Content is a tool. We may not see it as a tool but also consider that idea. From the perspective of the reader: You read a blog or an article, and what you take in is a message. Maybe you are looking for information or just a few minutes of entertainment. Either way, the piece of content you’ve just read has either provided what you need or not. From the perspective of the content owner – You need to achieve a goal, and you’ve heard that content is king, so why is your blog not performing? You’ve written smoking hot content, and nobody is reading it? Maybe some people read it, and then nothing happens? Inside this blog, we talk about how strategy is a mainstay for content that needs to perform.
How to Transform an Underperforming Blog
The first step is to measure the response. Everything in marketing should be measurable. Those measurements help you to understand your audience and also to measure the impact the contents has with that audience. Even if there is no strategy behind your content, you can still measure the results to a degree. First, we already know that the material is not performing – that’s why you are here. The measurability is in the details of your site’s analytics. Here’s an in-depth look at this.
1. Dwell Time and Bounce Rates
These are a measurement of how long people are spending on your website or within your content library. These measurements relate to each other. Both are measures of the length of time visitors spend on your site. They tell us about different things.
A high bounce rate – People are visiting your site or content and leaving quickly. When this happens, many things can be wrong. It might be as simple as that the keywords you use are not matching the information in the content. It can also be a physical problem with the design of the blog or website. Some things you can check include:
- Check the keyword integrity. Do the keywords match the goals of the content? A big problem occurs when a company uses the same keywords repeatedly throughout its content. Each piece of content needs its own set of keywords. Even if your strategy is to dominate a specific keyword or phrase, the keyword and the content must be harmonious – Not close, but exact. The reason is that readers come for a reason, and if your content does not meet their needs, they move on to other sources – they bounce.
- Check the quality of the titles and subtitles. If people are leaving quickly, it might be that they are scanning the content, noting the title and subtitles, and then making a decision that the content does not fit their needs. The same can also apply to graphics and photographs too. Everything should be cohesive and match the depth of the material and the audience.
- Check the depth of information in comparison to the reader. Content should sit nicely at one level of the buyer’s journey – general information, more in-depth knowledge, motivated to purchase. If your reader is an expert and you give them generalized content, they will leave. They don’t need generalized content; they need specialized content that offers more in-depth insight into whatever their problem is. Readers generally are looking to solve a problem. Does your content help them solve a problem, and does it do so at an appropriate level of their needs? The opposite can be true too. If the content is too technical for the audience, then they will seek a more straightforward form of what you are saying.
2. A High Dwell Time
The analytics of your site may show a high dwell time but not a lot of conversions. Usually, this means that people are searching through the website or library for content that they might use. If your site has a high dwell time and the content has a high bounce rate, then the problem is likely that the visitor is not finding the depth of material they need. You can address this by:
- Make sure that the content information within a topic is complete. What this means is that you have content for each level of the buyer’s journey. If you have a lot of reading and not a lot of conversions, them make sure that the CTA – Call-to-Action – is appropriate for that goal. CTAs are useful at all levels of content, but they need to match the level of the reader’s needs. If people are opening blogs and bouncing, then it might be that they need different information than they find on your site. Making sure that the content information cycle is complete is essential. This problem occurs because there is not a strategy that outlines the content needs of the library. You can fix this by adding more content that fills in the gaps so that visitors find what they need.
- Long dwell times with high bounce rates – Usually, the cause is poor titles and subtitles. People make decisions quickly about whether content solves their problems. Scanning an article quickly and reading the title and subtitles gives the visitor a quick overview of the material. If the titles and subtitles do not match the content, then the visitor bounces.
These tips help to correct a blog that is not performing well. They do not negate the fact that content strategy is a must. In fact, they are illustrating the need for content strategy. A quality content strategy covers the entire content library as well as each piece of content in that library. As you add more content, make sure there is a strategy for each piece, and that the strategy fits the overall goals of the library.
Further Tools For Repairing Poorly Performing Content
1. Consider hiring content experts – writers that excel within that topic or industry
2. Hire a content strategist who understands your industry
3. Reach out to the WriterAccess Team for help finding quality content specialists from writers to strategists
If your site or content is not performing, start with a review of the quality of your content library. If the content is not the problem, then consider the physical aspects of your site. We get into that in another blog.
David S. is an experienced writer with a focus on small- and medium-sized businesses. He primarily creates SEO and marketing content for regular clients. He writes for web page designers, marketing companies, outdoor living clients, and pest control companies. His private clients include homestead/prepper magazines, marketing agencies, pest control companies, healthcare affiliates, outdoor living and construction companies, and gardening/nursery companies.
