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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Authenticity is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the marketing world. According to a report by Stackla, 90% of consumers say that authenticity matters when choosing brands to support, from retail to healthcare to higher education and more. However, that same report reveals that less than half of consumers believe brands are showing their most authentic side. In a push to become more transparent and authentic, more brands are turning to user-generated content.

User-generated content (UGC) is the blanket term for customer-generated or employee-generated images, blog posts, social media posts, or other social proof. The content doesn't come from a professional marketer, but rather from ordinary people.

About 60% of consumers agree that UGC is the most authentic way brands can market themselves. Social media campaigns that include UGC see 50% higher engagement, and email campaigns that include it see 73% higher clickthrough rates. Consumers also find UGC to be much more influential than other kinds of marketing content, with 80% saying it impacts their buying decisions. 

Looking for more general information about UGC? Check out our User-Generated Content Guide!

Now that you know the value of UGC for social media, how do you go about getting it? 

Let’s look at 16 UGC examples from brands that get it right:

Loughborough University: #Lborofamily Golden Ticket campaign

Fashion blogging is huge on social media, where thousands of users post their #OOTD, or "outfit of the day." ASOS cashed in on this trend to create a feed of free advertising for their clothes! Back in 2014, ASOS launched a section on their website called As Seen on Me. It links to images of ASOS customers wearing clothes purchased from its website. Customers can upload photos directly to ASOS.com or connect with the page by using the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe on Instagram.

This strategy works well for several reasons. First, shoppers get a sense of what the clothes look like on regular people in regular situations, not just on models in carefully crafted, brand-generated content. They can see a wider range of body types wearing the same outfit and know how it might look on themselves.

Every customer can also be an influencer of sorts. Their photos inspire shoppers to create outfits they might not have come up with on their own. Knowing how to perfectly pair different clothing pieces can help them get more use out of their purchases.

Related: check out a list of the top 40 fashion influencers and the top 50 beauty influencers!

Launched in 2011, the Share a Coke campaign featured hundreds of the most popular first names on Coca-Cola cans and bottles. Traditional ads and in-store displays encouraged customers to find a bottle or can with their name on it and post a picture of it on social media with the #ShareaCoke hashtag.

From creative-directed Instagram posts to casual selfies, the campaign inspired great examples of UGC. Not only did Coca-Cola get more authentic content for its social networks, but it also let consumers engage with the brand while expressing their creativity.

Tip: Take a look at other great Instagram marketing examples to inspire your Instagram marketing strategy.

Chip brand Doritos has something of a cult following, which makes it a perfect match for UGC campaigns. In 2015, the company launched a separate website, dubbed Legion of the Bold (now Legion of Creators), which contained branded images of Doritos products. Users could leverage the images to create their own content for Doritos, and the results were pretty wild.

Fans crafted everything from fake weather announcements to photos of themselves sitting on thrones of chips. The brand continues to launch specific challenges that focus on everything from its best-selling products to the holidays and more.

This strategy works well because it caters to some of the brand’s most loyal fans (teens, college students, gamers, content creators, and others). But it also gives Doritos a chance to direct the content creation process. 

If you want a specific type of content or feature a certain product, give your fans everything they need to deliver.

Whether you're a branding expert or just a coffee lover, you'll probably be familiar with the old but gold Starbucks white cup contest. It's one of the most-cited UGC examples to date.

Starbucks invited its customers to decorate its coffee cups using the hashtag #WhiteCupContest. In return, the customers could win a $300 gift card and have their designs printed on a reusable cup.

The result of the campaign? Loads of visually appealing social media posts (and re-sharing of those posts) increased Starbucks' organic reach and user-generated product design!

And it doesn’t stop there. As a bonus, the campaign drummed up interest in the company's more eco-friendly, reusable cups. The contest itself is also a nod to an already-popular trend of users decorating their Starbucks cups. It’s a subtle way for a brand to show they really do see their customers.

While many brands run occasional customer-created content campaigns, Away relies on UGC content all the time. Scroll through their IG account, for instance, and you’ll see that the majority of their photos have been contributed by fans of the luggage brand.

Away built its fame on the idea that a relatively boring thing, a suitcase, could become a fun statement piece. To support the brand, Away focuses not just on the suitcase itself, but rather on the purpose it serves while its customers live their best lives. Their social media content inspires wanderlust by showing what real travel looks like. And who better to tell those types of stories than actual people who are going to actual places?

The reactions of fans when they get featured make the brand appear even more genuine.

Home goods brand Parachute steers away from the staged look of its products in favor of more realistic snapshots. Using the #MyParachuteHome hashtag, the brand encourages its customers to upload photos of how they’re decorating their living spaces with Parachute products. They have a very different look and feel from stock images of its bedding and bath products.

The biggest takeaway for you, the marketer? Not only does the brand use these posts in its social media strategy, but it also publishes them in traditional ad campaigns. Customer photos have been featured on insert cards included in customer orders, paid digital ad campaigns, and more. The campaign has resulted in a 35% higher click-through rate as well as 60% lower ad costs.

Loews Hotels wanted to bring more authenticity to its marketing content, so it launched its #TravelForReal hashtag in 2015. Five years later, it updated the campaign with the #WelcomingYouLikeFamily hashtag to learn more about what it’s really like to stay at a Loews property.

Loews collects these photos for its official marketing materials, giving customers the thrill of seeing their photos in a professional ad. With their UGC campaigns and slogan — "Because nobody tells our story better than you," — Loews sourced original content and emphasized its connection to its hotel guests at the same time.

When cell phone cameras first emerged on the market, they weren’t very good. But back then, the technology was so new and innovative that quality wasn’t the biggest perk for customers. Times have changed, and so has the quality of cellphone cameras. In 2014, Apple was eager to show just what its new iPhone camera was capable of, so it launched the #ShotoniPhone campaign.

By then, despite advancements in smartphone camera technology, iPhones had earned a reputation for having subpar picture quality. To win back the trust of its fanbase, Apple's marketing strategy features real-life photos and videos taken by iPhone owners to highlight just how powerful its camera can be.

Photographers and average iPhone users alike contribute their own high-quality photos to the campaign by posting them to various social channels. It was a great way to change perceptions, given that the hashtag generated more than 29 million Instagram posts!

Cellphone plans have become something of a commodity, but T-Mobile found a fun way to use UGC breakup letters to differentiate its brand from other carriers. This campaign dove into the reasons why individuals ditch their current cellphone carrier for another. 

Users answered a series of questions that were pulled from the brand’s social media channels. The result was a Mad Libs-style "breakup letter" that users generated themselves and posted to T-Mobile’s social media channels.

In total, the campaign earned more than 113,000 breakup letters, 2.7 million app page views, and 67 million social media impressions.

Intimate apparel and loungewear brand Aerie launched its #AerieREAL campaign in 2014 with a huge announcement: They would stop retouching the models in their advertisements. How's that for authenticity?

The company's first run of un-retouched ads was a call to action for its UGC campaign. Customers started flooding social media with pictures of themselves in Aerie products using the #AerieREAL hashtag. Meanwhile, the brand engaged with these posts on Twitter and Instagram. With this UGC campaign, Aerie highlighted the body-positive aspect of its brand identity and reflected the diversity of its customer base. 

Cancer Research's No Makeup Selfie campaign raised more than £8 million in six days. During the campaign, the organization encouraged followers to post selfies without makeup on, donate £5 to Cancer Research, and nominate others to do the ‘challenge’.

What you encourage your users to post doesn’t necessarily have to relate to your product. In this case, posting selfies without makeup on doesn’t relate to Cancer Research, yet was still hugely effective.

Collaboration is at the heart of Loughborough University’s strategy. In 2016, the university sent out personalized golden tickets to all of the year’s new freshers. Many then took to social media to post pictures of them with their golden ticket using the hashtag #LboroFamily.

Like Coca-Cola showed with its Share a Coke campaign, creating something personalized for your audience encourages UGC and engagement. The #Lborofamily Golden Ticket campaign drummed up excitement and helped the university expand its reach.

With its OPEN Forum website and app, American Express professionalizes UGC. The site features user-generated blogs and articles covering everything from company culture to money management to e-commerce. And, interestingly enough, the content is produced by American Express customers, not employees.

By giving small business owners a space to post and answer questions, create content, and connect with other entrepreneurs, American Express used UGC to create a community of its customers. Plus, the company now has a one-stop shop for understanding what matters most to its audience.

Calvin Klein’s “I ________ in #MyCalvins” advertising and UGC campaigns let customers identify with the brand's celebrity endorsers. In the ads, stars like Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, and Kendrick Lamar "fill in the blank" of the slogan with a few words about the role the jeans play in their lives.

The company also invited customers to post photos on social media of themselves in Calvin Klein products using the #MyCalvins hashtag. Then, select images are featured on the website with links to product pages where customers can buy the looks for themselves.

Taking the intimidation factor out of their high-fashion ad campaigns, Calvin Klein's #MyCalvins campaign helped make the brand's identity more approachable and relatable. Plus, featuring select UGC let the brand show appreciation for its customers while creating new sales opportunities.

LEGO Ideas launched in 2015. The concept? LEGO fans are invited to create an original build. That's step one. Then, the fan has to gain public support (similar to crowdfunding) on the LEGO Ideas website. If the creator gets 10,000 supporters, then the LEGO board reviews the creation and decides whether to make it into an official LEGO product to be sold around the world.

There are so many great things about this campaign. Firstly, it shows users being creative with LEGO's products. Secondly, to gain support for an idea, the user has to promote it (and LEGO) online, which expands the reach and brand awareness. Finally, having people vote on an idea shows LEGO what its users want to see in the shops. This campaign took UGC to the next level by turning customer ideas into an actual line of retail products.

Social media campaigns aren't the only kinds of UGC. Customer reviews and testimonials also fit the bill. In fact, Amazon makes customer feedback a central part of its shopping experience.

First, Amazon makes the reviewing process easy by emailing customers after every purchase with a reminder and link to leave feedback in the form of a star rating and optional written review. It features the average star rating at the top of any product page. 

Plus, it lets customers sort and filter products by rating, making customer feedback an essential part of the purchase process. Amazon knows that many consumers rely on reviews to decide what to buy, so they put feedback front and center. UGC is not only important for the marketing of each product on Amazon's website, it's a main feature!

In short, UGC works. It’s cost-effective, engaging, and more importantly, helps brands connect with their customers authentically. 

Sourcing UGC and managing UGC campaigns is a whole other story. Meltwater solutions let you aggregate content automatically and publish it across your media channels. Learn more about how Meltwater can help you capitalize on user-generated content — book a demo today by filling out the form below!

16 Examples of Excellent User-Generated Content

Let’s be honest: all that time, effort, and brainpower you put into content marketing for your brand are useless if no one sees it. Sure, you can always share your blogs on social media or with your email subscribers. But for many brands, the bread and butter of their business comes from search traffic. That’s where writing SEO optimized content plays a huge role.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of making your content easily understood and discoverable by search engine algorithms. This way, when someone searches for something you offer, you stand a better chance of appearing higher in the search rankings.

Here’s a rapid-fire guide on how to write SEO-optimized content.

What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

How to Think About Your SEO Content Strategy

Tools to Help You with SEO Content Writing

SEO is the process of optimizing your web content to help increase your rankings placement in a search engine. Blog posts, landing pages, and even images can be SEO optimized to make them easier to find via search.

For example, let’s say your company offers a media intelligence platform 😏. In this case, you want anyone searching for keywords like “reputation management” or “how to contact journalists” or “PR marketing strategy” to find and click on you in search results. If you have SEO optimized content, you'll show up before, or close to your competitors, ideally "above the fold" on a search engine page.

SEO is an amalgamation of many moving parts, including:

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but these are some of the most important considerations when optimizing content for SEO.

Outrank competitors for industry searches

Google's algorithm favors high-quality content, plain and simple. Content quality is determined based on based on several factors, such as the presence of internal links and external links, keyword frequency and placement, content length, headings, and more.

Logically speaking, a search engine's role is to return the most relevant search results to its users. That’s why it looks for certain signals that indicate a good match between query and content. 

The more high-quality content you write, the better chances you have of ranking for your desired keywords.

Ranking matters because it helps to drive more people to your brand. And the more people who discover your brand, the more authoritative you become. This means more reputable websites will link to you, which leads to more brand awareness on the part of the consumer. So when they search again for related keywords, they will recognize your name above others. Good SEO optimized content is a self fulfilling prophecy! 

Every time someone clicks on your content on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), it indicates to Google that they returned a good match to your search query. 

SEO content helps you earn organic website traffic. Search engine optimization does a lot of the heavy lifting for you simply by positioning you in front of people actively searching for what you know, sell, or provide. In turn, this can help you lower customer acquisition costs, reduce ad spend, and increase brand awareness.

Simply checking the boxes on a list of SEO-focused suggestions isn’t enough to rank well. There’s a rhyme and reason behind SEO-friendly content. 

Here’s how to approach an SEO content strategy:

Tip: Learn more about search engine optimization in one of the best SEO podcasts .

Keywords are what drive every SEO content strategy. A keyword is a term that someone types into a search engine, such as Google, with the goal of finding information, solutions, or a product. 

Tip: A "keyword" can mean a single word, or a phrase

You can use data-driven SEO tools like AHREFS or SEMRush to find relevant keywords in your niche or industry. In most cases you will want to choose keywords that have a high search volume and low competition. There are times, however, when your strategy should take into consideration what are called "long tail keywords". These are keywords that may have far less search volume, but are also far less competitive. Meaning that you have a better chance of dominating those search results.

Where you place keywords within your content matters. 

Your main keyword should be included in the...

Title (and title tag and meta description)

At least one H2 header within the content

Sprinkled naturally throughout the rest of the content

Aim for a 1-2% keyword density, as using the keyword too many times can get you flagged for keyword stuffing.

You should also include Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords, which are keywords that are related to your main keyword. 

For example, if you’re writing about SEO, an LSI keyword could be “search engine optimization” or “SEO copywriting.” LSI keywords add context to your content and help the algorithms better understand what your content is about.

Last but certainly not least, consider the intent behind the search. Keyword intent takes the user’s thought process into account. In other words, why would a user be searching for this keyword?

For example, if someone is searching for a “red blazer,” chances are they want to buy a red blazer. They’re likely not interested in how to make a red blazer or when blazers first entered the fashion industry.

The three most common search intent types are informational, transactional, and navigational. Using long-tail keywords can help you get more specific about the type of searches you want to attract.

Internal links and external links in your content are quality indicators. It’s an easy way to provide access to additional information or sources to support your own content, and it also signals that you're not trying to operate in an echo-chamber or only link to yourself.

Ideally, you have a link-building strategy in place to gain links from outside sources that point back to your own website, using descriptive and contextual anchor text. Inbound links demonstrate that other sources have deemed your content reliable and high-quality, and search algorithms pick up on this activity and reflect positively on you.

If you want to increase your rankings, and are looking for content ideas, a good place to start is to discover what people are already searching for in your wheelhouse, and then build content clusters around them. 

Again, this circles back to good keyword research. When you can find high-volume keywords, you can potentially reach more people with your content.

Tip: If you aren't ready to dive into an in-depth keyword research exercise, you can use the "People also ask" and related searches that Google provides.

In this example, we used the keyword "How to garden". In "People also ask" Google has hinted at plenty of other ways we could expand on this search, to provide users with more relevant articles:

Serving its users quality content is Google’s main goal. But since the term “quality” is subjective, how can you ensure your content is higher quality than other content that’s already ranking well?

There's more to well-optimized content than being well-written.

The best practice is to research what’s already been said about the topics you want to write about. Pay attention to the sources they link to, the length of the content, and any missed opportunities for improvement (e.g. adding an image, infographic, etc.).

Also, consider the user intent and make sure you’re writing to address the why behind the search. Your target keyword and related keywords should be specific enough to reflect the intent of your audience.

For example, if everyone else is writing in-depth guides on a topic, chances are you can’t write a 500-word blog post on that same topic and expect to rank well.

Now that you have a baseline understanding of the role SEO plays content marketing and business strategy, let’s put it into practice in your writing. Use these SEO content writing tips when fleshing out your strategy:

1. Write for humans first, algorithms second

5. Write long-form content in short sentences

While SEO copywriting should appeal to algorithms, it must also make your human readers happy. You’re catering to real people, after all, so don’t make your writing so formulaic and robotic that it loses any emotion or clarity. This investment could have a big impact on boosting your campaign performance through semantic SEO.

This is especially important if you are using content marketing as part of your PR strategy. PR is all about humanizing your brand and appealing to your target audience through emotional connections.

Your headline will be the first thing users see and help them decide if your content will meet their needs. Studies show that 70% of us only read the headlines before sharing an article.

If you want people to share your content and drive even more free website traffic, you need to spend time crafting a good headline that sets the right expectations. 

The meta description is the small snippet of text that appears under the search result title. It’s a preview that shows the reader what the article is about, which can encourage them to click through.

How to Write SEO Optimized Content

The effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns depend on hundreds of factors: your audience, your tone, your level of detail, your competition, your promotion methods...the list goes on. 

So how can you tell if you’re measuring the right things? And if you’re doing the wrong things, how can you tell what you’re doing wrong, and how to fix it?

There are hundreds if not thousands of metrics available and ways to measure content marketing success. It can be easy to get lost in the weeds of data, or worse to not gather anything at all. 

That's why we wrote this article that delves into 50 important metrics for measuring your content marketing campaigns.

Use these 50 content marketing metrics to measure the success of your next content marketing campaign:

45. Conversion rates from organic search 🤔

Tip: Use a media monitoring tool to track your content efforts, learn more about campaign measurement in general, and take a look at these helpful marketing metrics.

First up, we have organic search traffic. As you probably already know, content plays an important role in how your site ranks in search engines; producing more valuable content will help boost your domain authority, which is a measure of how likely your site is to rank highly in search engines, and producing targeted content helps you rank for specific keywords.

The combination of these effects will lead you to higher organic search traffic over time, which is a measure of the number of people who found your site through search. If your content is successful in boosting your search rankings, this number should continue to rise.

You can find the data for tracking your organic traffic in Google Analytics under the Acquisition tab.

Referral traffic is mainly used for your off-site content efforts. In your guest posting and off-site content efforts, you’ll be publishing content on various outside sources. In the body of your posts or in your author bio, you’ll have links pointing to your site.

Referral traffic is a measure of the number of people who clicked on these links, and the breakdown here can tell you exactly which traffic came from which sources. You can then follow their journey on your site to strengthen your strategy and focus on those sites that drive you the most meaningful users.

Another type of traffic to look at is traffic coming from your social media posts. You can use this as a way to gauge two portions of your content marketing campaign; first, you can directly evaluate how effective your in-platform content is. For example, if you don’t see much overall traffic, it could be an indication that you aren’t posting enough, or that the posts you are making are unappealing.

Second, you can determine how effective your syndicated content is at attracting traffic to your site. If it’s poor, it means you need to pick better topics or write more attention-grabbing headlines.

Direct traffic is a content marketing metric that is comprised of several different potential sources:

Typing in your website address in the URL bar

Clicking a link from a shortened URL (such as bit.ly)

Clicking a link from a mobile social media app such as Facebook or LinkedIn

Clicking a link from a secure site (https) that leads to a non-secure site (http). Watch out for this, because some major publications, such as Entrepreneur.com, use https. So, if your site isn’t secure (http), then any referral traffic you get from it will actually show up in the “direct traffic” bucket in Google Analytics.

Direct traffic isn’t as directly related to your content efforts as the other three segments of traffic are. However, it can be a good indicator of your brand awareness. Don’t expect this one to grow as quickly or as steadily as your other segments.

For almost any traffic-based report in Google Analytics, you can filter or segment users based on whether they’re new or returning.

Both are important to understand the role your content plays in attracting and retaining interested visitors to your site.

New visitors are a good measure for things like social traffic and referral traffic, where you’re trying to gain exposure. If you aren’t seeing your new visitor count rise, it could mean you aren’t doing enough outreach to tap into new audiences.

Returning visitors are also a useful content marketing metric. You should see increases in returning visitors in all areas, but they are especially important when it comes to direct traffic — it often means these people are interested enough in your brand to visit you without being prompted, which in turn means your content made a significant impression on them.

You should also look for returning visitors in specific segments of your referral audience, such as email-based referrals, where returns are an indication of persistent interest.

The behavior flow chart in Google Analytics is one of my favorite tools for understanding traffic patterns, and though it appears a bit confusing at first, it’s relatively easy to understand. Found under the Behavior tab, the behavior flow is a visualization of the average user’s path through your site. On the far left side of the chart, you’ll see a list of “entry” pages, where your users most often enter your site.

Oftentimes, this is the home page or a strong blog post. Then, you’ll see which pages users tend to click on next and how many users drop off. The chart continues for several click-throughs, so you can understand where users navigate throughout your site. This will help you identify how effective you are at keeping users on-site, and what drop-off points can be corrected to improve goal completions (such as subscribing to an email list) and retention.

In the Audience -> Demographics section of Google Analytics, you’ll have the opportunity to get a glimpse of your users’ ages, genders, and other information.

Content Marketing

16 Examples of Excellent User-Generated Content

How to Write SEO Optimized Content

50 Content Marketing Metrics to Measure Your Campaign

How to Come Up with Ideas for Content Creation

How to Perform a Complete Content Audit

How To Build an Effective Content Marketing Strategy [Content Calendar Template]

5 Blogging Mistakes That Make Your Readers Switch Off

How to Create an Infographic [for Non-Designers]

Tips & Tricks for Better B2B Content Marketing

50 Delightfully Simple Video Content Ideas for Your Online Business

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

Content Marketing

16 Examples of Excellent User-Generated Content

How to Write SEO Optimized Content

50 Content Marketing Metrics to Measure Your Campaign

How to Come Up with Ideas for Content Creation

How to Perform a Complete Content Audit

How To Build an Effective Content Marketing Strategy [Content Calendar Template]

5 Blogging Mistakes That Make Your Readers Switch Off

How to Create an Infographic [for Non-Designers]

Tips & Tricks for Better B2B Content Marketing

50 Delightfully Simple Video Content Ideas for Your Online Business

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

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