Last week’s article, aptly titled “Beginner eCommerce Keyword Research Using Google Keywords Tool,” discussed how to conduct keyword research efficiently using Google AdWords Keyword Tools. However, once the initial list of likely candidates are found and implemented into an eCommerce website, they need to be continuously monitored and changed as needed. A good tracking tool for doing this is Google Analytics.

To get Google Analytics installed on a website is easy. Just register for an account and follow the Online instructions as you go through each step. Once the site has tracking installed live for a period of time, Analytics will track all the relevant traffic information that will be useful for finding out which keywords are properly targeting the site, and which are causing traffic to bounce. The goal is to attract only those users who are looking for the relevant services, products or information the site offers.

There are several key indicators in Analytics that should be paid careful attention to:

• Total Unique Visitors: the amount of individuals who have viewed the site - not the number of page visits, which counts multiple visits by the same user (the more unique visitors the better).
• Average Page Views: the number of page an average user views (the more page views the better).
• Average Visit Time: the time users spend visiting the site on average (the more time spent the better).
• Bounce Rate: the percentage of users who visit the site and immediately leave (the lower bounce rate the better).
• Keyword Tracking: the list of keywords by which users are finding the site. It provides data on which keywords produce how many visits with the average visit time, page views and bounce rates (the more keywords the better).

Keywords that produce long average visits, multiple page views and low bounce rates will be the ones that are the most targeted and effective to use on the site. Make an attempt to focus on those keywords rather than the ones producing short visits, few pages and a high bounce rate. At the same time, the keywords that produce a high bounce rate should be eliminated and used sparingly throughout the site as needed. Replace them with other likely keyword candidates and continue to monitor those results in the following weeks and months. Once you get the idea, repeat the same process. The ultimate goal from all this effort is to increase the absolute amount of conversions, i.e., people who sign up or buy a product.

An often neglected aspect of SEO is that websites need to be optimized for human users rather than just search engines. The proper utilization of keywords will help provide users with useful information about the site before they visit and helps search engines to properly index and list a website under the desired keywords. This includes information in the page title and meta description which users see in the SERP’s.

Next week’s article will start off a new subject for me: links. It will discuss ways to create and improve natural traffic, and how that will also help to improve rankings in search engines as well.