If you have some experience as a content creator, you likely know how necessary it is to monitor each project’s performance regularly. This way, you are able to isolate the content that has the best performance and also content that needs to be improved. This article discusses aspects that illustrate if your content caters to the people for whom it is designed.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: marketinginsidergroup.com
Keeping a close watch on your content’s reception is vital. Even though you find a piece of content to be one of your best works, it might not appeal as well to your target audience. By using data analytics, you are able to see what would work best for your content marketing and lead to success. Here are six metrics that show how well you are reaching your target audience.
- Traffic
The most significant metric for online content is traffic, and it can be measured through more indicators. Analyze your traffic using Google Analytics by looking at three different factors, as defined by the original article on Marketing Insider Group: “users (the total number of unique visitors to your page), page views (the total number of times a page on your site has been viewed) [and] unique page views (if a single user has viewed your page multiple times, these visits are combined into one page view to calculate this metric).”
This data can be either used to see individual pages’ traffic, or it can be furtherly explored to see from where your traffic originates and the type of devices your audience uses. You personalize your future content using this information, transforming it accordingly to your traffic results.
- Sales or conversions
Along with monitoring traffic, you should also encourage your audience to click your links, sign up for the newsletter, buy something, etc. (conversion can take several forms). Depending what sort of content you produce, you might want visitors to make a transaction, or simply raise awareness of your brand. In that case, social shares and engagement should be your focus, among other metrics. If you are aiming to sale things, Google Analytics also tracks the number of sales generated by your content.
- Engagement
Traffic isn’t always an indicator of a good content. In order to see if people are engaging with your content, it is recommended to look at things like how much time they spend on each page or how many pages they visit in a session. This information can also be found in Google Analytics, in Audience Overview, along with the average number of pages per session, the session duration and the bounce rate. What you’re aiming for, especially if it is readable content, is a high number of pages per session, a long average session duration and also a low bounce rate.
- Social Media Engagement
Another instrument for measuring engagement is to examine the impact your content has on social media. One of the most important metrics in social media is share rates, as it is a clear sign that people find your content worth sharing with their friends.
This information can be tracked either on the social share buttons, or using websites such as Buzzsumo that will also rank your content based on the number of shares.
Google Analytics shows how much social media-generated traffic reaches your website, this being another metric of the engagement. Going to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals allows you to access it.
- SEO Performance
The number of site visits that come from searches can also be tracked with Google Analytics, but in order to get a better view on the SEO performance of your website, you have to analyze more metrics. SERP ranking is the most essential, which is the rank that search engine results for a particular keyword phrase assign to your page . To see the fluctuation of your ranking and also the terms your site is ranking for, use Google Search Console.
- Authority
Although it is not as easily measured as the other metrics from gauging the interest of your audience, authority comes with many advantages. This advantages include improving your SEO, and therefore getting more traffic from search engines, and also building your brand and increasing the conversion rate. The most common metrics that indicate authority of a brand are media coverage, content links, and social media mentions.
For the original article and more details on each metric for measuring the interactions of your audience with your site, visit the Marketing Insider Group website.
If you have a company in the health domain and are looking to improve your marketing strategies, Healthconnexions is here to assist you. Don’t hesitate to contact us at info(at)healthconnexions.com for more information.