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Advanced SEO Techniques that Drive More Traffic Wil Reynolds , Seer Interactive - Jun 1, 2010

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What do you do to take an already successful SEO campaign to the next level? Here I suggest ways to (1) improve ROI, (2) expand keywords, or (3) find hot trends to write content around.

1. Identify and Improve Webpages with High Traffic and Bounces

First, use advanced filters from Google Analytics. At the bottom of the keyword report in Google Analytics you'll see this line:

One approach is to filter your keyword report by the keywords that are bouncing over a certain percentage for keywords (say 60%) that have at least 50 visitors in the time period. See how I set these filters in the graphic below.

Your goal is to identify which keywords are driving traffic, but aren't getting people to stick around. Then try to figure out what can you do to those pages to get more people to engage the site more fully.

When I ran this report for one of my clients, the results brought back a lot of keywords that were ranking well for natural search. In fact my client was in the #1 spot for many brands -- and these keywords were driving plenty of traffic. But, as you can see below, the traffic didn't result in many conversions:

Running a report like this and having it sent to you monthly is a great way to take even your great SEO campaigns up a level. Just review keywords that have a high bounce rate and evaluate the corresponding landing pages to see what you can do to improve time on the page and conversions.

The goal here is to find highly ranked pages that are driving you traffic that you are not maximizing. Once you've identified them, use a tool like Google Website Optimizer to test that page against an alternative to see if you can turn the poor performers into something much better.

2. Maximize Traffic from "Long-Tail" Keywords

Here's a slightly more advanced technique that I call "blowing out the long tail," that is, maximizing traffic from seldom-used two-, three-, and four-word keyphrases.

There are various ways you can do this. I wrote a blog post about blowing out the long tail a while ago that explains one approach. Another option, when you have really strong rankings, is to study Google Insights for Search to find rising searches in your niche.

In step 5 of that blog post, I mention that it might be smart to check your keywords to see whether their trajectory over the last few years has been growing, is flat, or if other keywords have a faster trajectory in terms of their search volume.

Think about it. If you have a top ranking today, but that search word is getting fewer and fewer searches, you may still be #1, but that #1 ranking is losing impact. Perhaps universal search (local results, pictures, video, etc.) is taking away clicks. You need to keep seeking ways to cast your net wider, to target more and more long-tail keywords for the root keywords that are already ranking well.

Google Suggest

How do you find those long-tail keywords? Here are some approaches.

First, try Google Suggest. This is the function that suggests search terms when you search from your web browser or the Google Toolbar. Let's say you own the phrase "PBX Phone System" and have a top ranking in Google. When you search on this phrase, Google Suggest will show you other popular keywords to go after and develop content around:

Now, for each of these keywords, check your own site's rankings. I suggest using a free checker like Aaron Wall's Rank Checker. If you don't rank well, start developing content where it makes sense so that you attract more traffic from the long tail phrases and related searches.

Advanced users: Remember that you can use wildcards and other advanced search options that will give you different results and different insights:

3. Identify Hot Trends and Build New Content

Another way to find more keyword options is with the category filter feature in Google Insights for Search.

Let's say you want to know what's getting hot in Gaming? Use the drop-down menu for "games," then expand the menu to, say, a subcategory of "online games."

Below you see a graph showing search activity in this category for the last 12 months followed by top searches and "rising searches."

Google Trends for Search shows all kinds of information on what is getting hot in the online gaming space. Keep in mind that this trend will change if you were looking for what's gotten hot in the last 30 days -- which I recommend you do. See the same report run in a different time interval. None of the rising keywords are the same now.

Remember to not just leave the search defaults in place. If you're trying to expand a campaign by jumping on what's getting hot, for example, you'll want to see what's been hot for the last 7 days or even the last 24 hours by selecting a specific date range. Then write content for your site that will attract traffic from these hot "rising" search trends.

I hope that these pointers will help you as you look for ways to expand your SEO efforts.

Wil Reynolds, is the head SEO Consultant (http://www.thinkseer.com) at SEER Interactive. He can be found on Twitter @wilreynolds and YouTube.