Without Google Analytics to measure your content marketing strategy, you won’t have enough information to make informed decisions. Anyone can lets. Google Analytics not only tells you how many people are coming to your site, but which keywords they used to arrive there. It will let you know where most of your traffic is coming from and also what platforms need to be supported more. For instance, you might be getting a sizable portion of your traffic from smartphones, in which case it would be a good idea to make your content mobile-friendly.
Quality Content is Even More Important than Before
With the Hummingbird and Panda Google updates, the need for quality content has only increased. Content needs to be informative, engaging, and also seeks to please Google and visitors alike. Instead of less content, more is needed to make an impression with Google, however, too much of the same content in one area and you could be labeled a spammer. Instead of focusing on just your website, you will need to expand your content marketing initiative to other sites, like Google+ and article directories. The more quality content Google spots with your author tag, the more likely they will count you an expert in that topic.
Keep Track of Stats
To measure what impact your content marketing is having, keep track of the following:
Unique Visitors / Page Views – This will show you if your traffic has increased and which pages or topics are most popular with your demographic. When this increases, you know you are showing true progress.
Bounce Rate / Average Time on Page – Pages that get read more have large times on the page. However, those that bounce people need someone technical to look at them to find out why that’s happening. You want the surfing experience to be as smooth as possible.
Search Engine Referral Traffic – Which search engines are sending you the most traffic? How have you dominated placement there and how can that show you how to improve your standing with other search engines?
Social Shares, Comments, and Inbound Links – Which topics and marketing initiatives got the most shares and comments? These can prove to be big money-makers. Who is linking to you and why? Once you understand what makes your content attractive, you can generate more of the same across a bigger area to draw in a bigger crowd.
Conversion Rates – How many people are buying your products? What products or offerings are popular? Can you increase your conversion rates by up-selling or cross-selling products that enhance your offerings?
Do Some A/B Split Testing
It’s not always obvious why one piece of content is popular and another strikes out. If you’re not sure, try doing some A/B split testing on one item at a time. Change a header on two versions and send half the traffic to one heading and the other to the other. Which one gets longer time on page, conversions, and shares? Try the same tactic with a call to action and see which one gets better results. By carefully testing a few key changes, you can learn to tweak your content where it counts the most.
Looking to get more from your content marketing? Give DirectiveGroup a call.
