How To Find High Converting Keywords (And Create Content That Drives Traffic)

Keywords are essential to a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) strategy — and your marketing strategy. If you want to connect with prospects when they’re prepared to make a purchase, you need to target the right words and phrases associated with that intent.

But how can you figure out what those keywords are?

In this article, I’ll help you uncover which keywords are driving the most traffic to your pages and which keywords are associated with high conversion rates.

What Are High Converting Keywords?

High-converting keywords are those that drive notably high conversion rates on web pages. Often thought of in terms of PPC campaigns, top converting keywords are also a valuable part of a comprehensive SEO strategy.

High converting keywords indicate that your content aligns with the search intent of the keyworde and that your offer aligns with where your site visitors are in the customer journey.

Because site owners tend to measure the success of a web page by the number of conversions it drives, understanding which keywords outperform others is a critical facet of knowing your customers and providing them with content that meets their needs better than anyone else’s does. This can translate to measurable and repeatable success in your SEO and marketing efforts. 

Find Your Top Converting Keywords

There are two ways to think about top converting keywords:

1. The keywords that get people to click through from SERPs.
2. The keywords that get people to perform a desired action.

Both of these types of keywords have value. The first one helps you drive organic traffic to your website. The second one helps you convert a site visitor into a customer. Identifying these keywords is simple by using two free tools: Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Pinpoint Keywords Driving the Most Traffic With Google Search Console

To see which keywords bring organic traffic, sign in to Google Search Console and select ‘Search results’ from the menu.

Beneath the graph highlighting clicks and impressions is a box that indicates the search queries people use to find your web pages. Make sure there’s a down arrow next to ‘Clicks.’ If not, click on the text so it appears and sorts the search terms by how many clicks they’ve received. 

Click on a search term to learn more about it. The graph at the top will now provide click, impression, CTR, and ranking data for the selected term.

Alternatively, you can find which page is receiving the most clicks. Select ‘Search Results’ from the menu, and click on ‘Pages’ in the box below the graph.

Find the URL you want to learn more about, and click on it. This will show you the metrics for that page. 

Click on ‘Queries,’ and you’ll see the different search terms people use to find that URL via Google and their respective CTRs.

You can now sort by CTR. However, you may find that a particular term is only used once and that it has a CTR of 100%, which isn’t really useful. This is one of those moments when you’ll need to use discretion. 

To filter out those queries, click the funnel and check ‘CTR.’

Next, select ‘Smaller than’ and enter a threshold. For this example, I chose 100. Then, click ‘Done,’

Now you can more easily comb through your keywords. Ideally, you’ll have a keyword with high clicks and a high CTR. If not, you may need to focus on improving the CTR or identifying if there’s a better keyword.

Once you know which keywords are working best for you, you can further optimize your page around them. Cross-referencing the CTR with search volume data from a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help you evaluate which keywords have the greatest potential to increase traffic.

Uncover High Converting Keywords With Google Analytics

If you have Google Analytics events set up to track your important KPIs, you can identify which URLs have the highest CTR for each of your goals.

Expand the ‘Conversions’ menu, then select ‘Goal URLs.’

You’ll now see a list of URLs where a site visitor has completed one of your goals. 

Initially, all the URLs associated with any goal will show. To see URLs by a specific goal, open the ‘Goal Options’ drop-down menu and pick the goal you want to learn more about. 

You can also add a segment to view goal completion by traffic source. Click ‘Choose a segment from list,’ check the box next to ‘Organic Traffic,’ and then click ‘Apply.’

Now you can compare your organic traffic against all your web traffic. This can help you see whether a particular page is driving clicks from organic traffic or other sources. Use GSC to identify the keywords associated with that page to find the ones that are driving conversions so you can focus your SEO efforts more strategically towards keywords that will actually help your business’s bottom line.

Once you know which page is driving organic clicks, you can use Google Search Console to find its associated search terms and further optimize your page around them.

Identifying New High Converting Keywords

If your keywords don’t seem to perform well, it’s time to seek out new ones. 

1. Complete Keyword Research for Your Industry

Understanding what keywords your customers (and your competitors) are using is crucial to fulfilling your objectives. Once you do, you can prioritize the ones you want to optimize your site for based on search volume, competition, and your business goals. Follow our tips for how to do keyword research to find appropriate keywords for your niche.

2. Focus on Search Intent

One of the best ways to hone in on high-converting keywords is to focus on the concept of search intent. Search intent is what it sounds like: The reason someone searches for a particular word or phrase. Understanding it can provide insight into how your customers use keywords, what type of content they’re looking for, and how you can provide it. 

Best of all, you don’t need sophisticated tools to determine search intent. If you’re unsure of the search intent associated with a specific keyword, google it and then study the types of pages ranking for it. It should fall under one of these primary categories:

• Informational: To answer a question
• Navigational: To find a specific page on a website (such as “return policy”)
• Commercial Investigation: To narrow down purchase choices, often with the intent of finding reviews, advice, or guidance 
• Transactional: To purchase a product, typically one they’ve already researched and are ready to act upon

Make a note of the search intent so you can create content that aligns with it.

Also, if your keyword research indicates that you have been targeting the right keywords but aren’t getting clicks, look more closely at search intent. If your content doesn’t align with the search intent Google ascribes to that keyword, your page won’t rank well in SERPs. Rewrite your content following these guidelines and ask Google to recrawl your URL.

3. Identify Top-Ranking Content Types

Once you’ve identified search intent, look at the top-ranking content to determine whether you should create a landing page, a blog post, a video, or another form of content.

Ask yourself:

• What are the top-ranking pages providing readers? 
• How is the information presented?
• Who are they creating content for?

By analyzing the competition’s content from a new perspective, you’ll get a better idea of what these top-ranking pages actually deliver.

4. Consider the Customer Journey

To maximize the effectiveness of your content, think about when a potential customer would come across it. When in their customer journey would they enter the search term you’ve chosen to target? Does your proposed offer align with where site visitors are in their customer journey?

For example, if you have a top-of-funnel piece with informational intent, does your offer align with that intent? Is your offer clear, obvious, and compelling for bottom-of-the-funnel pieces?

5. Plan Your Approach

Now that you’ve done your intel, it’s time to plan how you’ll create or update content that should rank in top converting searches.

These resources will help you use your keyword research to create landing pages and blog posts that drive traffic to your website. 

Need Help with Keyword Research?

Finding the right keywords to optimize around can be confusing and exasperating. Instead of wasting time on trial and error, use Victorious’s expertise to propel your most crucial web pages to the first-page search results. Our keyword research services support our customers’ growth goals. Schedule a free SEO consultation to learn more.