 Check Top Search Queries: Increase Catholic Web Site Traffic
Introduction
Every small Catholic web site developer wants to know the key to increase traffic
to his web site. One way is to engage in reciprocal linking with other Catholic
web sites. This is a very good strategy in increasing visitor traffic. This article,
will however mention another effective key to increase web site traffic: to check
the top search queries used by the internet public, and then apply these
search terms well in page titles and meta tag descriptions. It is both the page
title and the meta tag description that appears in Google's search engine results
pages. If the content in our web pages are represented well by popular Catholic key
phrases in both title and description, then this will compel the searcher to click
and enter our Catholic web site.
Google Webmaster Tools
The first step needed for this strategy, is to check the top search queries of our
Catholic web site. To check this, we click on My Account (a Google account), and then
proceed to Webmaster Tools. We then click Webmaster Tools to enter into
the Dashboard area, where all our sites (web site and blogs) are registered. We
click on the site we wish to check for Top Search Queries. As we click the site,
we are given an Overview of tools we can use to analyze our web site. For our
present purpose, we just click on Top Search Queries.
Impressions and Traffic
We are then given two lists for the Top Search Queries statistics - a list for
impressions, and another for clickthrough. The search queries under the list of
impressions are search terms used by people in which our site appeared in
the results pages. The "#" statistic, is the ranking of a search query. The
"%" statistic, is the percentage of a search query from the total top 20
queries given in the impressions list. And the "position" statistic, is the
highest position any page in our web site ranked for a query. These statistics
are only impressions; people have not clicked yet on any of our pages to enter
our web site.
The clickthrough list is the second list given in the Top Search Queries page.
This list is important. If we see the search queries in the clickthrough list
to be few in number (or maybe nothing yet), then this means that, although we
get many impressions to our small Catholic web site, clickthroughs to site is very
low or nothing yet. People are not entering our small Catholic web site with
the search terms they use, even though they rank high in the list of impressions.
To increase our clickthrough statistics, we can use the statistics given in the
impressions list to: 1) tweak the titles and descriptions of our pages to
integrate the search terms given in the impressions list; 2) revise and edit the
content of our pages that will reflect usability and at the same time
integrate highly ranked search terms in the impressions list; 3) create additional
articles that will combine both the employment of effective page titles and descriptions,
and useful content in the site. You can also get information to increase clickthroughs
through the "Help with:" yellow box section given at the bottom left column of
Google Webmaster Tools Top Search Queries page. There are links in that section
relating to Help with: Understanding data and Increasing clickthrough.
Increase clickthrough with our site vision, mission and goals in mind
Before we decide on steps and measures to increase clickthroughs to a small Catholic
web site, it is good to review first what are the objectives we had formulated
when we created our small Catholic web site. Increasing clickthroughs are only means
to these objectives, but also a very vital means to the life of basic and
small Catholic web site development. If one of our immediate goals is to
promote a free Catholic eBook, then we can use this search term (which can also
appear in our impressions list) more effectively in page titles, descriptions,
and in page content. As we apply this to other search terms in our impressions
list, we can have a full clickthrough list proportionately sizeable to the amount of
optimization work we have done.
As Google suggests in its Webmaster Tools Guidelines, the key to improve and
increase traffic to one's web site, is to write compelling page titles and
descriptions, that are highly optimized for the search terms used by the
internet public, and which also represent very useful content people on
the Net are searching for.
Summary and conclusion
It takes time to build traffic for a small Catholic web site. A lot of work has
to be done in terms of optimization for both page titles and descriptions,
and for content. After we have created the basic and core pages of our
Catholic web site, we need to tweak these pages regularly for better
rankings in search engine results pages. But the rankings are not enough
to attract clickthroughs. The key lies in how we can compel and attract clicks
to our page titles and descriptions, because these are what impress the
internet public, as they make a search query related to the key phrases
we used in our site. The best and wisest strategy therefore is to continually
optimize our page titles and descriptions, and to add more useful content
for our readers, using the statistics given in the Top Search Queries.
Related resources
Dennis Emmanuel Cabrera
Web Developer Methods for Catholics
www.c-web-developer.net
My Main Catholic Blog
www.c-internet-mission.net
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