Google Sitemaps Review - Google Sitemaps Statistics: Query Stats

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Google Sitemap Statistics: Query Stats

If your site is deeply crawled and Googlebot discovers your new pages fast enough, you are probably wondering why you would need sitemaps. What does it have that is worth the trouble of setting up an account and a sitemap? However, the Google Sitemap statistics are reason enough to sign up for the service, and they don't even require uploading a sitemap.

The sitemap statistics are probably the best thing you get from interacting with Google. The first set of results, the Query stats, can help to show you details about your visitors that you probably would have never found out otherwise. They show what search queries and keywords people are looking for when they find you, and which ones you get the most clicks for. There are three sections of these stats:

• Top searches
• Top searches from mobile devices
• Top searches from the mobile web

Top searches is the most interesting, but the mobile devices may pique your interest if you are running a site targeted specifically for them. There are two tables in the top searches. The first shows us the top search queries. These are the most common searches people perform and find you in the results. The second table is very similar, but it shows the most common terms people searched for when they clicked through you result listing.

Top Search Queries

Top Search Query Clicks

There are a few things this information can help with. It can be very interesting to see if people are finding you for keywords you have chosen, and you can also see if they click through for your keywords. If they aren't, you have something going wrong, and Google's statistics can be a red flag that something is wrong. Do search queries with this information to see the SERPs your searchers are seeing, and optimize your content to bring in the most relevant traffic. Finally, it might signal that you should reconsider picking new keywords or reworking your static content to reflect the kind of visitors you want to bring in.

Also, some sites have explained that their visitors have been finding them for only a small fraction of their content. If you are running a blog of consumer reviews, for example, you may notice that people are finding your site most often for your reviews of kid's toys and Legos. While this is only a small part of your site, you might consider expanding on this content to keep visitors' interest and maybe get a few more to bookmark the site. You might think of more creative things you can do with this information, but obviously it's really helpful to see into the mind of a Google searcher.

You will notice too that the search rankings are not real-time. They are the average of your rank over three weeks, and Google said that this value is only updated once a day. With all the fluctuations is SERPs, it's easier to deal with the information this way.

Next: Google Sitemap Statistics: Crawl stats, Page analysis, and Index stats >>
 

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Comments On: Google Sitemaps Review

· Most SEOs are using Google Sitemaps. If you aren't, you should. Post comments.    · I don't think it will be too long before all major engines have this sort of...    · It does seem to be going that way. Yahoo has been doing it too, but with less...    · 5/15Ever since using google sitemaps, all that is happened is Google has...    · Ok, so we fall into the 'new site' syndrome but we've been using the Google sitemap...    · How can I know a location to access from a command line to upload a sitemap?Thanks...   >>> Post your comment now!