How much do you know about the people who visit your website? What about your Facebook fans and Twitter followers? If your marketing budget is going down the drain, it’s time to make some changes.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and digital advertising go hand in hand. Any of the people who visit your site might be a potential client. The more you know about your audience, the higher your chances to reach your best customers.

In this digital era, we have access to massive data. As a business owner or entrepreneur, you can leverage the power of data to maximize your SEO efforts. This will result in more page views, higher revenue, and increased sales.

Not sure where to start? Here are some simple tips on how to collect data for your SEO strategy and turn it into valuable insights!

Start with Google Analytics

Google Analytics covers the most important KPIs, making it easier to understand your customers and their online behaviour. This free tool tracks and reports website traffic, including the number of unique page views, visit duration, bounce rates, value per visit, and more.

With this information, you’ll know exactly where your visitors are coming from, how they landed on your site, and why they left. Furthermore, marketers can set goals per reporting view, define goal value, and even create their own set of metrics.

How to Collect Data with SEO Tools

In addition to Google Analytics, there are many other free and paid SEO tools that make data collection easy.

Google Search Console, for example, displays the most common keywords used by your website’s visitors. It also shows what your most popular pages are, where your traffic is coming from, what devices people use to access your site, and which websites link to you.

Another helpful tool is Hotjar. This app generates heatmaps that display visitor behaviour on your website in real time. You can see their taps, clicks, and scrolling behaviour among other things.

SEO isn’t just about traffic. Besides analyzing user behaviour, you need to find and use relevant keywords, build links, and post quality on your site or blog. That’s where Ahrefs comes in handy.

With this online tool, marketers can see the exact keywords their competitors are ranking for as well as which websites are linking to them. You may use this data to track your rankings, find keywords with a high search volume and low competition, identify the hottest topics for your blog, and more.

Keep Up with the Latest Trends

Struggling with writer’s block? Want to create content that inspires and entertains while driving website traffic? Make sure you add Google Trends to your list.

This free SEO tool makes it easy to identify the most popular topics and keywords in your niche. It shows what searches are trending, how search interest varies by region, and what topics are hot right now.

Use this data to create engaging posts and reach a wider audience. If your content is good, it could go viral within hours.

Make Data Work for You

Still wondering how to collect data for your SEO campaigns? Besides the strategies listed above, you can use social media, keyword research tools, and web server logs to get the information you need to boost your rankings in search results.

If you’re new to SEO, check out this guide to get started. We’ll show you the exact steps you need to take to make sure your website is appealing to both customers and search bots.