A How question

How does an SEO company measure content performance?

3 min read Cites 1 source

Page by page, against three questions: is the page found in search, does it hold the people who arrive, and does it contribute to what the business needs? A service page, a blog post, and a location page do different jobs, so each is judged against its own purpose rather than one site-wide figure. The company combines Search Console, your analytics, and rank tracking, reviews them on a set schedule, and ends each review with a decision for each page: keep it as it is, update it, expand it, merge it with another, or, as a last step, remove it.

Visibility for each page

Search Console reports impressions and clicks for each page, which shows which pages earn visibility and which sit unseen. The two figures are worth reading separately. If a page keeps its impressions while its clicks fall, the page is still being shown, so the company looks at what searchers see before they click: the title, the snippet, and what else now appears on the results page for those searches. If impressions fall too, the page is losing visibility, which is a different problem with different fixes.

Which searches each page earns

For any page, Search Console lists the queries that brought it impressions, not only the phrase it was written for. That list shows what the page already covers, which related searches it appears for on the second or third page of results, where a stronger section could help, and whether two of your pages are being shown for the same searches. When two pages share most of their queries, the company decides which one should own the topic and how the other should change.

Whether visitors stay

Analytics shows whether people who arrive from search engage with the page, and a page with steady search traffic but a low engagement rate compared with similar pages on your site is a candidate for review. Engagement is a prompt to read the page with fresh eyes, not a verdict on its own.

What each page contributes

For pages meant to produce inquiries or sales, the company checks the key events that follow visits landing on that page. Content that introduces your business to someone who buys later will not show up in a view that credits only the last visit, so the company uses the attribution reports in your analytics to see which pages appear earlier in the journeys that end in a key event. A page that plays that role can be worth keeping even when it seldom produces the final action.

Spotting decline

Pages change over time: competitors publish, results pages change, and information ages. The company compares each page’s recent period with an earlier one, such as the last 28 days against the previous 28, or the last few months against the same months a year earlier to allow for seasons. A steady fall in clicks, impressions, or click-through rate marks the page for review.

Turning the numbers into decisions

Each review sorts pages into decisions. A page that once performed and is now declining is updated with current information and better coverage. A page that appears just below the top results for useful searches is expanded where it falls short. Two pages competing for the same searches are merged, with a redirect from the one that goes. For pages with no visibility, no engagement, and no contribution after a fair period, Google’s guidance on core updates suggests first trying to improve the content in meaningful ways, such as rewriting or restructuring it, and treats deletion as a last resort for content that cannot be salvaged. Where whole sections of a site were made for search engines first rather than for people, it adds that “deleting the unhelpful content can help the good content on your site perform better.” Each recommendation in the report should point to the figures behind it, so you can see why a page is being kept, changed, or removed.

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