How to Identify Keyword Search Traffic for Specific Web Pages Using Google Search Console.
Quick Summary of Contents
You’re likely reading this article because your web traffic has plateaued or has yet to rank for highly competitive keywords organically.
Most everyone (okay, not everyone) knows the name of the game for bloggers or website owners is how much organic search traffic a website realizes.
If you’ve ever attempted to launch a website of any sort, then you’ve likely encountered difficulties and challenges in getting your website to rank across major search engines.
I’m here today to change your unsatisfactory experience into one of satisfaction and hopefully equip you to realize greater search exposure and traffic conversions for your website.
One of the most underutilized web analytics tools not realized by most website owners is Google’s Search Console (GSC).
Formerly named Google Webmaster Tools, GSC unlocks the key to exponential organic search traffic growth for a website when used consistently and correctly.
If you’re not using Google Search Console, then I suggest creating an account and verifying your website TODAY!
If you’re using Google Search Console, I would like to share a method to identify specific keyword search traffic for each of your website pages.
Without further ado, I’m providing step-by-step instruction and a quick 7-min video tutorial at the very end of this post (i.e., for those of us with short attention spans or lazy readers). 🙂
Getting Started with Google Search Console Dashboard
To help illustrate and understand the ins and outs of identifying specific keyword search traffic for each of your website pages, I’ve decided to use one of my active projects: CCBTutorials.com.
In short, CCBTutorials.com is designed to help churches throughout the world using Church Community Builder (CCB) as their Church Management Software (ChMS), specifically bridging a church’s technical gaps to simplify using CCB’s API to access, modify, and integrate a church’s data.
That said, CCB is a 10-year-old and counting project that is starting to gain its sea legs in organic keyword search traffic for a number of phrases.
To illustrate this point, log into Google Search Console and go to the Dashboard page (shown below).
Using the menu on the left side of the page, click the Dashboard link displayed under the Search Console title.
As you can see in the upper right-hand corner of the image above, I selected the CCBTutorials.com website (i.e., https://www.ccbtutorials.com/).
Please be sure to have the correct website selected in the drop-down should you manage more than one website within Google Search Console.
From the Dashboard page, click the link arrows pointing to the right for the Search Analytics widget (see the image below).
This takes you to the Search Analytics page. Notice the left-hand menu has also changed to display the currently selected page.
The Search Analytics page, by default, displays the number of clicks (i.e., Clicks check box) for each query (i.e., Queries radio button), also known as organic search keywords, over the last 28 days.
Please keep in mind that Google Search Console’s data is roughly two days behind in time. So, the previous or current day’s data is not displayed until 2 days in the future.
Nevertheless, the Search Analytics page displays keywords for the entire website sorted in descending order based on the number of clicks.
The analytics filtering options are key to note about the Search Analytics page. The first-level filtering options are as follows (see image below):
- Clicks – number of clicks for search results or keywords/keyword phrases.
- Impressions – number of impressions for search results or keywords/keyword phrases.
- CTR – Click-Through-Rate, percentage of clicks when compared to impressions for search results or keywords/keyword phrases.
- Position – average search rank position.
The second-level filtering options are as follows (see image below):
- Queries – keyword or keyword phrase
- Pages – website page(s)
- Countries – countries
- Devices – smartphone/mobile, tablet, or desktop
- Search Type – web, image, or video
- Dates – select pre-configured or custom dates
To display the clicks for a specific page, you’ll want to select the Pages radio button to the right of the Queries radio button. When selected, the page displays the following:
As you can see above, clicking the Pages, radio buttons displays website pages sorted in descending order based on the number of clicks.
This tutorial could end here if this were the information and data we hope to obtain. However, remember that this tutorial aims to identify specific keyword search traffic for each website page.
To display specific keyword search traffic for each website page, let’s select and click the first page listed (see dark gray selection in the image below).
Once selected, the Search Analytics page reloads and displays the page clicked on applied to the Pages radio button as a filter.
In addition, the displayed and total number of clicks via the graph above is also in direct relationship to the selected filter(s).
Notice the page only displays the clicks but no longer lists any queries or pages below the graph.
To display organic search keywords for the selected Page filter(s), click the Queries radio button (as shown below).
Now you can see which organic search keywords rank for the selected page (i.e., /parse-excel-csv-files-using-php). But once again, this only shows the clicks.
What if you desire insight into the number of times the page was displayed in search results?
Easy, click the Impressions check box, and you’ll be shown the number of impressions or times a given phrase is displayed on the page in search results.
And what if you desire to understand, track and measure the click-through rate for each keyword for a given page?
Easy, click the CTR check box.
And what if you desire to get a ballpark average for how a page ranks for a given organic search keyword or phrase?
Easy, click the Position check box.
And when viewing Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Position at the same time, you’re given quite a bit of insight into specific keyword search traffic for each website page.
I use Google Search Console on a monthly basis, if not weekly, for my growing portfolio of web projects and to manage and create search marketing strategies for various customers.
I hope this tutorial helps you gain greater insight and knowledge of how well or badly your website ranks for specific keywords and keyword phrases.
For a free tool, Google Search Console is worth the time to set up, install and verify for all website owners.
There’s no excuse for not using Google Search Console. Even if you do nothing but set up and allow it to track data over time.
After all, you never know when you’ll need to use it to create a search marketing strategy or even measure how well your selected search marketing consultant or agency is performing when determining the value of your monthly SEO services (hint, hint).
Nevertheless, drop me a line should you have comments or questions. And for those of us not willing to read, watch the video tutorial below.
That’s all for now!
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