Creating content without tracking content analytics metrics is like heading to an unfamiliar destination with no GPS coordinates—ending up in the middle of nowhere, disoriented, and without a clear path forward.
Just as GPS coordinates guide you to your destination, understanding content analytics metrics empowers you to craft a targeted content strategy, driving you toward your goals with precision. In this article, we explore the most important content analytics metrics to consider when creating your content strategy and content.
16 content analytics metrics
- Conversion rate
- Traffic sources
- Sessions
- Keyword ranking
- Bounce rate
- Engagement
- Traffic
- Social media shares
- Time on page
- Backlinks
- Leads
- Page views
- Comments
- New visitors vs. Returning visitors
- Scroll depth
- Click-Through Rate
Let’s take a deep dive into the 16 metrics above.
1. Conversion rate
The conversion rate represents the percentage of website visitors who take action when or after engaging with your content. This action may include clicking a call-to-action (CTA) button, subscribing to a service, downloading a guide or eBook—you get the gist.
Concerning content, conversion rate measures how successful your content is in motivating users to take action. This metric is crucial because it provides insights into whether you’re achieving your return on investment (ROI) goals or not. Simply put, a high conversion rate indicates that your business is aligned with its goals.
2. Traffic sources
Traffic source refers to the channel through which your visitors find your content. Visitors land on your content from a variety of sources, including organic search, social media, referral traffic, paid advertising, email marketing, and more.
As such, each traffic source tells a different story about your visitor. Analyze how much incoming traffic is coming from each channel and whether that traffic is bringing in qualified leads, too.
For example, if you find that a significant portion of your traffic originates from organic search, it indicates that your SEO efforts are paying off—way to go! Conversely, if you notice minimal traffic from organic search, it suggests the need for swift optimization of your SEO strategy.
The traffic source metric provides valuable insights into the popularity of various channels and your audience’s preferred means of engaging with your content. Leveraging this insightful metric can help you fine-tune your content strategy effectively.
Hot tip: Learn how to decipher Instagram Analytics and TikTok Analytics here!
3. Sessions
The session metric measures the duration and user engagement on a website. Usually, a session begins when a page loads and ends when the user either leaves the site or remains inactive for around 30 minutes.
Sessions comprise two important metrics: average session duration and page session. The average session duration measures the average time users spend on your website, while the page session indicates the number of pages viewed during a single session.
The ultimate objective is to achieve a longer session duration, indicating that users spend a significant amount of time on your website and for them to explore multiple pages within a single session. This content analytics metric is vital as it enables you to evaluate user interactions with your website and understand how they contribute to conversions
4. Keyword ranking
Keyword ranking is a significant metric that assesses the performance of your content in relation to specific keywords or phrases, especially when discovered through organic search. The ultimate goal is to have your content appear prominently on the search engine results page (SERP) when users search for relevant keywords.
Keyword ranking is particularly important when it comes to driving traffic to your website or blog. The higher your content ranks for certain keywords or phrases, the more visible it becomes in the search results. And you know what that means? More people will find their way to your site, boosting your traffic. So, don’t overlook the importance of keeping your keyword ranking in check.
5. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate represents the percentage of users who visit your site and leave immediately without taking any action, meaning they don’t click on anything or visit other pages on your site. Various factors may cause your users to bounce, such as being irritated by irrelevant pop-ups that disrupt their user experience or struggling to read your blog content.
If you discover your bounce rate is high (90%), it may be time to start investigating. A healthy bounce rate ranges between 26% and 40%. Perhaps you need to optimize your blog with fresh content or create a more hard-to-resist CTA. It’s up to you to discover why your users are leaving so you can pinpoint exactly how to optimize your site.
6. Engagement
The engagement metric is all about how your audience interacts with your content and shows how valuable it is. When measuring engagement, keep an eye on two key metrics: time spent on the page and exit rate.
- Time spent on page: Discover which content really grabs your audience’s attention by seeing where they spend the most time. Look for patterns in engaging content to unlock the secrets behind its success.
- Exit rate: The exit rate tells you the percentage of visitors who leave your page after arriving. The goal is to keep users clicking and exploring, indicating that they find your content relevant and exciting. If users are quickly leaving or not engaging much, use the engagement metric to adjust your approach and create content that encourages them to stay longer and discover more.
These metrics give you insights into how well your content captures and holds your audience’s attention. By analyzing engagement data, you can make smart content strategy adjustments, crafting even more engaging and valuable content that keeps users hooked.
7. Traffic
You should consider several factors when analyzing traffic: the total number of visitors (users), the number of times your page has been viewed by visitors (pageviews), and the number of users who have viewed your page multiple times (unique views).
This metric is really important because, without a steady traffic flow, your amazing content won’t be read. It’s like having a fantastic party but no one showing up to enjoy it. You need people to engage with your content in order to see results and conversions.
As such, understanding where your traffic is coming from (traffic source) and knowing which pieces of content drive the most traffic is valuable information you can use to optimize your content strategy. This way, you can focus on creating more captivating content that generates more visits.
8. Social media shares
The social media share metric involves how much your audience shares your content on social media. Social media sharing can include posting or reposting website content.
Getting your content shared over social media means that more people will see your content. This translates to a major boost in online visibility, with more traffic directed to your website. Social media is also a hub for starting conversations, so when more people start buzzing about your content, it adds credibility through social proof.
Keeping a close eye on the content shared on social media gives you valuable insights into how well your audience is receiving it. Take note of reposts and comments to see which content pieces are getting the most engagement. This provides valuable information about the topics and ideas that are sparking conversations around your content. These conversations are a clear indication of interest in your content and can guide your content strategy moving forward.
9. Time on page
The time-on-page metric is the average amount of time a user spends on a website before leaving it. Tracking how much time your visitors spend on your website is a helpful metric to gauge your audience’s level of interest in your content. Typically, when users spend a long time on your website, it signals that your content is grabbing their attention.
Figuring out the “right” amount of time spent on a page depends on various factors, including the type of website, the industry you’re in, the goals you want to achieve, and so on. When analyzing this metric, try identifying which pages your audience is spending the most time on. Are there pieces of content that indicate their interest? Are there pieces of content that they’re not showing interest in?
Once you have a clearer view, you can make the appropriate adjustments. For example, you could do A/B testing, optimize your website for search engines, or identify the pages that need improvement.
10. Backlinks
Backlinks (also called inbound links) are links from one website that direct users to another website. From an SEO perspective, these are good signals to Google that your website has authority.
Pages with a significant number of backlinks that have high website authority generally rank higher on Google. Simply put, Google rewards high-authority websites that have a wealth of backlinks.
If you want search engines to give your site a resounding vote of confidence, then the backlink metric is your golden ticket. By earning a spot in Google’s good books, so to speak, you’re more likely to experience increased visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), leading to a greater influx of organic traffic to your site.
11. Leads
Leads are the people who willingly share their personal information when engaging with your content. Obtaining leads can happen through actions like users subscribing to a newsletter, filling out a contact form, or clicking on a CTA box. These are valuable opportunities for building long-lasting connections and fostering meaningful interactions with potential customers.
The number of leads you have is strongly indicative of how compelling your content is to your users. After all, someone wouldn’t willingly provide their personal information if they didn’t find your content helpful and valuable.
By measuring your leads, you can gain valuable insights into how your content impacts your audience and assess the effectiveness of your content strategy. It’s like a window into understanding how well your content resonates with your audience and how successful it is in capturing their attention.
12. Page views
The page view metric reveals the number of pages viewed on your site. It tracks each time a user loads a page, unveiling information about incoming traffic on your website. Tracking page views is important because it reveals which pages attract more visitors and which content your audience prefers.
But there’s a caveat: pageviews alone don’t indicate whether a user has actually read your content. To gain deeper insights, analyze user engagement indicators, such as cursor movement or scrolling behavior.
By considering these factors alongside pageviews, you can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of how users interact with your content and assess their level of engagement.
13. Comments
The comment section of your blog or even social media accounts acts as a vibrant hub, showcasing active participation and feedback from your audience. Think about it: Writing a response to an article or post you read takes effort.
Though not all comments are insightful, you can gain valuable insight into what content has sparked interest by reading through them. For example, positive comments can be a great indicator of how well your content resonates with your audience, and negative comments can be an excellent way to get constructive feedback on how to improve your content.
14. New visitors vs. returning visitors
The visitor metric can be categorized into two distinct groups: new visitors and returning visitors.
Returning visitors are the users who have visited your website in the past. Having repeat visitors is a positive signal that your visitors are finding your content useful.
The beauty of tracking returning visitors lies in the ability to evaluate what content is driving their repeat visits. By understanding what keeps your visitors coming back for more, you gain valuable insights into their preferences and interests. Plus, it boosts the chances of building customer loyalty and getting more conversions.
New visitors are essentially users who are stepping foot onto your website for the very first time. Successfully attracting new visitors presents you with an excellent opportunity to broaden your audience reach.
The great thing about tracking new visitors is that it helps you pinpoint which content is attracting the most new visitors and driving engagement. With this information in your back pocket, you can create more such content to expand your visitor pool.
15. Scroll depth
Scroll depth is all about how far users scroll on a page. Knowing the scroll depth helps us understand how users interact with our content. For instance, if a user scrolls down most of the page but then leaves, we can see how much content they actually consumed before bouncing. By digging into user behavior, we can uncover areas where we can improve content.
Analyzing scroll depth can also be a game-changer in spotting potential roadblocks. Does the content need a revamp, or could the page benefit from a tantalizing CTA to entice more clicks? Like other metrics, scroll depth only gives us a glimpse of the bigger picture. Combining it with bounce rate helps us better understand what’s really happening.
16. Click-through rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is a key metric that measures the number of clicks relative to the number of views. When your content has high visibility in SERPs, you know you’ve hit the jackpot. Tracking CTR is extremely important—it gives you valuable insights into what content is getting more clicks and impressions, therefore grabbing more attention and engagement.
On the other side of the coin, it also reveals what content might be flying under the radar. Knowledge is power! This information empowers you to optimize underperforming content and capitalize on the pieces striking a chord with your audience.
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