To figure out what’s working, what’s struggling, and which areas show the most potential in your content program, you need data.
There are lots of slick analytics tools out there, and many of them provide interesting data… but which ones do you absolutely need?
In this post, we’ll explore that question, with a focus on analytics for organic search performance (since that’s our specialty).
What content marketing analytics tools do you really need?
Before you can optimize any organic search content, you need data on the page’s fundamental performance.
To do this, we recommend tooling for five areas:
- Web analytics – How many people are finding your site? What are they doing once they arrive?
- Search queries – How is the page being found in search?
- Keyword research – Which keywords are resonating with your audience?
- Heat mapping – What parts of the individual page are showing the most engagement
- Library management – What are the trends across your site?
We’ll look at each of those use cases and which tools help the most.
Criteria for choosing a content marketing analytics tool
Before we jump into the weeds with brand comparisons, a quick note about the tool evaluation process. Especially for small teams, and limited budgets, it’s important to find things that fit some very basic criteria:
- You can use it – It’s accessible.
- You will use it – It’s easily integrated and requires minimal time investment.
- You can afford it – Simple rule for this one: don’t sign up for annual plans.
- It provides the specific data you need – Simple data you use is better than complex data you never use.
Which content marketing tools should you try?
We’ll look at each use case, its importance, popular options for tools, and our personal preference.
Web analytics
If you’re spending the time and resources to invest in a website and content, of course you’ll want to know how many visitors you’re getting to your and how those visitors are interacting with your content.
Popular options for web analytics
- Google Analytics
- Posthog
- Fathom
- Matomo
Our choice: Google Analytics
First-party alternatives have their virtues (and often their UX is more inviting than Google’s). However, the most reliable search data is coming from the search platform.
Search performance
You need to see what search terms people are using to find you! You have a few options when it comes to seeing how your website performs in the SERPs (search engine results pages.)
Popular options for SERP performance
- Semrush
- Ahrefs
- Google Search Console
- Bing Webmaster Tools
Our choice: Google Search Console
This is Google’s own data directly from the source. Whenever we can look to Google Search Console, we do! While GSC doesn’t provide proactive keyword research capabilities (that’s the next section), it’s by far the most accurate source of data on where and when your website is showing up in search. When it comes to dialing in the performance of the content on your website and improving your website’s ranking in search, we start here.
Keyword research
Keyword data will show you which terms people are actually interested in. A keyword tool can tell you how frequently a keyword is searched and how tough it is to rank for a given keyword.
Popular options for keyword research
The two most popular tools for keyword research are Ahrefs and Semrush. Each one has its own bespoke formula for generating data. None of these keyword tools are authoritative. Each of them is approximating in their own way.
Our choice: SEMrush
Keyword tool selection is largely a matter of personal preference. User experience is a big factor – you should choose a tool that allows you to get what you want with relative ease. These platforms all offer different ancillary features that might appeal to your particular use case.
We use SEMrush because, honestly, we’ve been using it for a long time. The interface is familiar. We use it almost purely for the data. We use their export and API functionality to help supplement other data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and other sources.
Heat mapping
Getting pages to actually convert is a challenge for any marketer. Heat maps make conversion rate optimization amazingly accessible. They show you the areas on a page that attract the most attention.
Popular options for heat mapping
- Hotjar
- CrazyEgg
- Microsoft Clarity.
Our choice: Microsoft Clarity
It’s reliable and it’s free. Sometimes this is reason enough to try a tool. We’re pretty sure you’ll love it, too.
Library management
As your content library matures, every piece within it must be maintained, updated, optimized. It’s a continuous cycle. To complete it strategically, and at scale, you need a way to easily locate, compare, and sort content according to strategic metrics.
Our choice: Ércule
Ércule and… honestly? That’s about it. People are doing this important work on their own with an improvised series of spreadsheets and GA data.
Why we created the Ércule app
Ércule enables us to provide the kind of strategic content management that we simply couldn’t find in existing tools. For example: sorting libraries by traditional performance metrics as well as qualitative considerations like topic strategy and keyword usage.
The Ércule approach
Ércule helps marketers strategize and optimize content based on clear analytics and recommendations.
Integrating data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console, Ércule highlights the metrics that content marketers actually need – and cuts out the rest.
Wrapped into a user-friendly platform, Ércule enables marketers to track and improve content performance across their site.
Identify, prioritize, and execute on opportunities in your existing content library with Ércule.
Next steps
If you only have time to assemble the very beginnings of a content analytics suite, we highly recommend you start with web analytics. Set up a Google Analytics account for your site and – most importantly – make sure that it works.
(You’d be stunned by how many companies have a huge website and yet a Google Analytics account that isn’t generating any data because of some small but fundamental error.)
If you’re looking to make decisions between any of the brands we mentioned above, check out the customer reviews on G2. Ask your peers in the marketing community – on social or in real life – about the tools they use. And as always, feel free to send us any questions!
