Have you ever wanted to read someone’s mind? More often than not, it’s hard to know what someone is really thinking or searching for. As a blogger you understand that building content your audience wants and needs is crucial to the growth of your website. You may not be able to read minds, but you can determine what your visitors are really looking for when they visit your site through Google Analytics. If you haven’t installed Google Analytics yet, here is a great step-by-step guide to get you started on the path of understanding your visitors.
Reading Minds Through Data
The first step in figuring out what you visitors are looking for requires you to take a look at the keywords that brought them to your blog in the first place. You may have heard, or even noticed, that Google Analytics has replaced a large amount of your keyword data with (not provided), no worries, we can still gather a few content ideas with the remaining keywords. To get the best results you will need to create a filter to display the non-branded organic keywords people used to find your blog. To begin creating this filter, go to Channels listed under Acquisition within the left sidebar of Google Analytics. After that, you will see a list of channel options, click Organic Search to only show organic keywords.
Now that you’re viewing the list of organic keywords your visitors used to find your website you will need to filter out the branded terms. To set this filter, click “Advanced” to the right of the search bar just above the table displaying your organic keywords.
This will open up the filter options where you’ll be able to exclude any branded keyword terms. To exclude your branded terms, simply enter the terms you want to eliminate from the list within the input box to the very right of the filter itself. Once you’ve done that you will need to change the Include/Exclude dropdown box so that it says Exclude and set the other dropdown to Containing. After everything is set click Apply and watch your branded terms disappear.
Finally, it’s time to take a look at the things your visitors are searching for when they find your blog. Sometimes the first few keywords may not be topics you want to discuss on your blog or ones that you’ve already thoroughly discussed. In that case, you can always extend your search to view as many keywords that are available to you within Google Analytics. If your site has been around for awhile you may have 100s to choose from. Looking at our first few keywords shows that our visitors are interested in learning more about Youtube Optimization, Infographic Promotion Ideas and Schema Markup.
A great way to use these keywords to build out multiple pieces of content or an in-depth guide is to create a list of topics related to each one. For example, our users are searching for Inforgraphic Promotion advice so we could create a list topics around that subject such as “How to get an infographic picked up by the media”, “How to increase social shares of an infographic” and “Building an infographic that people will care about”; the more ideas the better. Once you’ve compiled your list you can then start prioritizing the topics to build out a content calendar.
Taking a Look at the Past
In addition to keywords it’s always good to take a look at how well your past content has performed. There are a few factors you can look at within Google Analytics to help you determine if the content you’ve published was well received, useful or even shared. To begin, first go to Site Content then Content Drilldown listed under Behavior found within the left sidebar of Google Analytics. Here you will see a complete list of all of your published content in addition to some stats.
Spending Time with Loved Content
One of the items you’ll want to pay attention to on this page is Avg. Time on Page. Sorting by average time on page you’ll be able to easily find which topics your visitors are fully engaging with and which ones they stop reading after a few seconds. If you notice that a certain topic consistently corresponds with a low average time on page then it may be something your visitors aren’t interested in reading about.
Let’s Bounce
Like average time spent on page, Bounce Rate is also a factor that may determine if the content your producing is holding the attention of your visitors or not. Sorting by the highest bounce rate first (100%) will allow you to see the percentage of people viewing an article and leaving immediately afterwards without visiting any other sections of your website. Similar to the average time spent on page, bounce rate can help you determine which content isn’t grabbing your audience’s attention. On the flip side of that, topics that produce lower bounce rates may be an area you would want to publish more content.
The Many Types of Content Structure
Now that we’ve discussed ways to determine the topics you should focus on let’s take a look at the structure of content you should be publishing. You’ve probably come across many types of content, from standard articles and lists to infographics and interactive charts, but have you determined which is best for your audience? As a word of wisdom, it’s always good to have a mix of content structures to keep your content interesting and engaging. With that said let’s take a look at the types of content your audience enjoys the most.
In order to determine which forms of content your audience enjoys viewing we’ll take a look the total number of page views each piece of content is racking up. Within the content drilldown page mentioned before you’ll see a column labeled Page Views. Page views are the total number of visits that particular page has received. By listing out each content piece by page views you’ll soon be able to determine a pattern of which content types are producing more views than others. If you begin to notice that lists and infographics are pulling in the most traffic you may want to publish these types of content a little more often, or whenever applicable.
What are People Saying About You?
In addition to search traffic, Google Analytics provides data on social traffic as well. When it comes to content, social sharing can be the most powerful form of promotion, but how do you create stuff people want to share? Listed under Acquisition you’ll notice a section called Social, click on that to unlock an entirely new list of options then click Network Referrals. On this page you’ll see a list of social networks people came from to visit your website. Click on any of the social networks to view which pages, or pieces of content, they came for.
Sorting by sessions (# of visits) is a good way to determine which content is receiving the most social love. Using this page will help you determine which content is actually getting shared and ultimately help you discover which topics your fans care most about. The data on this page can also be used to optimize your social promotion schedule and determine which networks work best for your website.
Analytics provides insight into the minds of your visitors that will help you create content that keeps them and their friends coming back for more. Taking the time to understand your audience based on the data found within Google Analytics will ultimately help you build a stronger following and maximize your blogging efforts.
