When we optimize content, we typically zero in on a specific keyword phrase in order to attract a certain group of people. For instance, if you’re notifying your readers about when courts will be reopening for x civil cases, you’re updating and emboldening the reader to reach out to your law firm with additional queries about x. If you’re creating content to inform an audience about how they should proceed after a car accident with an uninsured driver, you’re conveying the useful information you have to not only instruct the reader but also to contact the firm for a free consultation.

Understanding the Limitless Value of Google Search Console’s Relationship with Your Content Strategy 

Many people shy away from using Google Search Console (GSC) because it often references Google Analytics. However, you can be sure that GSC stands alone as a source of endless data that will help you improve your marketing efforts. This resource doesn’t just inform you when certain pages aren’t indexing correctly, but it also lets you look at the traffic your site is accumulating on a page-level.

Head over to Google Search Console and find Performance. You’ll notice statistics that’ll inform whether or not certain pages have seen steady growth in visibility:

Take a minute to understand this data. In general, this kind of optimization transpires on the hyper-local level.

Once you’ve looked at your queries, move on to Pages. This segment will allow you to observe which pages are presently earning the most visibility on Google. From here, you’ll be able to understand which pages are producing and what needs repair. This data will more than likely harmonize with the statistics you’ve observed in Google Analytics. Still, you may be surprised at some of the gaps when placed side-by-side. These gaps represent your first opportunity to improve your site and earn traffic.

Take a look at some of the highest “clicked” pages on your site. You’ll most likely see that your homepage has a high click-thru rate, meaning that it has a high number of clicks, but a low number of impressions compared to your other highly clicked pages. This is often the case because the homepage includes your branded keywords. 

Click on the link and you should see a page that looks like this:

Filter just this singular page. At this point, click on Queries, and voila, you will now be able to see all of the keywords that are getting impressions and clicks on this page. Follow these same steps for all of your highly clicked pages—especially those with enormous impressions—and you’ll begin to understand your site’s potential.

At this point, you should click on Average Position to see how far you are from your desirable rank. It may also be in your best interest to sort the Date filter to a newer time frame so that you have a more precise average position. However, don’t forget that when you reduce your time frame, you may be disregarding potential keywords.

By looking at this data, we can come to certain conclusions. For instance:

• The above screenshot shows that we’re optimized for “legal marketing companies,” which often results in a top-five ranking but has less volume than “legal marketing agency.”
• Perhaps we should abandon both and instead focus on becoming an authority for “legal marketing.” However, what if fewer people have intent to actually work with a professional, and would instead rather educate themselves to do it on their own?
• “Law firm marketing expert” seems to present us with a decent and realistic opportunity that’s not outside of the realm of possibility.

In the following photo, we’re looking at a blog that’s being optimized to answer the question, “Should I Get a Lawyer for Driving While on a Suspended License Charge?”

The top keyword phrase that’s earning traffic in this instance is “how to avoid jail time for driving on a suspended license,” which answers our question but may not have intent. You’ll also notice great qualified keywords like “lawyers for suspended license,” “lawyer for suspended license,” “suspended license lawyer,” and “suspended license attorney.” These phrases are perhaps better in terms of getting leads. Once again, I’d focus on the clicks column.

The bottom line is that our blog, “Should I Get a Lawyer for Driving While on a Suspended License Charge?”, is probably earning more traffic than our dedicated “Suspended License Attorney” page. Perhaps we should re-optimize that page to include more geographic information and continue to let the blog earn traffic as it stands.

What Does It All Mean?

According to Google Search Console, the suspended license blog ranked for 474 keywords in the last 28 days. The phrase with the highest number of impressions, “suspended license lawyer,” has 703 impressions and averages 8.1 on the first page. In order to leverage the success that the blog has already, we can do the following:

• Verify that the keyword is being used correctly and is being mentioned in the H1/H2 tags
• Introduce new content that answers an additional question or two, particularly if the page has a low word count
• Add links in order to provide more page-level authority
• Initiate internal links that will connect right to this page
• Include videos, images, and other add-ons that may improve the page.

Producing more and more content isn’t always the best strategy. Instead, your company could benefit from an evaluation of your current pages. Ultimately, those that are finding some success could be improved even more, which may finally help your company progress.

Take the Next Step

Part of a successful partnership with a digital marketing agency is working with a team of SEO experts who understand how to acquire and interpret the data that should influence your content strategy. Find out how we can help your content succeed with a consultation. Contact us to learn more!

Further reading:

Six Ways Any Law Firm Can Have Endless, Quality Content Topics