You might have heard “content is king,” and it is still valid. Content is the essence of the online presence maintenance of a business. Undoubtedly, the transformation in the content took place, which was to better users and a brand. Today, content must be user-friendly and SEO-friendly to get maximum advantage out of it. In fact, according to a study, above 90% of marketers and businesses proclaim content as a valuable business asset.
Hence, marketers emphasize finding and fixing the underperforming content for many reasons, such as boost SEO score, increase web traffic, etc.
This article will get to know the most effective ways to determine the underperforming content and the best possible ways to fix it.
First, Underperforming SEO Content 101
Underperforming content is the content that has intended to achieve higher goals, but it is not workable anymore. For instance, you have created a series of blogs to promote a service; however, the content doesn’t produce the result you have planned.
There might be many reasons for underperforming content, such as the content doesn’t match users’ intent, content is hard to read, content doesn’t highlight the important point, and the list goes on.
Nonetheless, it is crucial to find and fix the underperforming SEO content so that businesses can achieve their desired goals.
How to Identify Underperforming Content
1. Loss of organic traffic
Sometimes, a post will get initial traction and then quickly lose its traffic. This can happen while running a social promotion campaign, losing referral links from high traffic sites, and shifting in organic search rank.
Also, sometimes you might not notice organic traffic because of the poorly organized or structured content.
2. Zero direct engagement
Even a well-trafficked post could have low direct engagement. This could aim at an issue with a call-to-action or possibly concerns that the content doesn’t resemble the user’s search intention.
3. Limited to no social engagement
Limited shares on social media are among the first signs indicating something wrong with the content. If you are getting steady traffic or you lose users’ engagement, it clearly shows issues with the content that has been posted.
4. Low post metrics
Another underperforming content sign is a low on-page session duration per page, with a high drop-off rate. Generally, content is presented to attract viewers’ attention and make them stay on the page for a while. Besides, you want the readers to visit the internal page linked to the content they are reading. If you are not finding enough metrics of a content post, it indicates that the content is not performing well.
5. Not increased followers despite a social promotion
If you have noticed that you have executed campaigns, posted a series of content, or taken advantage of social promotion but have not noticed a hike in followers, it might be because of underperforming content.
Now that you have learned how to find the underperforming content let’s make the way to fix it.
The foremost thing you should do to fix the underperforming content is to identify the right cause. For example, if the content might not be performing because it doesn’t relate to its intent. If you know the reason for the underperformance of content, only you can fix it well.
However, here are the most effective ways to fix underperforming content.
6. Modify the content to match users intention
If you find that your content is not matching up with the user’s intent, modifying it would be a great idea. You can transform the existing content or get an idea from the content and create new content related to the users.
7. Smartly use keywords
While creating SEO-friendly content, you need to focus on using keywords that don’t seem stuffed. Use long-tail keywords, for instance, and try to write content in a simple tone. Also, think about how your potential customers will search for your content. This will help to add natural phrases that users searched to reach out to the content you publish.
8. Title (headline) optimization
When you are looking for the tricks to improve content’s performance, headlines come in the first few places. The more catchy title of a piece of content increases the chances of boosting CTR (Click Through Rate).
9. Repurpose content
If you have content with a little traffic, you can repurpose it and make it a fresh start. For example, if you have blog posts with less traffic, you can create a short social media post with infographics and promote them on social media. The consolidation of content will transform the original content and will give ways to increase customer engagement.
Other considerations to improve content performance include;
- Write high-quality, unique content.
- Focus on solution-based writing
- Make sure content is educational or informational.
- Make it relevant to your business offerings and the solution that the audience solicits.
All in all, rectifying the underperforming SEO content is essential, which can be adjusted once you find the appropriate cause. You can surely use past analytics to identify the strategies that boost the performance of your content. If you make the underperforming content perform well, you can surely get a higher SEO score and boost your business’s overall performance.
About The Author:
Rakshit Hirapara is a content marketer at PeddleWeb, an internet advertising company in India. He holds spectacular digital marketing skills, branding, lead generation, customer retention, and a few more. People can follow me on Twitter and connect on LinkedIn.
