Content marketing is one of the most important strategies for promoting a business online. Because your content acts as the foundation for all your other marketing techniques and tactics, you need to ensure you’re creating pieces that your target audience will want to read and view.

Unfortunately, with the mass amount of content available online, it can be difficult to develop pieces that stand out from the rest. If you’re simply creating mediocre content that doesn’t really connect with the people you’re trying to reach, you’re going to get swept under the rug. Without real insights into what your target audience is looking for, you’re only wasting your time and marketing budget.

Getting to know your target audience is crucial for developing a strong content marketing strategy. However, it is time-consuming and difficult to get to know each individual personally. While things like buyer personas and customer surveys can be helpful, they don’t allow you to see how your audience functions online. If you’re not monitoring your audiences online activity, including how they’re engaging on your website, your content will likely struggle.

Google Analytics is one of the best tools for tracking your website visitors’ behaviours. With the help of different reports generated by Google Analytics, you can develop new insights that will help you develop a stronger content marketing strategy. Here is a look at what those crucial reports are, and how you can use that information to improve your content.

1. VISITOR ACQUISITION

Visitor Acquisition tells you how your visitors are getting to your website. By first providing you with an overview of your top channels and your number of website sessions, you can see the most popular ways your audience is landing on your website. This includes organic search, direct traffic, referral traffic, and social traffic.

Knowing how visitors are getting to your website can help you better understand how strong your various marketing strategies are. For example, if you find that most of your traffic is coming from social media, you know that your audience is connecting well with the content you’re sharing on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. If most of your traffic is arriving from an organic search, you’ll know your Search Engine Optimisation strategy is effective.

Identifying how your visitors are getting to your website can help you understand which content is performing the strongest. This can either tell you the areas you should focus on or help you ramp up your marketing strategy to improve certain channels that may be underperforming.

When you begin to look a bit deeper into your visitor acquisition, you can also identify which keyword or pieces are driving the most traffic. By tracking this information, you can refine your keyword strategy to make better connections or create content on popular topics that will help you drive more traffic.

Review this page of Google Analytics frequently. Keep in mind that your most popular pages for driving traffic can change quickly, especially if a celebrity or influencer happens to share one of your posts. Be sure to keep these outside factors in mind when determining which acquisition pathways are most popular for your business and brand.

2. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS

Whenever you create a new piece of content, you need to do so with your target audience in mind. In order to see high conversions, you want each and every piece you develop to appeal directly to the customers you want to attract. However, it can often be difficult to tell whether or not you’re really reaching your target demographic.

Google Analytics allows you to track the different demographics of visitors to your website. Within the demographics report from Google Analytics, you’re able to monitor the age, gender, and interests of some of your visitors. When you know who is visiting your website, you’re able to better determine whether or not you’re reaching the right audience.

Understanding the demographics of individuals visiting your page can also help you narrow down your target audience. While you may have an idea of who you’d likse to target, knowing who you’re already reaching can help you determine whether or not you’re going after the right group of individuals. If you find that a certain demographic is resonating strongly with the content you create or the products your selling, you may need to switch your target audience.

Knowing the demographics of your website visitors can help you tailor your content for better results. If you find that the majority of your visitors are of a specific gender or age range, you can start to refine your content to better suit that group’s needs and preferences. You can also see how different content decisions bring in new audience members. For example, including more video content may attract a younger demographic.

Don’t try to assume you know the demographic that you’re reaching. If you focus on who you’d like to reach rather than who you’re actually reaching, you may end up missing out on high-quality customers and clients. Instead, pay close attention to your website visitors, including what they’re looking for, who they are, and what they need.

3. PAGE VIEWS AND TIME ON PAGE

Knowing who is coming to your website and how they are getting there is important, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into conversions. While you may be attracting attention, if they’re not visiting the right pages or they’re not spending time on your website, it means very little. In order to truly understand how your audience is engaging with your content, you want to monitor page views and their time spent on page.

Page views tells you the number of times a particular page has been viewed. This can help you identify which content is popular with your visitors and which is not. Through understanding what pages your audience visits frequently, you can better refine your content strategy to supply your audience with content they’re interested in.

Time on page can also help you understand which pieces of content your audience enjoys. If your visitors are spending a few minutes on a particular page, it can be a sign that they’re connecting with what you’re providing. However, if time on page is low, your visitors may be getting to the page only to find that it isn’t what they expected.

Analysing your page views and time on page can also help you determine which topics aren’t popular with your target audience. If you create a piece of content but it doesn’t get a lot of attention or your visitors are leaving it quickly, you know that this isn’t something they’re interested in. You can use this information to eliminate potential topics from your pool of content ideas.

You should revisit your page views and time on page metrics often. With each new piece of content you upload, you will want to see how well it performs. However, you’ll also want to check back on older pieces to see if they’re still gaining attention. Knowing which pieces are most popular with your target audience can help you create a content strategy that your audience will love.

4. BOUNCE RATE

Getting a visitor to come to your website can be one of the biggest challenges with promoting online. However, it can be an even bigger challenge to get them to stay there. Even if you’re attracting attention from your target audience, if they’re not engaging with multiple pages within your website, it can be difficult to get them to convert.

Your bounce rate tells you how many individuals are coming to your website and leaving after viewing just one page. Knowing your bounce rate can tell you how well your content is resonating with your audience. If your visitors aren’t finding enough value in your pieces to explore your site, you may be missing the mark.

Understanding your bounce rate can also tell you whether or not you’re providing your audience with strong enough call-to-actions. If visitors are spending significant time on a page but leaving after only visiting one site, it may be because you’re not providing them with a clear and logical next step. Monitoring this information can help you refine your content strategy to appeal to the additional needs of your target audience.

When monitoring your bounce rate, you’ll also want to consider how your visitors are getting to your site and which pages they’re engaging with. Some scenarios, such as if a visitor comes to your blog from a mobile social media site, may not lend as easily to browsing. These kinds of visitors simply come for the promised information and leave when they’re finished.

To use your bounce rate to improve your content strategy, consider who, when, and how your audience is landing on your website and how that influences the number of pages they visit. Come up with strong a call-to-action that pushes your audience to either engage with your brand or continue on to read additional information. When you better understand your audience’s habits, you can create a stronger strategy that fits their needs.

CONCLUSION

Google Analytics provides you with the deep insights you need to improve your content marketing. When you properly monitor and track their behaviours with your website, you can improve your connection and start to see better results. Routinely checking in on these four Google Analytics reports can ensure you’re staying on top of your audience’s needs and preferences, allowing you to adjust your strategy to better fit their needs.