Four Stats to Look at to Improve your Content Marketing Strategy

Google Analytics has bigger benefits than boosting your SEO. It can be one of the best content idea generating tools around.

Yes, we’re suggesting that data help drive some of your content marketing efforts.

No, data shouldn’t drive all of your content marketing efforts. But if your content team hits a rut, it could help generate content ideas for future pieces that people will actually want to read.

Better yet, giving people actionable content they want to read could drive conversions on your site!

Here are four data-based markers to keep an eye on for your content strategy:

1. Bounce Rate

   There's nuance in understanding your website's bounce rate. (If you want to explore more about the nuances of the number itself -- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- check out our Bounce Rate piece.)

   But for the most part, a low bounce rate indicates more people are staying on your page, consuming more content, and (theoretically) learning more about your company/getting closer to an ideal goal conversion.

   Knowing what keeps people on a page can help content creators strategize of similar content to replicate that performance.

   Head to Google Analytics and look at the Comparison View for Average Time on Page.

   Before you try to completely reformat your content strategy to avoid high bounce rates, think about the page you’re looking at. Knock out the outliers like the landing pages. Conversely, you might want to think about whether a page has a video element on it. People naturally spend more time on pages with video.

   Try to boil down your observations to titles, content, and style. What content titles seem to hold people there the longest? Are there any consistencies in the length of content where people stay the longest? How frequently do infographics or other static visual elements impact a content piece's bounce rate?

2. Similar Search Terms

   Giving people content they want comes down to one thing: how well your content solves a problem they have.

   In order to answer the questions your potential customers could have, you have to know what those questions are to begin with.

   Thanks to Google Analytics, you can see every search query visitors entered on your site. Simply check out the Site Search report in Behavior>Site Search>Search Terms.

   Don't have a search box? No worries. We've got a tutorial on building out search forms.

   If you don't want to embed an internal search function, no worries. You should be looking at another element of search: organic search that brings people to your site. Pages getting a lot of search traffic probably rank really well with Google. If you don't want to use Google Analytics for this data, SEMrush is another tool that works really well. It can help narrow down the keywords frequently involved in searches that bring people to your site.

3. Scroll Depth

   If readers love it, they’ll spend time visiting it. The more someone likes your content, the more they'll scroll down into it. Scroll depth can give you a better understanding of how far a reader gets in your content before they tune out. And often, it's a clearer metric than bounce rate.

   Want to give people more of what they love? See what they’re already reading on your website.

   Notice readers are spending a lot of time reading about a particular element of your company? It could be beneficial to further explore the topic in related blog posts. Do you find that people are scrolling quickly to the bottom of your content and bouncing? That could be a sign they're not finding what they need by skimming over your H2s.

4. Page views by source

   Sure, page views are an important metric to keep up with. However, page views by source can give your marketing team a clear understanding of what marketing mediums best attract visitors to your content.

   You can run a Navigation Summary report to see just how visitors reach your page and where they click once they're there.

   Want your readers to keep reading related content? Show them how they can learn more about similar subjects by creating moments of clear signposting on your content platform.

   Much like a good Netflix series you just can’t stop binging, giving your readers content of similar caliber and topic will keep them engaged and coming back.

   Using Google Analytics, set the table data filter to whatever page holds most of your content pieces. (This will more than likely be your blog.) And then select Medium as the secondary dimension.