ANNIE CUSHING

1. ANNIE CUSHING BREAKING UP WITH YOUR KEYWORD DATA

3. @AnnieCushing

4. GOOGLE DECLARED WAR ON KEYWORD DATA This was when Google started withholding keyword data from site visitors who were logged in to any Google property. To the dismay of many online marketers. @AnnieCushing

5. Chill wi’ dat, SEOs. We’re talking single digits. Max. @AnnieCushing

6. ACCORDING TO CLICKCONSULT ... Biggest. Single. Digit. Evar. @AnnieCushing ** Based on 60 sites they’re following

7. Let me know when you’re done talking about (not provided) …. Whining about (not provided) will not be the point of this presentation. The topic bores me. @AnnieCushing

8. JUL 2012: FIREFOX 14  ENCRYPTED GOOGLE SEARCH Mozilla, in collusion with Google, made Google searches encrypted by default. Unless it hits Goog’s bottom line (i.e, AdWords). Then screw privacy. That data is unencrypted. Read about the controversy @AnnieCushing

9. JUL 2012: FIREFOX 14  ENCRYPTED GOOGLE SEARCH 14+ = Version 14 or newer According to StatCounter, 17% use 14+ worldwide

10. FEB 2013: CHROME 25 ENCRYPTED GOOGLE SEARCH Surprise, surprise. Google follows Mozilla’s “lead” and also encrypts all searches on google.com. Of course, Google knows there would have been mutiny if they had made the switch first. And I’m not a Google conspiracy theorist. There’s just legerdemain all over this series of events. @AnnieCushing

11. FEB 2013: CHROME 25 ENCRYPTED GOOGLE SEARCH According to StatCounter, 35% use 25+ worldwide

12. ACCOUNTS FOR ~52% WEB USERS @AnnieCushing

13. If you go to google.com in your browser, and you see https instead of http, none of your keywords will show up in the site’s analytics. They will show up as (not provided), even if you’re logged out. REFERRING KEYWORDS WILL SHOW UP: (NOT PROVIDED)

15. If your site (or your clients’ sites) rely on traffic from local search, there’s a BRAND NEW thief on the scene. A NEW THIEF OF KEYWORD DATA

16. You may have heard about Google using a carousel for local search now. Sexy, right? You’d think that if a searcher clicked on one of the results in the carousel, it would go to their site. If so, you’d be wrong.

17. Instead, Goog takes the unsuspecting searcher to a REVISED QUERY RESULT. I didn’t search for Brio Tuscan Grille Cherry Hill! I searched for Italian restaurant. So if this searcher just HAPPENS to be searching on an older version of Chrome or Firefox — or IE or Safari — AND isn’t logged in to any Google properties, Brio STILL won’t get my actual search query. If their marketing team (or agency) isn’t keeping on top of these trends or they discard branded traffic, there goes yet another unexplained drop in non-branded traffic.

19. Yes, I have an over-active imagination. PREPARE YOUR GOOD-BYES

20. 1 KEYWORD TRENDING DATA FROM ANALYTICS This will need to be your first (and possibly most painful) good bye.

21. 2 SEPARATING BRANDED AND NON-BRANDED TRAFFIC Separating branded and non-branded traffic is an outdated practice in the age of encryption.

22. WHY THESE HAVE BECOME MYTHS

23. THE DATA YOU’RE LEFT WITH ISN’T A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

24. representative sample noun A small quantity of something whose characteristics represent the entire population @AnnieCushing

25. Let’s saying you’re about to make some delish homemade soup, and you have your stock prepared and ready to go. @AnnieCushing

26. You throw in your chopped veggies. @AnnieCushing

27. And some really gross-looking raw chicken …. @AnnieCushing

28. And finally some herbs (which is probably spinach, but they looked like herbs when I was searching). Martha Stewart I am not.  @AnnieCushing

29. Now let’s say you just throw everything into the pot but then have to walk away before you have a chance to stir your brew, let alone give it time to cook. And then Honey Boo Boo comes along, scoops out a cupful with a ladle, and chows down. You might expect a reaction like this …

30. This was an animated gif in the presentation. You can probably imagine what she was doing. My point is she’s going to make some judgments about your ability to cook based on a sampling of your soup-cooking abilities based on really bad err data.

31. In the same way that ladle of goop wasn’t representative of your soup, the keyword data that remains unscathed by encryption isn’t representative of your overall data population. So it’s junk data. Like worthless if you’re trying to use it for trend. This includes month-over-month and year-over-year analysis of keyword performance, as well as forensic analysis, such as investigating why there was a drop in traffic for a particular keyword.

32. ERGO, REPORTING ON METRICS LIKE THE THESE …

33. 1. ORGANIC NON-BRANDED TRAFFIC 2. ORGANIC TRAFFIC PER KEYWORD 3. REVENUE PER KEYWORD 4. BOUNCE RATE PER KEYWORD 5. ANYTHING ELSE PERKEYWORD

34. ARE A FOOL’S ERRAND

35. AND JUST BAD SCIENCE

36. SO WHAT KEYWORDS CAN WE USE? SO WHAT KEYWORDS CAN WE USE?

37. Analyze the keywords that are driving traffic to your landing pages ALL DAY. 1 KEYWORDS IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDING PAGES

38. These are the keywords that drove traffic to a client’s Louis Vuitton product category page. They had quite a few instances of pure brand searches (IOW searches for their company name alone) driving traffic. Issues like this warrant investigation? Why are the search engines getting confused and not sending purebred brand searches to the homepage? Is there no text on the homepage? Are category pages over-optimized for their company name (in comparison to the homepage)? Start digging!

39. GET CUSTOM GA REPORT If you’re logged in to your GA account you can apply the custom report I created by clicking on the link below. If you’re logged in but in a different browser, just copy the link into the browser you’re logged in to. If you get a 404 error, you’re not logged in or in the right browser. Link to custom report ** You have to be logged in to a Google Analytics account to view it.

40. If you want to click on keywords in your analytics account, by all means. Just use this custom report that drills down to landing page. 2 KEYWORDS FOR LANDING PAGE RESEARCH

41. LOOK FOR SIGNS OF SELF-CANNIBALIZATION Here I clicked on a popular keyword for this client and saw that they have a duplicate version of one of their top money pages and an irrelevant landing page stealing visits. @AnnieCushing

42. OR CONVERSION DISTRESS Here their top landing page is driving very little revenue compared to its duplicate clone. @AnnieCushing

43. GET CUSTOM GA REPORT Link to custom report ** You have to be logged in to a Google Analytics account to view it.

44. One of my favorite reports in Google Webmaster Tools 3 WEBMASTER TOOLS KEYWORD DATA

45. In the Top Queries report you can see the keywords that drove impressions and drill down to see the landing pages that ranked for each keyword. Great way to see if you have multiple pages optimized for the same keyword. The Top Pages report is the converse: click on landing page to see what keywords are driving traffic. Do they make sense? @AnnieCushing

46. Make sure you apply these filters, or your data will either be crap or full of noise. By default you’re going to see Web, Image, Mobile, and Video all together. I look at them separately. @AnnieCushing

47. @AnnieCushing

48. LOOK FOR SIGNS OF ADD IN THESE REPORTS I clicked on a client’s main money page that’s all about how women can sell their handbags. You can see all the irrelevant keywords driving impressions and clicks. Fix dat sheet man. @AnnieCushing

49. LOVE these reports!!! But you HAVE to throw it into a pivot table to get any kind of insight from it. If you don’t know how to use a pivot table, I take you by the hand and teach you the dark art in this video tutorial! I promise I take the intimidation out of it. You can repay me with shoes.  4 KEYWORD REPORTS FROM SEMRUSH / KEYWORD SPY

50. CREATE PIVOT TABLES TO REALLY GET INSIGHT Learn how to rock pivot tables in this video tutorial — and download an Excel file pulled from SEMRush @AnnieCushing Download sample pivot tables