KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, have been around in business for years. This particular piece of management jargon actually describes a fairly straightforward concept. What measures can indicate whether the actions of the enterprise are doing what they are meant to do?
As content writers and bloggers become more integral to a company’s marketing plan, it is increasingly important for those in the industry to create effective Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs allow writers to track and measure the impact of their work within a specific timeframe. By considering key metrics such as number of page visits, unique visitors, new customers acquired, or customer satisfaction level of readers, a content writer or blogger can accurately measure how well their posts are performing and make adjustments accordingly. Developing effective KPIs helps build accountability and transparency when evaluating the success of content initiatives.
KPIs for bloggers & content writers
It does not matter whether its mission is to increase recycling, or sell-ferret health insurance. Bloggers, the new essayists of the 21st century, are often writing to help promote their client or their own business.
Even bloggers who blog for joy are implicitly selling something, even if it is merely their own thoughts, advice, and observations. Even so, it is helpful to know if one’s effort is reaching anyone.
Since bloggers may not have direct interaction with the customer or with the product, it is particularly important to know how they are doing in order to adjust their writing, their subject matter, approach, or some other factor. What might be Key Performance Indicators for a blogger?
Keep a clear goal
Well, actually this question is actually jumping the gun. First things first: to begin with, you need to know what your mission is. If you don’t have one, sit down and come up with one that expresses the core of what you are trying to do in your endeavours. Based on that, you can set goals that can be actually perceived.
Keep SMART Approach – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time Bound
“Making the world a better place”, for example, is a bit vague. These goals should permit you to assess progress towards them. There may be several indicators out there to reveal whether you are making such progress. The most predictive measures among all the possible ones out there in the universe, ideally, will become your KPIs.
Furthermore, your KPIs are just one element in an ongoing process that ideally should include identifying any necessary adjustments to the product or the process. Customers can provide invaluable input that to help with this. Then, assess performance again, and so forth. It is a process, not just one task.
All this is the underlying marketing thought process that should inform what KPIs you use. However, this might seem a bit overwhelming for a stand-alone blogger, or for a startup business. Condense these steps to the following questions, if necessary: what do you want to achieve, and how can you tell if you have done so? Then do what needs to be done to make things better.
Categories of KPIs for bloggers & Content Writers
Some categories of KPIs that often used in businesses include:
- quantitative (numbers) versus quantitative (non-numerical)
- Leading (predicting outcomes) versus lagging (revealing how things went after the fact)
- Input (cost of resources) versus process (productivity or efficiency) versus output indicators (what results were achieved?)
- Practical (related to an existing process in the firm)
- Actionable (identifies actions to be taken)
- Directional (shows trends)
- Financial
The key performance indicators (KPIs) for content writers are both quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative metrics measure the quality of a writer’s work such as their creativity, grammar, formatting style, etc., while quantitative metrics measure the performance of a writer’s articles in terms of views, shares, likes and overall engagement by readers. Here is an overview of some important KPIs for content writers:
- Readability Score – This is the score associated with readability or how easy it is to understand what the writer has written. Good writing should be intelligible but also contain interesting characters or descriptions to keep people engaged throughout. The higher the readability score (which ranges from 0 to 100),the easier it will be for readers to understand your article and more likely they are to stay interested in it if its well-written/interesting enough.
- Frequency & Quality Of Content Published – It’s not enough just to write frequently; each post must also meet certain standards in order to truly make an impact on potential customers/readers who come across your site online. A good KPI would therefore include tracking how often high-quality pieces are published per month (at least two times per week ideally!).
- Word Count – Content that engages readers needs at least 500 words; however, some topics may require longer posts with 1000+ words depending on complexity and detail needed within thematic context of post’s purpose! Keeping track word count across all posts can help identify opportunities improve efficiency when creating similar materials later down line too!
- Visits & Clicks – Did you know that page visits can tell you much about reader interest? By tracking visitor numbers through tools like Google Analytics – use these insights hone future strategies accordingly especially since click rate drives inquiry further into website eventually leading possible sale afterwards? So keeping track this important metric offers great value insight over time monitoring fluctuations patterns which aid decision making algorithmically speaking 🙂
- Social Media Shares & Likes – Social media traction highly correlates with success content online; after all people need ‘like’ article before share it friends family so measuring shares vs total likes can give better understanding campaign effectiveness whilst still early stages aswriter continues!. Additionally look number followers build upon building personal brand everytime somebody interacts brand account).
- Time On Page & Bounce Rate – How long somebody stays reading particular piece information hugely significant factor determining if goal set out been achieved ie did article serve intended purpose otherwise known ‘engagement rate’?? Also ‘bounce rates’ refer percentage visitors who enter website only quickly leaving again soon afterwards without taking any action ie scrolling pages clicking links.. Both figures should taken into consideration when implementing various tactics aimed growing business clout organically too!.
List of Key performance indicators for bloggers & Content Writers – Content KPIs
How would any of these apply to blogging? To measure outputs, you could track the number of
- monthly blog posts,
- guest bloggers,
- syndicated bloggers,
- author comments,
- posts to social media,
- Downloads of eBooks, videos, webinars, or press releases.
To assess the degree of interaction that our blog is encouraging with the readership, we can measure how many of the following we garner:
- views,
- subscriptions,
- reader comments,
- visits from inbound links,
- visits from searches,
- number of times readers shared the link on social media,
- reader likes,
- reader designations as number one, and
- Comments on social media.
The most important measures for sales are conversion statistics. These can include tracking how many leads have been generated from the call to action (or CTA) from
- blog posts
- blog post links
- blog page
- social media posts (by your readers)
- press releases
- downloads of longer documents, such as a pdf
- webinars
- landing pages
- content as customer’s first contact with your endeavor
- content as customer’s last contact before taking action
- revenue generated by the blog, or other single marketing activity
In very practical terms, you can also design your web page and your blog to capture data very precisely. For example, if you put the information about different services that you offer on different individual pages, you will capture specific information about the amount of interest and the number of eyes on that content from the clicks on each page.
If you have blog posts on different pages rather than available to simply scroll down, you will get more information about which blog posts are most appealing or compelling. However (and this is really important), you need to consider that many readers today may access your content from a device with a data plan.
In other words, people may be paying for a measurable number of kilobytes of data every time they click. Be conscious of this and considerate of your readers when you design your web presence. You may actually alienate readers if they have to keep clicking and clicking to get to your content. Be sensitive to this as you balance your need to capture data, and your need to make your blog readily accessible to all readers.
5 Essential KPIs for Content Writing Success
As of now, you have a fair idea about the KPIs for content writers and bloggers. Next question is what parameters are important for you. Achieve success as a content writer by setting and measuring the right performance metrics! Find out which KPIs are most important for your progress. To achieve success as a content writer, it is important to set quantitative goals and measure your performance against them. Now here we will discuss about the five essential key performance indicators (KPIs) that are most relevant to content writers, and how they can be used to measure progress in both the short- and long-term.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic refers to website visitors that arrive on your content naturally, either through search engine queries or via referral links. Monitoring your organic traffic allows you to see how successful your SEO strategies are and whether your content is resonating with your target audience. Paying attention to organic traffic is important as it can decrease quickly if a piece of content is not properly optimized for search engines.
Time on Page
Time on page is one of the key performance indicators for content writing success. It measures the amount of time users spend reading an article or page, representing how engaging and intriguing your content is. Measuring time on page can give you valuable insight into user behavior, enabling you to tweak and improve your content accordingly. You can track time on page using Google Analytics or by including heatmaps in your web pages to measure user activity.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is another key performance indicator you should measure. It tells you what percentage of users leave your page after viewing just one page, and can indicate whether or not your content is relevant and engaging enough to capture user attention. The lower the bounce rate, the more likely it is that users are engaging with your content. You can track bounce rate using Google Analytics or similar tools.
Pages per Session
Pages per session is another integral metric you should track to gauge content writing success. This tells you how many pages each visitor views on your website and can help inform the quality of your content – if more people are viewing more than one page it indicates there’s value in exploring deeper into your website. You can track this similarly to bounce rate, through tools like Google Analytics.
Return Visitor Rate
A return visitor rate is a great way to assess the success of a content writing campaign. This metric evaluates how many returning visitors were drawn back to your website compared to first-time visitors. It is best used when you’ve been consistently plugging away at content production for some time; if your return visitor rate is growing, it’s likely that your audience has been inspired by your previous articles and are curious for more. You can monitor this through analytics on the web.
Important aspects of defining your KPI – Think for your users/customers & add value
While KPI’s are essential for both growth hackers and bloggers, you should not focus on vaguely chasing numbers. Revenue usually starts to increase automatically when your audience loves you.
Rather than trying to prioritize revenue over everything, focus on building a positive brand image, working on brand awareness, and, of course, engaging your customers. The essential KPI’s you should track for this are traffic, engagement, and inbound links.
By tracking these KPI’s try asking yourself questions like how many people are visiting your website daily or engaging with your content in any way.
Then there are the KPI’s that are here to boost the revenue directly. These are the metrics that directly impact the bottom line of your blog funnel and help you grow your income.
When the funnel’s top is all polished, start focusing on cost per lead and conversion rate. The cost per lead should be declining over time if you improve your content and do an excellent job at it. Otherwise – start over and try to find where your content might be lacking quality or relevance. The conversion rate, the one metric we all love and fear, will help you find out what content is the most relevant and converting for your audience. Consider using UTM links or Promo codes to be on top of your tracking game.
If you have the resources, as a mid-level firm, there is a good subscription tool available to keep track of all sorts of analytics, called Domo.com. They plan to roll out a tool for small or startup firms within the next year, so check them out.
You can also use plug-ins available through WordPress, which is a modest investment for newbies or small enterprises. With a bit of instruction, you can probably get much of the most important data that you need on your own. This will definitely help you become a more effective blogger.
Nice and useful article. Thanks a lot