Content analytics: what to track

Note: this post is designed for marketers – not data engineers. (Though we do love you, engineers.)

Thanks to tools like GA4, Hubspot, and Google Search Console, there’s more data than any one content marketer could ever use. It can be overwhelming.

However, you don’t actually need an ocean’s worth of data to make smart, data-driven marketing decisions. A few carefully selected data sets can be more than sufficient for any team to track performance in an insightful, actionable way.

In this post, you’ll learn about data sets in GA4 and Google Search Console that cover every stage of the content lifecycle. These are simple and accessible data sets which enable insight and action.

Overview: 12 metrics to track for organic search content

In this post, we’ll dive into the following metrics. All of them can be found in Google Search Console (GSC) or Google Analytics (GA4).

This post reflects the way we approach organic content marketing for clients. It’s broken up into 4 stages, each one building on the previous stage.

• Search performance. In order to win the attention of your target audience in search, a page needs to rank well for specific queries that your users are searching.
• Traffic. In order to convert the highest possible volume of targeted leads, you first need the highest possible volume of targeted visitors to a page.
• Engagement. Once people land on your page, the task is to keep their attention and, ideally, spark their curiosity to explore more.
• Conversion. What exactly constitutes conversion will vary across marketing departments and individual campaigns. Regardless, the fundamental goal remains that same: getting users to take specific action towards becoming customers.

Now let’s jump into each group.

Search performance

When we’re talking about organic search content, the buyer’s journey starts here: the search engine. The greater success you have in search performance analytics, the greater your chances for success are in all subsequent steps of the buyer’s journey.

Note: in order to make the most out of search performance data, you need to have specific search queries that you’re trying to dominate in search engine results. Those are the guiding light for your organic content strategy. Ranking #1 on a SERP page in Google is only meaningful if it’s a SERP that your target audience is seeking out.

Search performance analytics we’ll talk about in this section:

• Position
• Impressions
• Clicks
• Click Through Rate

What search performance data helps you to understand:

• Search intent. More specifically, the search intent with which your page is being matched. Top query data will illustrate search intent. This is a good indicator of how Google is making sense of your page and the information your page provides.
• Competition. More specifically: search rank data will tell you how well your content is performing against competitor pages. Once you understand how it’s ranking, you can start to figure out why it’s ranking that way – and how to improve.
• Presentation. More specifically: click-through rates can show you how compelling your page listing is on SERPs. Figuring out how to improve click-through is a matter of assessing the search intent and competition for a given query.

Average position

Average position reflects the average ranking of your website URLs in Google Search results for the queries they appear in.

This metric is an average because Google does not place any page in the same exact spot 100% of the time. Instead, it places each page listing in slightly different positions, search by search, in order to develop a more nuanced idea of where each page belongs. These individual appearances are known as “impressions” (which we’ll explain “impressions” in the next section).

Practical relevance

This metric shows how well your pages rank across various queries, highlighting overall SEO performance and identifying areas for improvement.

Factors that influence query performance:

• Search intent alignment. How closely does the content align with the information that people are looking for when they enter a particular query?
• Metadata optimization. How clearly and accurately does your metadata convey the content on the page and its relevance for readers?
• Technical site elements. Page speed, indexing, and optimization for mobile are just a few of the technical factors that Google asseses.
• Engagement metrics. When a page has higher engagement rates (more on this metric below) then Google is more likely to improve its rank.

Note: the more impressions that a page has, the more reliable its position metric is. For example: a #1 ranking for a targeted keyword doesn’t mean much if the page only has 10 impressions. That means that Google hasn’t actually placed it in the #1 spot many times. By contrast, if the position is #1 and it’s based on 10,000 impressions, the page has come up as #1 for individual searches several thousand times.

Branded vs unbranded queries

All of the top queries can be broken up into  one of two groups: branded or unbranded. Branded queries include branded language (eg. a product name, your company name, etc.). Both are valuable in their own way.

Generally, the goal is to win unbranded queries, since these will connect your content with the widest possible audience (including people who are not yet aware that your brand exists). Branded queries are much easier to win but the audience is limited to people who are already familiar with your brand. Still, branded query data can provide useful insights into the topics, concepts, and use cases with which your brand is commonly associated.

Impressions

The impressions metric charts the number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results – not including paid Google Ads search impressions.

Practical relevance

For brand new content, impressions are often a precursor to SERP performance. A page will start to rack up impressions for a variety of queries as the search engine is figuring out which queries seem to be the most relevant.

For more mature content, the goal is to steadily increase impressions for targeted queries.

Factors that influence the impressions metric:

• Content maturity. A brand new post won’t rack up a ton of impressions right away.
• Search volume. If you’re targeting a query with really low volume, the impressions will tend to be lower as well
• Search intent + metadata. In order to put your page in front of users, Google needs to see how your page is relevant to their queries. Clear, targeted titles and content make it much easier for Google to make those connections.

Clicks

The “click” metric charts how many times people clicked on your page’s listing from a Google Search Results Page. This metric does not include clicks from Google Ads.

Practical relevance

In terms of organic search content, this is the first micro-conversion moment. A user has seen your listing on the SERP and decided to visit your website to learn more.

Factors that influence clicks:

• Impressions. Before a page can be clicked it needs to first be visible on a SERP. It needs to make an impression. In this way, the number of impressions will influence the number of clicks. (More on this below.)
• Page title + meta description. This is all that a user will see of your page on a SERP listing, so it needs to be fine-tuned. (However, more and more frequently, Google will override the title and description you’ve written and provide new ones based on its own analysis.)
• Search rank. Search rank has a direct effect on click volume. A page ranked #1 for a query generally gets exponentially more clicks than a page ranked #3.
• Search intent. Is the page ranking for a strategic query – one that aligns with your target audience? In other words: is your page being seen by the people who really need it? The more aligned a page is with the search intent of a query, the more likely it is to get clicks.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

This is a relative metric. It tells you the percentage of impressions that result in clicks.

The calculation: Clicks [divided by] Impressions [times] 100.

Practical relevance

CTR provides a quick view of how compelling your page is in SERPs.

Factors that influence CTR:

• Search rank. As noted above, the better a page ranks in a SERP, the more visible it will be to users, and the higher the CTR.
• Search intent. As noted above, relevance here is possibly the biggest determining factor for a CTR. It’s a fundamental marketing issue: is the page providing something that the user wants and/or needs?
• Page listing + metadata. The title of a page on a SERP, and the brief description provided beneath it, need to pique a user’s interest and promise to effectively deliver exactly what they’re looking for.

Since CTR is relative to the total number of impressions, search volume is not so important here. What’s more important is the connection you’re making with the audience, no matter its size.

Traffic analytics

Traffic is sometimes derided as a “vanity” metric because it’s very broad. However, we think it’s pretty fundamental to any marketing funnel.

Basically: you need leads in order to convert leads. Traffic is a way of measuring how many leads you’re getting to visit a given page.

Traffic analytics we’ll talk about in this section:

• Views
• Users
• Direct traffic

What traffic analytics help you to understand:

• Audience size. In other words: how many people have landed on a given page in the past month or quarter or year?
• Sourcing. In other words: where are people finding your content most often? Are they coming primarily from organic search, or paid search, or social?
• Repeat visitors. How often are people returning to a given page? A high volume of repeat visitors indicates that a page has valuable content.

Views

The views metric (formerly known as pageviews) charts the total number of times that users landed on a page. Repeat visits are counted as individual views. If one person looks at a page five times those are counted as 5 views.

Practical relevance

At its most basic, this is a measure of a page’s visibility or popularity.

Factors that influence views:

• Search performance. The higher the SERP rank, the greater that organic traffic
• Content distribution. Social channels can have a huge influence on a page’s total number of visitors (which in turn can help to drive search performance).

“Organic views” vs “All views”

The views metric can be further parsed to identify how many views are coming only from organic search.

“All views” is a metric that includes absolutely all traffic – including paid search, ads, and direct traffic. “Organic views” is the subset of traffic that comes specifically from organic search.

If you’re developing an organic search content strategy, here’s one goal to keep in mind: over time, you want the “organic views” metric to occupy an increasingly larger percentage of the “all views” metric.

Users

The users metric charts the number of unique users who visited a page.  If a user visits your page today and then returns next week, they will only be counted once.

Practical relevance

This is a measure of the total number of potential leads who visited a page.

Factors that influence the user quotient:

• Search performance. Search rank affects user volume in the same way that it affects click volume: the higher the rank, the greater chance a page has to be discovered by new users.
• Content distribution. By distributing content through established social networks, a page has an opportunity to reach your targeted audience in an organic way. It’s a matter of bringing the content to the audience rather than waiting for them to find it in search.

Organic users vs All users

Just as you can separate organic views from “all” views, you can do the same with users.

“All users” is a metric that includes absolutely all visitors – which can include visitors from paid traffic and direct traffic “organic users” is the subset of visitors who come specifically from organic channels like search and social.

As with the views metric, the goal is for the “organic users” metric to occupy an increasingly larger percentage of “all users” metric.

Direct traffic

A session is processed as direct traffic when no information about the referral source is available, or when the referring source or search term has been configured to be ignored.

Practical relevance. If direct traffic numbers are exceptionally high for a page or site, this is a red flag for your engineering team. It means that a lot of your traffic is being incorrectly labeled as direct. If too much traffic is mislabeled, it’s going to confuse and corrupt your overall reporting and analytics.

Sometimes small errors are to blame. For example, if users click on a link in a sales email, but the link has no UTM tracking component, it may register as direct traffic. However, more fundamental issues can lead to bigger problems. (More on this below.)

Factors that influence direct traffic:

• Repeat users. Legitimate direct traffic comes primarily from customers, repeat visitors, and even employees. As a result, every site has some direct traffic.
• Site configuration. Exceptionally high direct traffic quotients are often the sign of an incorrectly configured Google Analytics account. In other words, your site might be set up wrong in GA4.

Engagement analytics

Once a person lands on your page, you want them to not only read the content but also to be intrigued, delighted, and eager to explore the site further. Engagement is the step before conversion.

Engagement analytics we’ll talk about in this section:

• Engagement rate
• Engagement time
• Exit rate

What engagement analytics help you to understand:

• Viability. In other words: is anyone meaningfully engaging with this page at all?
• Depth. In other words: how long does a page hold people’s attention? And is it inspiring them to explore other parts of the site?

Engagement rate

Engagement rate is a relative metric that charts how frequently users are staying on a page in a meaningful way.

Engagement rate shows what percentage of total views or “sessions” qualify as “engaged sessions.” An “engaged session” is a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has at least 2 pageviews or screenviews

Practical relevance

Engagement rate provides insight into search intent. Is this page providing them with the information that they want and need?

Factors that influence engagement rate:

• Search intent. If a page is ranking well for a targeted query then it’s likely to engage readers. If it’s ranking for an irrelevant query, then the visitors from that search will probably not engage.
• Quality of content. You’ve got to give people substantial content to engage. If the content on a page is thin, or seems half-baked, visitors will quite justifiably leave in order to find a page that offers real substance.
• Design + user experience. Even if the page is well targeted and full of quality writing, bad site design can still drive visitors away. People make snap judgments when they land on a page. If your page’s design is outdated or cluttered with pop-up ads then people might decide that it’s not worth the trouble.

Engagement rate vs bounce rate

Engagement rate is a relatively new metric, unique to GA4. Previously, the go-to metric for engagement was “bounce rate.”

Bounce rate was, basically, the opposite of engagement rate. It measured the percentage of sessions which did not result in meaningful engagement. In practical terms, they measure the same thing. But engagement rate has a bit more nuance to it, and it’s easier to surface with GA4.

Engagement time

Engagement time measures the average length of time that a page was in the foreground of a user’s browser.

Practical relevance

This provides an idea of how much time people are spending on a given page. If the average time is less than a minute, for example, there’s probably room for improvement.

Factors that influence engagement time:

• UX and page speed. People have high expectations for UX these days. If your site proves to be difficult, they won’t hesitate to cut a visit short.
• Depth of content. If there’s more material for a person to dig into, then you’re likely to inspire a longer engagement time.
• Quality of writing. If a page is a pleasure to read, then people are likely to spend more time with it. If the writing is poor, it encourages skimming or abandonment.

Note: longer engagement time is not necessarily the goal for every piece of content. Some pages are designed to be quick little references which naturally leads to a shorter engagement time.

Exit rate

Exit rate is a relative metric. It’s referring to the moment when a user leaves your site entirely. When a user goes to another website or closes their browser, that registers as an “exit.”

Exit rate charts the percentage of sessions that ended on a given page.

Practical relevance

You’re aiming for a low exit rate whenever possible. When the exit rate is low for a given page, this means that the page is leading users to keep exploring other parts of your website. A high exit rate is an occasion to ask: what can we change to keep people moving from this page to others on the site?

Factors that influence exit rate:

• Conversion links. If you don’t offer people exciting places to click and explore, they’re more likely to exit. However, if relevant and compelling calls-to-action are placed at strategic points throughout a page, you can entice them to stay on your site.
• UX. Poor visual design can obscure conversion links. Unclear content structure and writing can also confuse readers regarding the next logical step in their journey.

Conversion analytics

Conversion is the ultimate goal of any buyer’s journey. All of the previous analytical steps are leading up to this. Of all the analytics featured in this blog post, conversion is the hardest part to accurately track and measure. For starters, the reports featured here require a bit more setup than other analytics.

But also, “conversion” is a broad category encompassing a variety of different actions for different content marketing campaigns. A top-funnel page on your blog might not immediately result in a product demo or product purchase – but it might be the entry point for a reader who clicks through a series of pages to make a purchase.

With that in mind, the definition of “conversion” can vary widely from page to page. (More on this below.)

Conversion analytics we’ll talk about in this section:

• Next visited page
• Conversions by page

What conversion analytics help you to understand:

• Calls to action. In other words: which links are netting the most conversions?
• Funnel content. In other words: which pages are converting the most leads?

“Next visited page”

This is a page path exploration report. When you pull this report for a given page, you’ll see the other pages on your site that people visit afterwards. The report also quantifies the number of times those pages were visited.

Practical relevance

When you pull this report for a given page, you’re usually comparing all of the links that are visible on that page. This includes links in the nav bar as well as any strategic conversion links in the content itself.

In other words: which links are generating the most clicks?This provides insight into the page’s conversion strategy as well as the visitor’s intent.

Factors that influence this metric:

• Link placement + page design. Not every reader makes it to the bottom of a blog post. Links placed farther up on a page have a better chance of being seen – and clicked.
• Offer. Visitors on a top-funnel page are more likely to click on an informative, mid-funnel page rather than a product purchase button.
• Copywriting. Is the value of the CTA made as clear and compelling as possible?

“Conversions by page”

This report charts the number of times that a conversion “event” occurs on a page. What constitutes an event? That’s entirely up to you. It can be any interaction that feels strategically significant.

For example, you can use an event to identify whenever someone loads a page, clicks a link, or completes a purchase. These are all conversion events in their own right.

Practical relevance

Pages with high conversion metrics are clearly doing something right. If you can figure it out, you can adapt those strategies to improve conversion on other pages.

The factors that influence this metric are essentially the same as those which influence “Next visited page” – or most any conversion.

Factors that influence this metric:

• Link placement + page design. As noted above, not every reader makes it to the bottom of a blog post. By placing conversion opportunities toward the top of a page, you’re giving conversion opportunities to readers with short attention spans.
• Offer. Sales and product demos, while crucial to the sales pipeline, are not the only legitimate conversion metrics for marketers. The challenge here is to choose conversion events that are appropriate to whatever funnel stage readers are in..
• Copywriting. The most perfectly curated offer in the world won’t yield any conversions if the value of that offer isn’t made clear and immediate to users.

Note: conversion is not always a 1-to-1 affair. A mid-funnel blog page might not yield any demo requests for your product, for example. But a user might click from that page to another page on which they do request a demo. This sequential nature of conversion is why we recommend tracking user flow.

Next steps

With that conversion data in tow, you’re equipped to start assessing your pages and content funnel for friction. (We run friction audits and conversion rate optimization reports for clients.)

But if you’re new to all of this GA4 data capture stuff, it’s worth taking the time to find a repeatable, relatively pleasant way to access all of this data on a regular basis. We wrote a guide to finding GA4 page data – designed for newbies.

You’ll find a quicker (and marketer-friendly) path to that same GA4 and GSC data using Ottimo. Ottimo is a data product designed specifically for markers. It distills the performance data that marketers actually need. It also will bring you directly to that data for each page in the GA4 and GSC dashboards.