In an era when so much marketing is done 
online, businesses need top-notch content that converts. Any content that’s not effective is hindering the overall marketing plan. If you’re looking to maximize your content’s potential, here’s how to find, fix and prevent underperforming content.
Examine the Analytics
To identify underperforming content, you’ll need to take a deep look into your content’s analytics. Specifically, search for pages that have one or more of the following issues:
- no organic traffic
- a high drop-off rate
- a low average time on page
- a high bounce rate
- a low engagement rate
Content with any of these problems isn’t doing all it should be. Likely, it’s adding very little, if anything, to your inbound marketing efforts.
Address the Issue(s)
The changes you should make to your underperforming content will depend on what areas it’s underperforming in. For example, a post with no organic traffic doesn’t have the same issues as one with lots of traffic but low engagement rates.
Organic traffic may not be your main method of getting views or visitors, but all public content should get at least a few organic visitors. After all, organic traffic is free traffic and enough people perform searches online each day that your content ought to be applicable to at least a few people. If you don’t have any organic traffic, check for technical issues, such as a blocked robots.txt file. Assuming there’s no technical glitches, review your on-page optimization. Without search engine optimization, you might not get much traffic.
Content that has a high drop-off rate often also has a low average time on page and high bounce rate. These problems all indicate the content either isn’t user-friendly or it’s not meeting visitors expectations. This content should be redone to convey the information visitors are looking for in a way that reaches them.
Content with low engagement rates, but a high average time on page and low bounce rate, usually has an issue with its call-to-action (CTA). Rewording, relocating, reformatting or completely redoing the CTA may have a big impact on the content’s engagement and conversion rates.
Incorporate Your Insights
With your content’s biggest issues identified and addressed, you have the information you need to prevent underperforming content in the future. Incorporate the changes you make into future content and you should see a significant improvement in its overall performance.
Download our Jumpstart Your Inbound Marketing guide to learn how to produce content that will take your business to the next level.
