3 Content Creation Tips - Let Analytics Be Your Guide

The key to Internet Marketing is creating compelling content, which sounds easy enough. However, it can become difficult to consistantly think of new ideas for your business blog. In today's post we will cover quick and easy ways to brainstorm new content ideas by reviewing your website analytics.

1. Organic Search Referrers - Take a look at the top fifty referring keywords for your website - what do these keywords tell you about your content? Here are two areas to focus on in your analysis.

The Extra Long Tail - Say for example your website sells small electrical supplies. Upon viewing your referring keywords list you see the phrase "how to install a circuit breaker" is a common referring keyword, but not something that you actively optimize or create content around. Rather than ignoring this anomaly, think about it as an opportunity. You know your audience is interested in "how to" topics related to electrical supplies. Produce a series of "do it yourself" blog posts.

Themes - Are you noticing any themes across the non branded keywords on your referrers list? Is there a subset of phrases that drive a lot of traffic & convert at a decent rate? Make a note of these phrases and create more content around them in the future.

2. Blog Analytics - Blog analytics provide value - but there can be a lot of data to sort through. Where should you look first if your goal is to determine what to write about next? Here are two questions to ask yourself as you review your blog analytics.

Which topics deliver the greatest number of Page Views? It's very simple - create more content around the keywords and topics that receive the most Page Views. Give your subscribers what they want. Write less on topics you thought were interesting but are not generating page views.

Which topics drive the most comments? Creating an open dialog with your customers and prospects is one goal of blogging. It should be equally important to track which articles are actually generating that two-way conversation. Are there any recurring themes in the articles that are receiving the most comments? Publish more content around these topics and leave an open ended question near the end of your posts to encourage conversation.See the bottom of this post for an example.

3. Reuse & Recycle - Research shows that it takes a critical mass of at least 20 blog posts before you start growing leads from your website. Go back into your blog archives and think about ways to promote what we at HubSpot call "Evergreen" content. Chances are, you wrote some great blog posts early on that did not get the visibility that some of your more recent posts have. Try promoting these older blog posts via Social Media.

Which analytics do you find useful when brainstorming new content ideas for your business blog?

This article was written by Shaun Pinney, a member of our consultant team at HubSpot. Check out Shaun's Bio.

Photo Credit: nDevil

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