When you look at the big picture and the small details, the data can help you carve out a strategy to keep moving onward and upward to expand your reach.
In short—be strategic, and use a few key metrics to determine what to do next.
Over the years, I’ve seen (and tried) numerous metrics to determine blog success. But from our current vantage point, there are 7 blog metrics that are key in determining which content is working and which is not.
#1 Organic Visitors Landing on Blog Pages
Look at your total for all of your blog pages. Identify which blogs are your top blogs—the ones that bring in the majority of your blog traffic. It’s not uncommon for a top-ranking blog or two to surpass even your homepage in organic traffic. Compare your data monthly, quarterly, and annually to be sure you’re comparing apples to apples.
#2 Total Pageviews (from any channel)
Pageviews include both visitors who landed directly on your blog and those who got there by navigating for another page on the website. Seeing a high number of pageviews can be an indication of interest in a particular blog or show that a certain callout, link or pop-up promoting that blog on your site worked well.
Tracking pageviews over time, including the aggregate for all blogs also gives you an idea of the interest in that section of your website. Ideally, as you continue to blog and be strategic with producing content for your audience, your pageviews for blogs should rise slowly but steadily.
#3 Engagement Rate
The inverse of bounce rate—some visitors may stay engaged with the content while others leave right away. If the engagement rate is high, you’re likely reaching your primary audience. It’s also an indication that the visitor got what they were looking for and expected on that page.
To keep them engaged, offer other related resources and links to other parts of your website.
In addition, you can take a look at who is engaging, clicking on additional blogs, and moving through the site. You can divide up the traffic further and see who stuck around and who bounced. Some organic traffic visitors may only want one piece of info and will leave the site as soon as they find the answer they’re looking for.
#4 Conversion Rate
Track how many visitors are converting with the item you’re offering. It could be a download with a form. It could be a video they can play on the blog page. By tracking how many people play it or download it, that can give you a better idea of whether visitors are interested, engaged, and whether your blog is successful or not.
If, for example, your blog is specifically about pain points and challenges, your CTA that says “Contact us to find the solution”—that link is where you’ll be looking at your conversion rate. It’s applicable, and it’s how you know your blog has outlined the pain points well, landing on a clear next step for the user. We don’t typically expect high conversions for contact us forms from blogs, but we’ve seen resource downloads and videos with encouraging conversion rates.
#5 Number of Top Keywords
Using a tool like SEMrush, you can identify how many top keywords you’re ranking for with your blogs by filtering the ones going to your blog pages. Looking at your month-over-month results, it will become clearer what’s working and what’s not.
For example, one of our clients in the health IT industry created “101 guides” as long-form resources. Those long-form resources took time and effort to build, but a single one of their “101 Guides” has ranked consistently higher than their home page for organic traffic month-over-month. For another client, we identified their “Ask the Experts” Q & A style posts were brining
Blog strategy isn’t generic—it’s based on measured data and making decisions to boost your traffic going forward. Placing targeted keyword phrases in the H1, metas and URL of your blog will allow you to try for ranking for that keyword. Likewise, any contextual links you add going to a particular blog can help boost it in the SERP as well.
Pro tip: You might be confusing search engines if two of your URLs are showing up for the same keywords—called cannibalization. If this happens, pick the blog you want to show up for a specific keyword by changing the target keyword in the other blog.
#6 External Sites Linking to Specific Blogs
Internal links are great, and can help boost your SEO. But serious blog success can stem from external links: when sites outside of your own link to one of your blogs. This can be done using a backlinking strategy; especially if your content is useful to others. Be sure to do your homework, or work with a reputable agency to manage this.
While you’re tracking those backlinks, check for toxic backlinks—meaning a link to your blog post from an unreputable site, whether spammy or part of a backlinking scheme. A toxic backlink can damage your SEO instead of boosting it. (Which is why we recommend disavowing toxic backlinks on a monthly basis).
#7 Users by Traffic Source
Investigate where your visitors are coming from. Is your email newsletter getting clicks to pertinent information? Or was it a popular LinkedIn post that helped funnel new visitors to a post? By looking at where your visitors are coming from, you can determine where to put your efforts. If you’re not pushing out your blog, consider this: It’s a small effort to reach more traffic. You’ve already researched, written, and published the blog. Share it through newsletters and social media, too.
For email communications: Look at your email open rates, and compare your headlines. What is capturing your readers’ attention? Check the read rate. See if your click-through-rate from the email is doing well.
Similarly, if you have a LinkedIn presence and you’re sharing your blog there, get a pulse on comments and interactions. Compare blogs one to another (rather than month over month). We send a regular Digital Digest with multiple blog links—this helps us identify immediately which of our blogs come out on top.
Tracking and measuring blog metrics is the only way to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Use these metrics to tailor your content strategy and get better results from your marketing efforts. Digital marketing is always changing, and there’s no one sure way to get to the top—find what works for you. And if you need help with your blog strategy, reach out!
