Without Keyword Info From Google - How do we re-do a site not knowing what to keep?

[JoshBowers2012]

Bit of a riddle I am trying to figure out here... I have a client that receives some visits via organic searches (around 700). Most of which are to the homepage.

The client isn't actively targeting any keywords yet (on purpose) and the homepage doesn't have much on it.

I've been hired to do keyword research and re-develop the site but this is the first site I've done since google really put the hurt on keyword information.

My worry is that without knowing what keywords people are using currently to search and find the site, I will be potentially deleting information that is bringing in traffic.

Looking at the traffic and other keywords I can view I think the keywords are branded which makes it a bit easier but again, it is a bit worrisome, not so much for this client but for future work.

Anyone have any ideas other than looking at webmaster  tools and landing pages?

[CHarkins]

The first place I would look would be the "Top Pages" in webmaster tools and take a look at the topics covered by those pages. Also look at the "Top Queries" report to see the queries and click through rates reported to get a feel for the top performing content.

Another avenue to use is the site's internal search engine. If the site has a "site search", then you can look at the common terms being searched for. If people are searching for something on-site, then it makes a good external search target.

Lastly, look at their adwords account (if they have one). See what adwords terms are bringing in the most traffic and conversions and use that as another starting point for the content strategy.

[Allie_Williams]

Josh,

You might also look at the organic search traffic coming from Bing, since they still share their keyword data. It sounds like this client doesn't have a lot of organic search traffic, but if the site hasn't changed much recently you could review a longer time period - like six months - and see which keywords drove organic visits via Bing.

You can then extrapolate the Bing data to estimate what keywords might be driving a lot of volume through Google.

Agree with Craig about looking at the GA 'Top Pages' report too.