Improving content quality and SEO optimization are essential factors to meet your business marketing objectives. But you may have realized that it is easier said than done. That is why the majority of businesses struggle to see positive results from their content marketing strategies.
So how can you improve your content marketing to achieve better results? The answers are hidden in the insights you can gather from SEO-related data. You can obtain the required data from tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console. You will have to analyze this data to understand the necessary insights that can help you create strategic and relevant content for your target audience.
However, you may not be clear on how to start your journey towards data-driven and insightful content marketing. If you are unsure or inexperienced in the world of digital marketing, you can seek help from professionals at any reputable SEO company. They can optimize your website SEO through a multichannel approach, including content marketing.
But if you want to take a hands-on approach to your content, these are some crucial SEO insights that can help you drive your strategy.
Evaluate Search Intent
You can learn a lot from the keyword data that your target audience might be using on search engines. But the crucial part is the intent behind using those keywords. It will help you find the topics that can provide the best answers to your target audience.
For example, you may notice that one of your blog posts is ranking high for a specific search query. But you also find out that it has a low on-page time which indicates that it does not fulfill your visitor’s search intent. It can result in high bounce rates for the web page that can hurt the page SEO. However, if you can modify the content to align with the search intent, you can increase the on-page time.
Search intent is also useful to identify opportunities or gaps for new content. So before you use keyword research tools, open an incognito browser window and do a quick search for the terms. Find out the answers provided by the content ranking at the top for each of your queries. Also, try to understand why those pages rank higher than the others on search engines. Once you find the relevant information, you can use the same tactics to optimize your content.
Use Existing Content
Both SEO and content are long-term strategies that can take some time to indicate positive results. Keep in mind that search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms to optimize the user experience. That means some of your content that might not be performing well in the past could have suddenly become high-performing.
You can use Google Analytics or Search Console to find out your present keyword rankings, impressions, and click-through rates for your existing content. Try to find out if any posts rank on more than one Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Also, look for the factors that each of your web pages is ranking for on SERPs.
These aspects will enable you to identify your top performers that have the highest SEO value for your website. Once you have identified them, you can use internal links to join these pages with new content. That way, you will be able to boost the organic performance of those contents even more.
When it comes to keywords, low volume does not necessarily mean low value. You might feel tempted to go after the high-volume search keywords all the time. However, long-tail keywords that usually have low volume searches can prove just as beneficial, if not more.
They prove to be most effective for voice searches since the user queries are quite long. Voice searches also seem to be increasing due to the rising popularity of smart speakers.
Review Inbound Links
Link building is an essential component of any effective SEO strategy. It allows you to establish your website as a credible source of information to your target audience, as well as search engines. Links from websites with high domain authority can help your website rank higher on search engines.
You can also gather insights from the number of external sources linked to your content. Try to look for topics that your target audience finds most useful so you can replicate them in the future. Moreover, you can create supporting content to promote the blog posts that are linked to those sites. You can use various tools to check your inbound link data and find the credibility of the websites generating those links.
Track Search Traffic Behavior
It is necessary to track the journey of your target audience for each keyword group. It will help you to identify their next steps after they find your website on search engines. Some of your target customers might be converting on your website, while others might be bouncing back to the search results.
It will help you to understand their positions in the sales and marketing funnel. That way, you can create additional custom content that can push your target customers from one stage of the funnel to the next.
The Behaviour Flow report from Google Analytics can help you understand the behavior of your organic audience once they reach your website. You can find out the pages generating most of the traffic from search result pages and track their next step.
If you notice significant on-page time but inadequate conversions, you should create content that promotes conversion rates. You can also make certain changes like moving the CTA button or adding information to your existing content to increase conversions. Also, find out whether any specific changes resulted in a dip in conversion rates so you can rectify them.
It is necessary to realize that your content strategy should not be data-driven. Instead, it should be driven by the insights that you gather from relevant SEO data. That means you should try to find out why your target audience bounced off your website instead of just replicating the successful tactics.
Without proper analysis of SEO data, you may end up making the wrong decisions that do not benefit your long-term marketing goals. So make sure that you gather relevant insights before you use the data to guide your content marketing strategies.