By now you’ve probably heard or even nibbled into content marketing. You know it’s an essential ingredient to your marketing endeavors. In reality, the average online user absorbs somewhere around three to five pieces of content during the decision making process. This includes those individuals who have particular interest in the specific products or services you offer. So, how do you maintain continued interest and engagement with your audience?

Google Analytics is a great traffic assessment tool that allows you to track and measure activity of your website visitors. One of its finest features entails in the ability to monitor content your visitors are finding of highest interest. This particular section is valuable in understanding what particular pages are gaining the highest amount of interest. However, even though it’s a valuable area of assessment it’s simply not enough to maintain continued interest.

Finding Content Ideas from Google Analytics

Assuming that you have Google Analytics properly setup, let’s focus on identifying potential new content ideas to utilize within your content marketing strategy. There’s a couple of areas worth evaluating deeper in helping you find new topics to blog around.

Option #1 – Search Queries

The Google Analytics Search Queries section allows for monitoring of raw data. More specifically, keywords and phrases that website visitors used when searching on Google that generated any traffic activity into your site.

The information disclosed is beneficial in a way that it helps you understand more closely the specific subjects that your website visitors are seeking when searching on Google. You can use some of these keywords as topics within your content marketing endeavors to help increase visibility. For example, if you happen to identify a develop pattern across specific keywords and phrases then consider factoring those terms within upcoming articles.

1. You’ll want to ensure that your Google Analytics website profile is connected with Google Webmaster Tools. Without such integration you are unable to sync query information.
2. Check integration with Google Webmaster Tools by navigation to Acquisition – Search Engine Optimization – Queries section in GA. Follow suggested steps here if it’s necessary to connect this profile.
3. Visit this section frequently to monitor development of specific keyword trends and patterns that can be utilized within your content strategy.

Option #2 – Site Search

This is an untapped area of potential that specifically pertains to configuring tracking of the default search parameter within your site to capture actual queries people used. For example, in WordPress the search variable is “s” following the permalink format such as http://www.digitalwebstrategist.com/?s

Configuring proper tracking of this feature inside Google Analytics can be a bit tricky. Keep in mind that identifying the specific search parameter will vary based on the content management systems used to administer your website. I would advise checking with your website developer to identify and perhaps configure this section.

1. Navigation to the website profile for your domain in Google Analytics.
2. Click on the Admin navigation menu item uptop and then selection View Settings in the third column.
3. Scroll all the way down to the Site Search Settings section as shown in the screenshot below. This is where you will be inputing the actual parameter character to track/strip.
4. Visit the Behavior – Site Search – Overview section in Google Analytics often to monitor additional queries your website visitors have used when searching internally.

From an SEO perspective, utilizing the above options will help you enhance your organic visibility while driving more targeted inbound traffic into your website. The ultimate goal is to provide relative content as it pertains to the interest of your website visitors.