SEO isn’t easy work.

Doing keyword research, creating content and then executing a content promotion plan are all time-consuming and resource-intensive tasks.

And that’s not even touching on the technical side of SEO.

But what if I told you that there’s an easy way to significantly increase page traffic that most marketers are overlooking?

Well, there is. And it’s by using something every marketer probably already has: keyword ranking reports.

 

 

Tracking your keywords is an essential SEO task if you want to optimize search traffic and prevent competitors from displacing you in the search engines.

But you can also use your keyword ranking report to extract vital information for your SEO strategy, and significantly boost your rankings and traffic.

Let’s find out how you can get 45% more page traffic just by uncovering the valuable insights in this report.

How to Generate Your Keyword Ranking Report

Before we can get stuck in, the first step is to generate your keyword ranking report.

To do this, you need an advanced SEO tool like Monitor Backlinks.

Monitor Backlinks will automatically track your keywords and your competitors’ keywords, plus show you all the metrics you need to know for each keyword including its current ranking position, best position, search volume, difficulty level, cost per click and ranking history.

We’ll be using this tool for the rest of the post. If you don’t have an account to follow along, you can get all this information (plus heaps more) by claiming your free trial of Monitor Backlinks here.

Now, it’s time to set up keyword tracking and get your keyword ranking report. Simply click on the “Rank Tracker” tab to start.

 

 

Click the “+” button to add any keywords that you want to track.

You can find keywords that are already driving traffic to your site from Google Analytics or Search Console, but you should also add keywords that you’re trying to rank for.

 

 

To track your competitors, you’ll need to navigate to the “Competitor Links” tab and add their URLs.

 

 

Then you can go back to the “Rank Tracker” tab to track their keyword rankings in line with your own.

 

 

This up-to-date keyword ranking report is accessible at any time.

If you want to export the results, either to use on a different program (like Excel) or to print for a hard copy, just select  “All” from the drop-down menu and then click the  “Export” button.

 

 

How to Use Your Keyword Ranking Report to Boost Traffic by 45% or More

1. Identify Keywords That Are Almost Ranking

Firstly, look for keywords that are already ranking and give them a boost for a potentially quicker win. Sometimes even moving up just one position can increase traffic significantly (more on this in a second).

You can boost keywords by:

• Pointing more internal links to the page you want to boost. If a page is really important, you could even consider adding a link to it in the site’s footer navigation or main menu.

• Getting more external links to the page. Reach out to other people who might find your content interesting or valuable, or use these email outreach templates to build relationships with other bloggers.

• Updating your page content. This is more of an indirect way to improve your rankings, but rewriting, adding to and otherwise improving your content will make it better than your competitors and earn you more backlinks.

Armed with these tactics, go back to your keyword ranking report to find the best keywords to boost. Look for:

Keywords that are in position #11

A study by Chitika Insights that sampled over 8 million clicks showed that 94% of searchers clicked a link on the first page of SERPs, and only 6% of searchers clicked to the second page of search results.

The study also found that the click-through rate for the top result on page 2 (position #11) was 1.11%, and the click-through rate for the last result on page 1 (position #10) was 2.71% .

Moving from position #11 to position #10 results in a 144% increase in traffic.

 

 

Keywords that are at the top of the second page in SERPs are prime candidates for boosting. Getting that content to rank on the first page is likely less competitive than trying to boost something higher that’s already on the first page.

The traffic increase can also be significant if the keyword has good search volume, so keep an eye out for content that’s ranking at the top of page 2.

Here’s a quick example from a keyword ranking report in Monitor Backlinks. You can see that we’re ranking near the top of the second page for the keyword “moz pro,” and its best position has been as high as #11.

 

 

This is a good example of content that we can try to boost by firing more internal links to it or doing a little external link building. With just a little work, maybe we can get it on the first page of the search results and significantly increase SEO traffic to that page.

Keywords that are ranked #4 – #10

Getting into the first three SERP results will give you a huge boost in visibility and clicks.

Ignite Visibility conducted a study to measure the click-through rates of search engine results based on position, and the top three results get significantly more clicks than the other results below.

In fact, moving up from position #4 to position #3 can result in an increase of 45% more visits.

 

Keywords that are ranked #2 or #3

Moving from position #2 to #1 increases site visits by 50% on average.

While this is definitely harder to do and more competitive, a 50% increase in traffic may very well be worth it.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that in some instances, moving to position #1 may not be as difficult as you think. Sometimes competitors aren’t paying attention to their rankings for older content, or haven’t kept up their SEO after they got their first place ranking, or are just more focused on other things.

So, don’t overlook keywords that are already on the first page of Google and driving traffic—you could still get more!

2. Identify Keywords That Are Declining in Rank

Another thing you’ll want to do is identify keywords that are declining in rank. It could be that your content is outdated or your competitors are actively trying to outrank you.

For example, you can see that this ranking for the keyword “link research tools review” is dropping, and previously had a first page ranking.

 

 

In this case, it’d be a good idea to assess the page and look for ways to improve it. That might include:

• Updating content to make it competitive with competitor content

• Improving load speed or other aspects of user experience

• Firing more internal links from other higher-ranking pages

Taking steps to boost your content and strengthen your SEO will make it more difficult for competitors to outpace you, and can push you back to the first page.

 

3. Spy on Competitor Keyword Rankings

Asides from monitoring your own keyword rankings, you should also monitor your competitors’ keywords.

Sometimes competitors find keywords that you miss—new ranking opportunities that you may never even have thought of.

For example, using our keyword ranking report in Monitor Backlinks, I found that a competitor is starting to rank for the term “spy competitors keywords” at position #12. This could be a good phrase for us to target next.

 

 

If a competitor is gaining traction on a particular keyword and you want to compete, first do some quick keyword research to estimate its search traffic potential.

In most cases, if the keyword is driving traffic to your close competitors, then you should probably be ranking for it too.

Then, create new content to target these newly discovered opportunities. Make it better and more up to date than what’s already ranking on the first page, and fire internal links to it from older content to give it an added boost while you wait for it to rank.

4. Monitor Keywords That You’re Currently Ranking Well For

Finally, even if you’re currently ranking well for various keywords, you still need to monitor and keep track of your rankings over time.

Prioritize keywords that are driving the most traffic and creating the most conversions—these are the rankings you definitely don’t want to lose.

Luckily, Monitor Backlinks automatically tracks your keyword rankings for you and sends you regular updates on any changes, so that you’re always in the loop.

You can also see and export your up-to-date keyword ranking report directly from the tool, for whenever you want to do a closer analysis or look for keywords that need a boost.

 

Keyword ranking reports are a must if you want to stay competitive in SEO.

They can prevent you from getting displaced by competing content, help you discover new keyword opportunities and—most surprisingly—even help you drive more traffic to your site.

Use your report to identify the keywords that need your attention, and give them a big healthy dose of SEO to outstrip your competitors to the top.