the same phrase, for example in the case of blog posts and online store categories. I recommend choosing one page only and focusing on its optimization. 

Most important columns in the above sheet are:

• Keyword in header
• Keyword in <title>
• Keyword in content 

If the “+” appears in the column, the keyword is on the page. An empty cell means that there is no keyword.

At this point, I had the document ready. I checked each line of the document one by one and filled the missing items in headers, titles, and content. Adding the missing keywords to the content is the easiest. Usually, it is enough to just add a few sentences containing the keyword. <Title> tags and headers can be more tricky. A header that is too long looks unappealing and can discourage users while a long <title> tag may be cut by Google. The best solution is choosing those keywords that have the greatest potential for ranking high - these are usually phrases with the most clicks and searches (columns E and F in the sheet exported from Pulno).

I finished completing the missing keywords on July 21st. I had to wait a while to see the results - after all, Google had to index the implemented changes

Test results

The above use case was based on an online store. Due to the company’s policy, we have hidden the customer's personal information and replaced it with made-up names. The results remained unchanged. In July, average positions improved and by mid-August, the results exceeded our expectations. According to data from Analytics, organic traffic improved by 24% in comparison to the same period. Data from Google Search Console indicates a 30% increase.

Phrase 1

Phrase 2

Phrase 3

Phrase 4

Data from GSC

Website traffic two weeks after change implementation:

8/05/2019-8/11/2019

in comparison to

6/10/2019-6/16/2019

Data from Analytics

Website traffic two weeks after change implementation:

8/05/2019-8/11/2019

in comparison to

6/10/2019-6/16/2019

Conclusion

Google has indexed the improved pages and their rankings have increased just 2 weeks after the implementation of changes.

We often forget that page optimization is a process. We look for keywords when we write category descriptions and blog entries, but we do not verify them long term. With Google Search Console data you can see which keywords actually generate traffic. With Pulno, you can automate the process and analyze thousands of phrases simultaneously and then optimize them. In my case, this several-hour long process resulted in an increase of over 24% in just 2 weeks after implementation.