SEO Tips: Using Google Analytics to Increase Traffic

Editor’s note: When Jeffrey Kishner, publisher of the number one astrology blog on the internet, Sasstrology offers to write a post for Astro Blogging, you’d be crazy to say no. And I wouldn’t, ever. Thanks, Jeffrey!.

by Jeffrey Kishner

The success of my current blog, Sasstrology, is partially a fluke. A few years ago, I was blogging regularly at Lunar Tunes Astrology. Most of my posts were about the New and Full Moons. However, I found – through the use of a blog statistics tool like Google Analytics – that many of my new readers found the blog by searching for stuff like, “How to get a Scorpio man interested.” Although I never explicitly wrote about the astrology of seduction, there was enough content in my blog posts (and from reader comments) that Google matched its googlers with my blog.

On a lark, I decided to try an experiment: start a new blog, and just write posts based on these romance-related google searches. Seduction Central – “the blog formerly known as Sasstrology” – was born, and it thrived.

Why? Because I was taking advantage of the long tail. Many folks may google “Taurus man,” but not as many google “How to get my Taurus man to come back to me.” Since I wrote blog post titles that targeted these less frequent search queries, my posts were more likely to rise to the top in these searches.

How to Find Long-Tail Searches Using Google Analytics

Once you sign up, follow the instructions in Googles Installation Guidefor installing the tracking code. There is also a plug-in for self-hosted WordPress Blogs. Unfortunately, you cannot install the tracking code on blogs hosted on WordPress.com.

When you scroll down, you’ll see the phrases that readers used to find your blog via a search engine. For example, the screenshot below shows the top 10 searches that include the phrase, “Taurus man.”

If I wanted to attract some good blog traffic, I’d write, “How to make a Taurus man propose.”

Of course, the types of posts you’d want to write about would be related to your current blog content, so instead of “Taurus man,” you might find searches like, “North Node conjunct Midheaven.” It is of primary importance that you cater to your current readers more than to Google, so don’t just write a post based on analytics. However, looking at keyword searches is a great way to find what your prospective readers are looking for, which will help you write content that both satisfies your fans and brings in new ones.

About the Author
Jeffrey Kishner is editor/publisher of Sasstrology. He is also a regular contributor at AOL Horoscopes. Jeffrey is available for professional consultations regarding WordPress blogs and social media optimization. You can contact him at jeffreykishner@gmail.com.

SEO Tip: Astrologer, Check Yourself!

How do you know if your blog site is effective? One of my favorite tools is Website Grader who will, gratis, grade your site and give you helpful hints and tips on how to optimize it. Not only that, but you can choose other websites to compare with yours.

Below is the results of my most recent analysis. I chose ElsaElsa and Jeffrey Kishner’s Seduction Central to compare my site with, not because I consider them similar blogs, but for their popularity in the astro blogging world.

There is a a mixed bag for all of us. While Elsa tops out at 99.3% rating, (way to go Elsa!), her blog rank is slightly behind mine, most probably because she has a smaller number of inbound links. I consider inbound linking one of the major stumbling blocks for astrology blogs because astrology blogging is such a small niche. You have to work at it to build any numbers at all.

The reason why I have so many inbound links is that Astrology Explored is part of a network of blogs. There is a lot of cross linking between blogs. This has the advantage of building your inbound links, but it has the disadvantage of adversely affecting your official Google Page Rank. Notice my pagerank is 4, while Elsa’s and Jeffrey’s is 5. Google says that network links are not as good as other inbound links. That’s a whole other story we won’t go into here. Suffice it say, the only thing the pagerank hurts is the ad dollars coming in. I’ll take inbound links over pagerank any day. Since the number of inbound links helps to establish the “reliability” of your blog, more links helps to push forward your blog to the head of the pack in searches for your topic.

Seduction Central has been up since November of 2006, eight months longer than I’ve been blogging at Astrology Explored, so I am surprised at the low number of Google indexed pages. Jeffrey, however, does not use as many keywords in his posts, a stylistic choice that fits well with the very conversational nature of his blog. A website grade of 92 is nothing to sneeze at, so overall, Jeffrey is marketing his blog well.

When you run website grader for yourself, don’t be dismayed at the number you first get. After periodically checking AE, I’ve noticed that the grade bounces up and down, depending on a number of factors. The last time I checked I had a grade of 84, then realized that Google, for whatever reason, wasn’t sharing its data that day. Also, if you are running on any of the free blogging platforms your grade is going to suffer. Website Grader will explain why. The important thing is to look at the free recommendations and follow the ones that make sense to you to increase your traffic.