Content takes time to create. It takes time to think of new topics and ideas to write about. It takes time to research what other brands are writing. It takes time to create the content itself and finally publish it. Analyzing all of this content also takes time.
Many companies focus on creating and perfecting content. However, this last step should not be ignored. Once a piece of content is published, it’s time for the real internal work to begin. Analyzing your onsite content is a chance to establish what is and what isn’t working well for you and your brand. It’s also a learning opportunity, one that can help propel your brand or business even further.
Content audit tools are a great way to get a general overview of how the content you are creating is performing. These tools allow you to see how many users read the content, how much time they spent on it, and at what point they bounced to another page. Keep reading to discover some other advantages of analyzing your onsite content.
1. Know Your Audience
As a content creator, it’s crucial to get a sense of who your audience is. This includes demographic information, such as gender and even geographic location. Having this knowledge allows you to write on topics and themes that best fit your audience. For example, if you know that the majority of your audience is coming from the United States then writing an article in French may not be worth your effort.
Knowing your audiences goes hand-in-hand with ensuring your content is distinctive and unique. Your content should have a well-defined tone of voice, one that the audiences you’ve identified will begin to associate with your brand. This is important to establish early on, as it can inform future content decisions. That said, if your brand has been producing content without, or if you want to change your brand’s content POV, that’s alright. Doing so is something that can be tracked and analyzed to see if it’s resulting in better performance metrics.
Finally, knowing your audience also means knowing where they are looking for content. You may be pushing out article after article on Facebook only to find out that your users are more likely to be on Instagram or TikTok. This new information may change the way you or your team decides to distribute content.
2. Know What Is Resonating
After you’ve nailed down your audience demographic and brand’s tone of voice, it’s a good idea to figure out what content your audience is interested in consuming. If you are a yoga studio, then a blog article on the benefits of a consistent meditation practice may perform well. However, a blog post on hiking gear or benefits of having a dog may not be as successful.
One way to know what is resonating is to analyze your previously published content. Take a look at the total traffic to an article. Total unique visitors, pageviews, and unique pageviews are all metrics corresponding to traffic. Of course, remember that it takes time for Google to index your content. This can vary anywhere from a few hours to a few months!
Besides traffic, it’s important to take a look at specific engagement metrics. This will allow you to see if the words on the page are really resonating with your audiences. Average time spent is a good indicator if users are actually reading the content. Lastly, pages per visit will inform you how users are navigating themselves once they land on your site. Keeping all of these metrics in mind ensures that the content you’re producing makes the most sense for your brand.
3. Know Where You Need to Optimize
Analyzing your onsite can help propel your business forward. It can show you what types of content you can improve upon. Content optimization is a chance for users to find your content sooner and faster via search. For example, if you find that users are bouncing off your articles quickly, you may want to reorganize the article content. Adding a few key points at the beginning of the article helps readers see an outline of the information they will find if they keep reading.
Analyzing your onsite content also shows you gaps in current content offerings, generating new ideas and leads for future pieces. Through a content gap analysis, you can compare your content to a handful of competitor’s content. This tool shows how you are currently ranking versus what your competitors are ranking on.
Now that you know where to optimize, the key is adding optimization to part of your content strategy plan. This takes into account identifying the holes in your content. It also means optimizing to find out how you can make published pieces stronger in the eyes of search. Again, it may be as simple as reorganizing the content and adding a few keywords or it may mean a complete rewrite.
Takeaways
Analyzing your onsite content may not be the most fun to-do item on your list, but it can prove to be the most beneficial to your brand. With the constant demand for content, anything that was published, even an hour ago, is considered old. Keeping your content fresh and up-to-date is essential in today’s world.
View Comments (1)
8rrbnp