SEO for Copywriters: Tips on Measuring SEO Impact - Next Level. Today, he's back to share how to use Google Analytics to measure the SEO impact of your content. What is SEO content? Goals will differ by client and I've found that part of my role as a digital marketer is to help the client understand how to articulate the business goals into measurable actions taken by visitors on their site. After you've researched your content strategy and competition with Keyword Explorer and Open Site Explorer, you can begin measuring the content you create in Google Analytics. How to measure SEO content using Google Analytics Step 1: Review conversion actions on site As I mentioned before, your SEO goals should tie to a business outcome. Regardless of the goal, it's important that you define a value for each conversion before creating goals in Google Analytics. The Google description of how to create goals is located here: Create or Edit Goals Step 4: Create and apply a “Segment” for Organic Traffic Once you have your goals set up, you’ll want to set up and automate reporting. Step 5: Review the Google Analytics Landing Page Report Now that we’ve isolated only traffic from search engines using a Google Analytics Segment, we can view our content performance and assess what is delivering the most favorable metrics. In the far right columns of the Landing Pages report, you will find the value being delivered by each page on your site.
Welcome to the newest installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, Brian Childs shared a few handy shortcuts for targeting multiple keywords with one page. Today, he’s back to share how to use Google Analytics to measure the SEO impact of your content. Read on and level up!
Understanding how to write web content for SEO is important. But equally important is knowing how to measure the SEO impact of your content after it’s published. In this article I’ll describe how to use Google Analytics to create reports that evaluate the performance of articles or the writers creating those articles.
Let’s start with some definitions.
What is SEO content?
Search engine optimized content is the strategic process of researching and writing website copy with the goal of maximizing its impact in the SERPs. This requires having a keyword strategy, the ability to conduct competitive analyses, and knowledge of current ranking factors.
If you’re a copywriter, you’ve likely already been asked by your clients to create content “written for SEO.” Translating this into action often means the writer needs to have a greater role in both strategy and research. Words matter in SEO, and spending the time to get them right is a big part of creating content effectively. Adding SEO research and analysis to the process of researching content often fits nicely.
So the question is: How do I measure the effectiveness of my content team?
We go in greater depth on the research and reporting processes during the Moz seminar SEO for Content Writers, but I’ll explain a few useful concepts here.
What should I measure?
Well-defined goals are at the heart of any good digital marketing strategy, whether you’re doing SEO or PPC. Goals will differ by client and I’ve found that part of my role as a digital marketer is to help the client understand how to articulate the business goals into measurable actions taken by visitors on their site.
Ideally, goals have a few essential traits. They should:
- Have measurable value (revenue, leads generated, event registrations)
- Be identifiable on the site (PDF downloads, button clicks, confirmation page views)
- Lead to business growth (part of an online campaign, useful to sales team, etc.)
Broad goals such as “increase organic sessions on site” are rarely specific enough for clients to want to invest in after the first 3–6 months of a relationship.
One tool you can use to measure goals is Google Analytics (GA). The nice part about GA is that almost everyone has an account (even if they don’t know how to use it) and it integrates nicely with almost all major SEO software platforms.
Lay the foundation for your SEO research by taking a free trial of Moz Pro. After you’ve researched your content strategy and competition with Keyword Explorer and Open Site Explorer, you can begin measuring the content you create in Google Analytics.
Let me show you how I set this up.
How to measure SEO content using Google Analytics
Step 1: Review conversion actions on site
As I mentioned before, your SEO goals should tie to a business outcome. We discuss setting up goals, including a worksheet that shows monthly performance, during the Reporting on SEO Bootcamp.
During the launch phase of a new project, locate the on-site actions that contribute to…
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