That being said, I’ll share a paid (but cheap) alternative here and there (when there’s some feature I couldn’t find for free) but the main 10 tools on the list are not paid, not even freemium: They are FREE! Action item: Go to Ubersuggest and search for your main term. Action item: In your Google Analytics, go to Site Content -> Landing Pages there set “Secondary dimension” to “Source” and sort by “Bounce rate”. Google Search Console: Monitor your keyword positions Google has another great content tool and that is their Search Console. Learn how to make your site more search friendly and get seen more on Google. This will filter all search queries that bring you clicks from search results to all containing “how”. These are your easiest opportunities to get featured in Google. When you visit Facebook Analytics and view a Page that you’re an admin for, you will need to opt-in to view analytics for your Page. Action item: To start collecting data, go to Facebook Page Insights and wait about a day. This is one of the most useful sections inside your Youtube Analytics showing you exactly which videos of yours were suggested and which ones you want to interact with to get more out of that connection: Do you have a free content analytics and planning tool that belongs on this list?
Content performance can be a difficult thing to gauge because there is a pretty wide collection of factors you could measure it by.
Is it in leads for actual product sales? Organic traffic? Google ranking? Featured snippets? Social media shares? Increasing brand visibility? A mix of all of them?
But however you measure success, there is no denying the importance of establishing a solid content marketing plan and following through. As you go along, knowing how you are doing is a good way to find out what changes may be necessary to get even better results.
I like to keep a collection of tools at my disposal that help me to both monitor how I am doing and come up with ways to improve. These are my seven favorites and ones I think everyone should be using.
Before I start sharing the tools, let me tell you the most important criteria behind the list: All 10 tools are 100% FREE! I think free tools deserve all the publicity they can get and if, after reading this article, you’ll be able to save some money on buying expensive software, my mission will be accomplished!
That being said, I’ll share a paid (but cheap) alternative here and there (when there’s some feature I couldn’t find for free) but the main 10 tools on the list are not paid, not even freemium: They are FREE!
1. UberSuggest: Research and brainstorm
UberSuggest is a great tool for both finding content ideas and doing comprehensive keyword research. Want to know how popular a term is, how much the cost per click will be or how your competitors might be using it? All it takes is a quick search here and you will have all of that information. Not only that, but you can check out somewhat similar phrases that give you a list of future content to put on your editorial calendar.
Ubersuggest also gives you an exact number of searches versus a range given by the Keyword Planner tool, and there’s also no need to login. Nothing wrong with doubling up on that purpose and getting more done, faster.
Action item:
Go to Ubersuggest and search for your main term. Wait for a second while the tool runs and then filter by competition to see the least competitive terms on top. I bet you have just found a cool content idea!
Trello is not a content analytics platform, per se, rather it’s a multi-purpose business management software that can be used in content planning too.
It may not work for some people but its overlay appeals me most: Breaking down each activity into columns and then boards visualizes and organizes your content planning.
You can add collaborators to each board to help you manage your content more efficiently and delegate tasks between (remote) employees.
More free options:
- Here’s a good list of free and open-source plugins to manage calendars inside WordPress
- Google Spreadsheets are free, they can be used to organize anything, including content ideas (here are a few templates for that)
Cheap premium alternative: The only thing Trello is missing is the ability to monitor your stats right from the same place you are planning things out. Therefore I am stuck with Cyfe. It’s just around $5 a month (so almost free) but it gives you unlimited options for everything they have including monitoring your brand mentions, site performance, email messages, and more.
Still the granddaddy of analytics, you can get a lot of information from this free tool. Google Analytics makes it a must-have for any content creator who wants to watch the effectiveness of their web pages as a whole, even if interpreting that information and relating it back to content beyond single pages can be a bit more work.
From the most successful content to where your readers land and how they tend to interact with you, Google Analytics offers a wide range of options to play with.
Action item:
In your Google Analytics, go to Site Content -> Landing Pages there set “Secondary dimension” to “Source” and sort by “Bounce rate”. This will bring up pages that have 100% bounce rate based on…
COMMENTS