Blog post analysis is vital for new businesses and established ones. Posts attached to an existing website can help drive traffic and boost sales, but it depends on various factors. Some of these include analyzing data, using SEO, and writing informational posts for a core audience.
Getting a blog to work for you can take time. But with some patience, effort, and persistence, it pays off. The valuable data gained from post insights allows you to fine-tune more posts to the audience most likely to engage, and organic and paid traffic will begin to flow more freely.
First, Be Careful What You Post
Before we get into the meat and bones of analyzing posts and building a better site, it needs to be said that care must be taken when posting. Controversial content can bring more traffic to a site, but the fallout can damage your business. Pay attention to what your posts are saying and whether they hurt any specific demographic. There are some things that even the best online reputation management service can have a hard time repairing when it comes to your company.
Boost Traffic to Drive Sales
Traffic is the bread and butter of a blog, and it can boost sales when implemented correctly. Driving traffic, paid and unpaid, isn’t easy and requires fine-tuning content to attract an audience. It’s an ongoing process, but some key considerations are as follows:
- Include features that make it easy for the audience to share content.
- Perform keyword research and optimize the posts for the ones you want to rank for.
- Create internal and external links to relevant content inside and outside your site.
- Establish relationships with influencers related to your sector or niche.
Sharing content is a key way to increase traffic from social media platforms and forums. However, organic (unpaid) traffic mostly relies on ranking for keywords and phrases. Therefore, it helps if you don’t neglect to perform research using tools such as Jaaxy and UberSuggest.
Blog Post Analysis Performance Reviews
As you add pages and posts to your business blog, you become privy to a ton of data. And data from a blog is invaluable. Larger companies are aware of this, which is why 80% of Fortune 500 companies have a business blog. You can analyze blog post performance to see which ones do well and the ones that don’t. Carefully consider the topic, keywords, and search intent behind the ones that rank well, and establish a pattern of posting and linking around the best ones.
Gather Data from Blog Analytics
There are many metrics by which you can analyze a blog and its posts. Understanding these will help you increase traffic and drive sales. Impressions relate to the number of times your posts have been seen by users in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Low impressions are typical when starting out and will grow over time as you become more authoritative. Click-through rates (CTR) relate to how many people clicked on your post from an impression.
Don’t Worry About the Post Length
There is some fierce debate as to how long a blog post should be. Studies have shown that longer posts of 3,000 words or more perform better. However, not all topics and posts can sustain this length. If you write for the word count, you risk going off-topic and adding useless information. This results in penalties from the search engine. Don’t worry if you are struggling to write a long-form post because it is the strength of information that counts.
Write Post Topics Related to Your Niche
There are many blogs that try to cover everything, and some do well. But your ranking in SERPs is helped when you stay within your niche. The niche is the focus of your business, and writing posts based on this helps narrow down the results for the reader. It can be hard to discover your niche, however, and it can take some time. Finding a balance is the key, and it helps to consider key points such as what the business is about, what you can offer, and the likelihood of traffic.
Consider Site-Specific Details
Your business website as a whole can determine where you rank in SERPs. A poor-performing site will be penalized, no matter the quality of the content. Therefore, it is necessary to consider some key factors for maximizing performance, some of which include the following:
- See where your posts rank for a specific topic or key phrase.
- Track the traffic of your posts and where it comes from.
- Optimize your blog for the fastest page loading times.
- Check if your blog is optimized for smartphones and tablets.
- Establish a strong posting pattern that users can rely on.
- Vary the length of posts according to the topic at hand.
- Use industry-standard tools to help you build a better site.
Keyword research and analysis are a massive help and are made easier and enhanced when combined with good SEO practices. Optimizing your site for mobile devices is also a mandatory step for ranking these days, and there are tools available, such as Ahrefs, for gaining insights.
Use Freely Available Insights
As mentioned, there are tools available to help you build a better site and publish better posts. Some cost quite a bit of money, and others are free. It is recommended you begin with free tools and pay for one or two when starting out. You can then expand the tools you use as the budget expands. Some of the best free tools when starting to publish include Google Trends, PageSpeed insights, and social media platforms, which have their own data analytics tools.
Post Using Multiple Marketing Channels
A blog is an effective way to gain traction with an online presence and establish your business in a specific niche. However, there are many other channels you must consider for maximizing the efficiency of your marketing efforts. The top marketing channels for posting (aside from blogging) include social media, email marketing, and content marketing. You can further enhance your blog using metadata and SEO and even create virtual events for your brand.
Leverage SEO for SERP Content
SEO has been mentioned a few times in this post. But there is a good reason. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provides clear communication between your blog posts and site and the search engine. It is a complex subject, but in basic terms, it allows search engines to place your posts in the SERPs based on where they fit best after a user search. Keyword research, descriptive metadata, and registering a real-world business on Google My Business will help.
Perform Blog Post Analysis on Competitors
To beat the competition, you need to understand the competition. This can help prevent you from becoming obsolete in your sector and up to date with new innovations. You can also track who they hire when they hire, and what they plan for the future. However, just analyzing a competition’s blog posts for traffic will help identify where yours should be heading. This is the main reason why over 40% of bloggers saw success with their own blogging strategy.
Add Valuable Information to the Post
It can be challenging to find topics and even write a post that covers 1,000 words or more. In many cases, topics and subjects have already been written about many times. But this isn’t a bad thing. There are a few ways you can add value to a popular subject with your posts:
- Find suggestions from Google’s “People also asked” feature.
- Post questions on your social media and use the responses.
- Add insights from various channels, such as YouTube.
- Collaborate with an expert and ask them for their thoughts on a subject.
Post length is important, but it isn’t about writing the longest post. It’s about offering the best information. That’s how Google ranks your posts. Extra information that isn’t available on competitor posts will help boost your post ranking and increase your niche authority.
Research the Intended Audience
Finally, one that many bloggers overlook at first is the intended audience. It’s a good thing to write for yourself about something you are passionate about. But for a business, highlighting the core demographics of your readers is more likely to yield better results. Of course, this is tricky. So consider things such as the keywords that relate to the niche and the audience. It also helps to plan titles and content around keywords for SERP placement and refine the research.
Boosting traffic towards better sales is a key motivation for conducting a blog post analysis across your site. This helps identify keywords to capitalize on as well as track where traffic comes from. Using tools such as Google Trends and Ahrefs can help with all of these.
Further, a well-managed SEO plan and execution will boost everything across your site for improved page and post ranking. And you can beat the competition with SEO by studying what they are doing. It also helps to research the audience for which your posts are really intended.