You spend a lot of time creating and publishing content. But have you ever stopped to consider whether your efforts are getting results? Analyzing your content strategy can help you determine whether your content approach is effective. Here are three ways to track your content strategy’s success so you can continue doing what’s working or make modifications as needed.
1. Compare Your Content to Competitor Content
Do you have one or more competitors who are getting exceptional results from their content strategy? Don’t waste your time turning green with envy. Instead, take a close analytical look at what they’re doing right. They’ve probably learned the hard way what works well and what doesn’t. You may be able to shorten your own trial-and-error process by simply paying attention to what your competitors are doing.
A competitive content analysis is an invaluable tool for analyzing what’s working for other businesses in your industry. To begin, make a list of your top competitors, then search for them online. Pay close attention to how they rank in search results. Those that rank the highest for relevant keywords are worth emulating. But before you can emulate, you need to disassemble your competitors’ content to reveal what makes it work so well.
For example, how many hyperlinks, images, and headers do they include in their content? How well do they cover relevant topics and what topic gaps do they currently have that you can fill? You should also pay attention to the keywords they use to help them achieve their coveted rank. The information gleaned from a competitive content analysis can help guide your content strategy going forward.
To be clear, you don’t want to become a clone of any of your competitors. Doing so will only cheapen your brand and make you seem like a knock-off version of someone else. But you do want to adopt some of your competitors’ best practices to improve your own content performance. If you’re not sure how to analyze competitor content, consider using a tool or hiring someone else to do it for you.
2. Use Google Analytics Data
Google Analytics is one of the most popular online tools for tracking content success. If you aren’t using it yet, consider making it an integral part of your content strategy. Google Analytics provides some very important data regarding the effectiveness of your website content. There are many metrics you can follow to determine how impactful your content currently is. But at a minimum, you’ll want to track clicks, conversions, and engagement.
If you want to increase profits, you need to start by increasing clicks. Use Google Analytics to find out how many clicks you’re currently getting, then strategize how you can get more. There are a lot of tried-and-proven techniques for creating content that earns clicks. Some suggestions include optimizing your content with relevant keywords and engaging subject matter. Don’t forget to post frequently and to make sure your content offers value to the reader.
Clicks are great to have, but they’re pretty pointless if they don’t result in conversions (meaning intended actions). Use Google Analytics data to see how many of your site visitors take a desired action such as making a purchase or submitting a form. If your clicks are high but your conversions are low, you may need to tweak your content approach. Your content may not accurately depict your product or service, leaving users disenchanted once they click to your site. Or you may need to modify your on-site content to better convince users that they need your products or services.
Finally, use Google Analytics to keep track of user engagement. This is perhaps one of the most important metrics you can follow when determining the effectiveness of your content strategy. Your engagement report reveals how long users stay on your site. View your visitors’ average engagement time per page to identify which pages may not be sufficiently appealing or entertaining. Revise your content as needed and include internal links so visitors will spend more time on your site.
3. Measure Your Keyword Performance
Do you know which keywords are producing results for you and which are not? Your keyword performance metrics are essential for monitoring the overall success of your content strategy. It’s never a good idea to run your marketing campaigns blind. But that’s exactly what marketers and content managers do when they fail to collect and analyze keyword data.
A keyword analysis can help you see what keywords and search terms are driving the most traffic to your site. If you aren’t consistently monitoring your keyword performance, you’re likely to waste time and money creating ineffective content. There are several ways you can measure keyword performance, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and utilizing various private company services.
There are some benefits to hiring a company to help you measure, track, and analyze your keyword performance. One of the most notable is that such a company can provide customized recommendations for building an effective keyword strategy. Many business owners and marketers focus on difficult keywords that are too competitive to actually help them achieve their keyword performance goals. To improve your SERP rank, you may need to take a more strategic content approach that includes targeting lower-difficulty keywords.
If your content strategy is falling flat, you can turn things around. It’s important to be flexible and willing to modify your approach when your current tactics aren’t working. Use the suggestions above to develop a content strategy that delivers improved results.
