Brands are locking horns with one another for consumer attention. Statista reveals the primary goal of content marketing is to create brand awareness. However, many brands mistakenly approach their goal by churning out tons and tons of content that doesn’t add value. With the avalanche of content you have to face online, how do you earmark your content for its quality and capture public attention?
If you’ve dabbled in search engine optimization (SEO) for a while now, you know how readers and search engines can be skeptical. Your content needs to absolutely and credibly meet demands to convince them that you are worth their attention. Your content must be authentic, factually researched and grammatically sound. In addition, it should rely on and link to reliable sources.
This blog will look at what content analysis entails, its importance and how to do content analysis. It will also touch on how writing for SEO can help boost brand awareness, as well as provide some useful content writing tips to give your brand the edge over your competitors.
What Is Content Analysis?
Content analysis is the process of assessing the caliber of published content, be it text, video, photos or any other type of content. Furthermore, it helps determine whether the established content quality and strategy yield results or if a change of pace is necessary.
With content analysis, you land a more informed content optimization strategy.
Since content “quality” analysis has no actual “metrics” per se, how you go about this process can be subjective to your business’s audience, content and objectives.
The Importance of Content Quality Analysis
But when we set aside the subjective aspects of what quality means to different businesses, we are all bound by a gold standard: Google’s E-A-T or Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Thus, the value of content analysis boils down to confirming whether the content meets that standard. However, while Google is key to powerful search engine optimization or SEO copywriting services, remember that writing effective copy does not only mean writing for SEO but also for humans — not an “either/or.”
Google’s E-A-T, which means Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, is a quality checker whereby Google gauges the content author, the content itself and the website where it is published. The goal is to demonstrate E-A-T to be recognized as “high E-A-T” by Google.
For example, in medical advice or information online, Google remarked on its Search Quality Evaluator Guideline that such content should be considered high E-A-T only if written or produced by individuals or organizations with appropriate medical profession or accreditation; professionally written, edited, reviewed and updated regularly.
How To Do Content Analysis as Part of Your Content Optimization Strategy
Your responsibility as a content marketer is to utilize content to promote a brand, product, service, or idea. Now, you might say that your content is already generating conversions. However, content analysis can help double or even triple your content’s performance.
Here are qualitative elements to reference back to for your content analysis.
#1 Value
The content must, first and foremost, add value to your target audience, answering user intent. Therefore, when writing for SEO, your content should contain statistics, study findings, survey data and imagery.
Every piece should also serve a purpose, whether that’s to entertain, inform, or sell a product. You should address a potential customer’s demands, accentuate the product’s features, provide the client with options and persuade them to buy.
#2 Readability
Keeping your content’s readability in check increases time spent on a page, a metric that Google values, making it vital for SEO content writing and landing page optimization. The text must be coherent for the thoughts to flow naturally. Here are some content writing tips:
• Keep your paragraphs short.
• Use bulleted or numbered lists.
• Highlight one strong idea per paragraph.
• Use headings to divide your content into constructive sections.
• Format key texts and phrases with bold emphasis.
• Steer clear of confusing terms.
• Insert keywords seamlessly.
#3 Uniqueness
Originality is important to search engines. While there is mostly nothing new under the sun, you should see to it that you deliver information from a fresh perspective. One way to practice uniqueness is by speaking from your experience as you revisit an old concept. When working with an SEO content writing agency, it’s crucial to be wary of those who simply copy and paste from your competitors.
Another way to approach originality is by employing SEO copywriting services tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs. The tools allow you to gain a broader perspective of a certain topic, presenting relevant keywords for you to cover.
#4 Accuracy
Verify that the information is accurate and up-to-date and relates to the present situation. It’s barely beneficial for a 2023 article to reference 2010 data unless otherwise for comparison. Ensure all statistics and historical data are accurate by verifying the names of people, dates and locations. Any conclusive assertion or claim in your piece should be true.
While research from universities and governments is deemed reliable, it would be more helpful to identify reputable sources in your industry you can refer to for SEO content writing. Additionally, if your content often includes contact information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and other contacts, ensure they are accurate. Without considering this, prospective buyers are lost.
#5 Brand Consistency
When writing effective copy or designing visuals, brand consistency is a business capability to maintain messaging and positioning coherent with its principles and the facets that make up its identity. When you practice this by being “on-brand,” you demonstrate reliability to your audience, fostering better brand recognition.
#6 Content Gap Analysis
Beyond your own content, you should seek to learn about the content optimization strategy of your competitors. A content writing agency specializing in SEO copywriting services performs a content gap analysis to identify competitors’ weaknesses, which they treat as opportunities.
For example, a content gap analysis can reveal any keywords your competitors rank for but you do not. Following that, you might develop fresh content centered around those keywords to raise organic traffic to your website.
#7 Landing Page Optimization
Landing page optimization is refining each component of your landing page to facilitate conversions better. So apart from your blogs, you should also analyze your landing pages which often house specific products or the services you provide, aiming to convert site visitors or capture their information. In content marketing services, you link to such pages within your blog to redirect traffic.
Along with your website aesthetics and functionalities, consider the keyword usage in this aspect and aim to use long-tail keywords that focus on search intent.
#8 Analytics
While this blog focuses on qualitative metrics, adding quantitative metrics in the mix can show how your content is actually performing. You can use Google Analytics to track and measure the following:
• Traffic
• Unique page views
• Average time on page
• Returning visitors
• Average pages per session
• Bounce rate
• Goal conversion rate
With this, you’ll also be able to identify your high converting content.
Elevate Your Content Quality With Thrive
To recap, a content analysis should enable you to determine if your content is easy to read and digestible, adds value and speaks directly to your audience’s needs.
However, if you’re missing the mark, hiring a content writing agency like Thrive can help shift things for the better.
Thrive offers high converting content marketing services. Our team helps many businesses identify gaps within their own content and their respective industry. Then, we pivot those gaps into opportunities by producing content squarely aimed at the unserved market. For quick content marketing results, we also employ paid campaigns.
Reach out to our team for free initial content analysis.
