Developing and testing content in digital marketing can be challenging? It can be hard to tell how well the article you wrote or bought will perform, but it isn’t impossible. Let’s face it you can’t choose between a blog post optimized for SEO and a blog post that sells; you need both. This step-by-step content analysis will help you get the best content you can.
There are two crucial parts to determining how good your article is. The first is performing a content analysis on the writing style and optimization. The second is testing the content with your users or in a testing group.
After reading this article, you will know if you have a good piece of content by performing a content analysis. As a bonus, if you make it to the end, you will get a list of some of our recommended website content testing tools.
How to Perform a Content Analysis
- Confirm you have a strong headline
- Make sure the article is actionable
- Make sure the article is clear and grammatically correct
- Check for SEO optimization.
- Check for Readability
- Look out for plagiarism
- Do a gut check
Confirm you have a strong headline
The headlines or title is one of the most vital parts of the article. This one-liner not only hooks the visitor but sets up expectations on what they are going to read.
Headlines are so important that it has become a massive factor in Google’s Algorithm. Whether you are writing a blog post to rank well or a piece of sales copy, we recommend running your article’s headline through SITE.
Although meant for SEO, the scoring system and suggestions will let you know how good your headline is.
Make sure the article is actionable.
Yes, chances are a person is coming to learn how to do something, solve a product, or why they should buy your product or service. If you have a specific offer that should be very clear what that offer is, how it benefits them, and what the reader should do next.
Make sure the article is clear and grammatically correct.
Having good grammar is typically a no-brainer when it comes to writing. Errors confuse and can hurt your brand, and what most people don’t know also can affect your SEO. No matter the writer, chances are you may find one small error or two.
Many people pay writers to write because grammar isn’t their strong suit, but running an article through Grammarly is always recommended to catch anything they may have missed.
Note Grammarly and tools like word are not always right. These tools suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt as they may not be an error. In some cases, the error, or choice of words, was used to create a specific tone or style.
Check for SEO optimization.
When writing blog or site content, you need to ensure the right keywords are included in the article. If you haven’t done keyword research, now is the time. Optimizing a blog article is an entire article in itself; here are some quick checks.
- Check to make sure your article has 10-15% more words than the average article on the first page of the phrase you are trying to rank for.
- Aim for a 2-3% keyword density in your article
- Try and include a few long-tail phrases or sections that you can code for Google Snippets.
A great tool to help you with the above steps is WordCounter.Net.
Check for Readability
Generally, your article might sound robotic after inserting keywords, or if the article was written with SEO being the primary purpose. Remember the end of the day, you are writing for a person, not an algorithm, and Google wants you to remember that too. Grammarly is an excellent tool for readability, but going a step further and running your article through the Hemmingway app will make it even easier to read.
Look out for plagiarism.
Although it isn’t illegal in the United States, plagiarism can cause legal action depending on what source was plagiarized. The problem is it can be easy to plagiarize, whether you mean to or not.
You can run a plagiarism checker on Grammarly. Chances are it will come back with something. You are probably safe if it is below 6%, but aiming for 2-3% or lower is better and suggests more original content. You may see a higher score if your piece of content is fact or resource-heavy.
While reviewing the plagiarism score, look at the sources it says you are plagiarizing. The source Grammarly is comparing your article to maybe tiny and unrelated to your topic. Generally, it is recommended to reword, but if the said source is unrelated and under 6% plagiarism, you will be okay to leave it.
Running a plagiarism check not only protects you from potential legal action but will also reduce your chances of getting dinged in the search results for duplicate content.
Do a gut check
The final step is to check in with your gut. You can use all the online tools to get headlines scores and check your SEO, but the article needs to work for you and your purposes at the end of the day. Following these steps correctly should help you have a great article, but you will want to ensure the piece is true to your brand’s tone and style. We recommend letting it sit a day and rereading before posting if there is enough time.
Taking Your Content the Extra Mile
The above steps can help you feel more confident about your article before posting it. No piece of content is perfect, and even the most well-written articles may need to be updated or miss the mark due to other uncontrollable factors like backlinks.
It is crucial to have clear goals of what you want the content to do, and it is even more vital to track how each article performs against those metrics. For sales pages, landing pages, product pages, and product descriptions, we highly recommend conducting content tests through Google Optimize. A quick A/B test is a great way to take your content the extra mile.
If you need help developing or testing content for your digital marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to be your writer. We can help you with your content strategy, write product descriptions that sell, and blogs that rank on google. We can even help you market and repurpose your content.
We hope this article has helped you feel more confident about identifying good content.
As a final word of advice, if you get a good article, don’t limit its potential; make sure to repurpose the piece into other forms of media to maximize your content strategy.
Now for our bonus, here is a list of Website Content Testing tools:
- Grammarly – Grammer and Plagrism check tool
- Capitalize My Title – Headline Analyzer Tool
- Hemming Way App – readability Tool
- Google Optimize – A/B Testing Tool
- WordCounter.Net – Wordcount and keyword density tool
Feel free to analyze your content yourself or have us do it for you.
Happy Writing!
