Google Analytics is a powerful tool used by millions of people and businesses on a daily basis. In fact , 74.5% of the internet’s top 100,000 websites use it to track website performance every day. And if you’re a business that’s trying to generate qualified leads from your website, you’ll want to take a data-centric approach with your content as well.Spending any amount of time and resources to create original content with the goals of raising awareness of your brand , driving traffic to your website, and converting leads shouldn’t be done haphazardly. After all, knowledge is power and the more you know about how your content is doing, the better. Having a clear view of how your content performs over time is what tells you if you’re connecting with the right audience in the right way or not.However, for all that Google Analytics offers, it is not particularly intuitive for a first-time user or someone who just wants to spot check how their content is performing. Its large number of options can be intimidating but if you know what to look for, you can successfully navigate the application to pull the information you need to measure success.There are several ways to track your content performance using Google Analytics, each of which highlights a different key performance indicator (KPI). Here’s how to use Google Analytics to track your content performance without needing to become a web guru.
Page Views
It is the easiest way to track your content’s performance via GA.
This option allows you to create a general picture of what content is performing well overall, or which ones act better as landing pages. This option also allows you to group your content based on the subject matter or author, to offer you a more detailed perspective.
Page Views by Source – Page views can also be sorted out based on how visitors came across your content. With this option, you can see what content is landed on from social media and which is found organically.
Page Views by Title – The title of your content plays a vital role in generating views. You can look at which titles are the most attractive to your audience.
Referral Traffic
These are visits that have originated from other websites – websites that have
referenced (linked) your content to theirs . Not only does this help you see which pieces of content are so good that others are citing it, but it also helps you with your SEO by providing a better indexation and a steady rise in Google’s search result page.Related:
How to Promote Your Content over Social MediaRelated:
What You Should Expect to Pay for Content Marketing Social Referrals
Similar to the option above,
social referrals show you what kind of content is shared over different social media channels. Facebook or Instagram have a different type of audience than LinkedIn and knowing which content works best where can help you target your audiences better.
Demographic Reports
This metric is often overlooked by many GA users, although it is an excellent tool for
knowing your audience . It can help you see what particular segments of the population access your content, based on such factors as age, gender, or region. This information proves useful when formulating your marketing strategies.
Page Value
This metric requires you to have
e-commerce tracking or
a specific goal set up before using it.
Page Value is handy because it shows which specific content people viewed right before they completed your goal or made a transaction. Having this data at hand will help you redesign your marketing strategy to make sure that your audience is exposed to the most relevant content.
Conclusion
As a general rule, when comparing two or more pieces of content with each other, always remember to use a comparable timeframe for all. A several-month-old piece of content will, generally, have more views than a several-week-old one. Likewise, it is important to remember that good content can be re-shared over time, based on trending topics or other such variables.GA is a great tool to use if you hope ever to
make it in the digital world. These metrics presented here are arranged in the order of easiest to hardest concerning navigation around Google Analytics. Each of them shows a more in-depth picture, adding on top of each other to create a comprehensive overview and help you formulate your marketing strategies for better results.
