Speaker 1: 0:54

Hello and welcome to. Seo is not that hard. I'm your host, ed Dawson, the founder of the SEO intelligence platform, keywordfewpleasercom, where we help you discover the questions people ask online and learn how to optimize your content for traffic and authority. I've been in SEO and online marketing for over 20 years and I'm here to share the wealth of knowledge, hints and tips I've amassed over that time. Hello, welcome back to SEO is not that hard. It's me here at Dawson, as usual, and today I'm on to the next part of the growth framework document slash, book, slash, whatever that I'm creating. That's kind of put together. You've not been listening to the others.

Speaker 1: 1:30

This framework, the growth framework, is something that I've developed over many years in SEO, in how I actually go about creating content for sites, what content to create, how to cluster it together, how to then watch it, optimize it and sort of keep a content flywheel going. That's worked very successfully for me over the years. And yeah, just to remind you that GROWTH is an, an acronym. It stands for six steps of the process, the framework, which are gather, refine, optimize, watch, tune and then finally hone and repeat. So with this you know, just in summary, we gather the questions people are asking about our subject area. We refine those questions into clusters to define the content we need to produce. We optimize our content and publish it. We watch how our content performs and how users interact with it. We then tune our content based on data from google and then we finally hone and repeat. That builds a flywheel of constant improvement and visibility and traffic. So that's the framework.

Speaker 1: 2:32

So now, this is a framework that's never formalized and that's what I'm working on doing at the moment, and I'm doing it in sections and putting it out on the podcast the first draft really and sharing that first draft in a google doc that there's a link to in the show notes so you can go and look at. And I'm just going through each one of them and I'm setting a date by which I'm going to get each one done. So I'd said I would get steps four watch and step five tune done by the 21st of this month. Um, and yes, we are the 21st and I've got it ready, um, so what I'm going to do now is, as I've done with the others, I'll read through what I've put, what I've written so far. Um, any comments, suggestions? Please get in touch. It helps. It's a two-way process, this. It really helps me by getting that feedback to see if I'm going in the right direction, if it's making sense, that kind of thing. Um and again, this is a first draft stuff. You know, with all this I will be going back through it again after I've got it all down and I will then be putting in, you know, links to places, links to resources, lots of screenshots of how it works. With keywords people use, you you don't have to use it with Keywords People Use, but it's still going to be in there for Keywords People Use and other tools that we use along the way, like Google Search Console. So it will be expanded out. So again, it's quite long, this two-to-two section. So I'm going to do today step four, the watch, and then Monday we'll do the step five, tune. So let's get into it. Step four watch Monitoring and measuring success.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Once your content is optimized and live, the next critical step in the growth framework is to watch it closely. This isn't a one-time task. It's an ongoing process of monitoring how your content performs and how users interact with it. By keeping a close eye on performance data, you can quickly identify what's working and where improvements are needed, setting the stage for continuous growth, monitoring content performance and user interaction. Understanding how your audience engages with your content is vital. It's not just about tracking raw numbers. It's about deciphering user behaviour to refine your strategy.

Speaker 1: 4:28

User engagement Look at how users interact with your content. Are they reading all the way to the end? Do they click on internal links? User engagement metrics, such as average session duration, scroll depth and bounce rate reveal whether your content is resonating with visitors. Behavioural insights Tools like heat maps and session recordings from services like Microsoft Clarity can show you exactly how visitors navigate your pages. These insights allow you to understand which parts of your content are capturing attention and which might be causing users to drop off. Conversion actions Beyond engagement, monitor the actions you want users to actually take, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource or making a purchase. Conversion rates are a direct indicator of how effectively your content is driving your business goals. Key data to watch A robust monitoring strategy involves tracking a variety of metrics that provide insights into both your content's visibility and how users engage with it.

Speaker 1: 5:19

In this section, we'll expand on the essential data points you should be watching. You will need some analytics set up, and the ones I use and recommend are Google, ga4 and Clickycom that can help you gather and interpret these metrics. Ga4 is a free product. Clickycom requires a subscription. Don't feel like you have to have it, but it's one that I find useful.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Organic traffic what is it? Organic traffic represents the volume of visitors arriving via search engines. It's the primary indicator of your content's visibility and overall reach. Why it matters. A steady, growing stream of organic traffic shows that your content is effectively answering users' questions and meeting search intent. How to monitor Google Analytics 4, ga4. Ga4 offers comprehensive reports that let you view traffic trends over time, including session count and user demographics. Its event-based model also provides deeper insights into user interactions beyond simple page views. Clickycom Clickycom gives you real-time analytics enabling you to see immediate fluctuations in traffic. Its intuitive dashboard makes it easy to pinpoint which pages are attractive to most visitors and from what sources.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Click-through rate, ctr what is it? Click-through rate measures the percentage of users that click on your search results after seeing your page in search engine listenings. Why it matters. A high click-through rate indicates that your meta titles and descriptions are compelling and closely aligned with user intent. This can significantly improve your overall ranking. How to monitor? You can use Google Search Console GSC. Gsc provides detailed data on click-through rate for each query, helping you identify which pages are performing well and which might need optimized tags. Ga4 integration by linking GA4 with Google Search Console, you can correlate click-through data with your onsite behavior, giving you a fuller picture of how well your search snippets drive engagement.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Bounce rate and dwell time what are they? Bounce rate the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. Dwell time the average time a user spends on your page before returning to the search results. Why they matter? How about how bounce rates or low dwell times might signal that your content isn't meeting user expectations, and these metrics are strong indicators of content quality and relevance. How to monitor GA4. Ga4's engagement reports give you insights into both bounce rate and dwell time, helping you identify pages that may require further optimization.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Clickycom Clickycom provides real-time data on visitor behavior, including how long they stay on a page and when they leave. User engagement metrics. What are they? Metrics such as time on page, scroll depth and the number of pages visited per session provide a deeper understanding of user interaction. Why they matter. These metrics reveal whether visitors find your content engaging enough to explore further. They can also indicate how effectively your internal linking structure encourages additional page views. How to monitor GA4. Ga4's event tracking capabilities allow you to set up and monitor custom events, such as scrolling behaviour or interactions with multimedia elements. Third-party tools tools like Microsoft Clarity, which is free, hotjar, which is paid, or Crazy Egg, which is also paid, can complement these insights with heatmaps and session recordings that visually depict user behaviour.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Google Search Console your data hub. One of the most powerful tools for monitoring SEO performance is Google Search Console. It provides a wealth of data directly from Google about how your site performs in search, impressions and clicks. Google Search Console shows you how often your pages appear in search results, which is impressions, and how many of those result in clicks. This data can help you understand the overall visibility of your content in search Average Position. This metric reveals where your content typically ranks for its target queries. Tracking shifts in an average position can help you spot improvements or declines in performance. Click-through rate, although CTR might indicate that your search snippets need optimisation, consider experimenting with different titles or method descriptions based on the insights you gather.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Index coverage and errors. Gsc alerts you to indexing issues such as pages blocked by robotstxt, pages with errors or duplicate content problems. Regularly checking this section ensures that all the available content is available to users, mobile usability and core web vitals. Since user experience is a ranking factor, google Search Console provides data on mobile usability and performance metrics like page speed, interactivity and visual stability. By reviewing these Google Search Console reports, you not only get a pulse on your site's health, but also receive actionable insights to guide future improvements. There is one downside to Google Search Console, and that is the thousand row limit on data reports, which means your sites grow and some of this data will be out of reach, particularly frustrating on query data for pages. There is a solution, though, which is to use the Google Search Console API to access this data, which raises your limit from a thousand rows to fifty thousand rows. Keyword's people use as a fantastic search analytics tool that we've built to give an amazing graphical user interface to the Google Search Console API, so you can explore your data in full without the thousand row limit.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Tips for what to monitor and why Organic search metrics why Organic traffic clicks that rate an average position are direct indicators of your content's visibility and relevance. Monitoring these helps you to understand if your content is reaching the right audience. What to do, pair these metrics over time to spot trends. If you see a sudden drop in clicks or impressions, investigate potential issues like algorithm updates or technical problems. User engagement metrics why? Metrics such as time on page scroll depth and bounce rate provide insights as to whether users find your content valuable and readable. Engaged users are more likely to convert, share and link back to your site. What to do? Rate provide insights as to whether users find your content valuable and readable. Engaged users are more likely to convert, share and link back to your site. What to do? Use tools like google analytics and heatmax services to identify which parts of your content hold attention and which parts may need improvement.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Conversion metrics why? The ultimate goal of content is to drive actions. Whether it's signing up for a newsletter, downloading a guide, making a purchase, whatever conversion metrics help you measure the effectiveness of your content in achieving Content is to drive actions. Whether it's signing up for a newsletter, downloading a guide, making a purchase, whatever Conversion metrics help you measure the effectiveness of your content in achieving these goals. What to do? Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to monitor how changes in your content impact your conversion rates.

Speaker 1: 11:19

No-transcript Technical SEO indicators why? Indexing errors, mobile usability issues and poor core web vitals can severely impact your rankings and user experience. These technical metrics are essential for maintaining a healthy site. What to do? Regularly review Google Search Console's index coverage and mobile usability reports. Find and fix any errors promptly to ensure your content is accessible and performing well. Fifth, competitor comparisons. Why? Understanding how your content performs relative to competitors can offer valuable insights into your market position. It helps you identify gaps and opportunities in your content strategy. What to do? Use tools like SEMrush, ahrefs or the competitor analysis in Keywords. People uses cluster results to benchmark your performance against competitors. Look for trends in what topics or content types are performing best in your niche.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Bringing it all together, the watch phase is the first part of your continuous feedback loop. It's where you transform raw performance data into actionable insights. By monitoring key metrics, especially using powerful tools like Google Search Console and keyword. People uses search analytics. You stay informed about how your content is resonating with users and how it performs in the search landscape of your topic area. Regular monitoring enables you to quickly detect drops in traffic or engagement, prompting immediate investigation. Identify successful content strategies that can be scaled or replicated. Ensure technical issues don't silently undermine your SEO efforts. Adapt to changes in user behaviour or search engine algorithms. Ultimately, the watch phase is not just about tracking numbers. It's about understanding the story your data tells about your site and your visitors. Each metric, each report and each trend offers clues about your audience's needs and how effectively your content meets them. Armed with this information, you're empowered to make informed decisions that drive continuous improvement and sustainable growth.

Speaker 1: 13:06

In the the next chapter, we'll dive into the tune phase, where we explore how to use the insights gathered from monitoring to fine-tune and enhance your content strategy for even better performance. Okay, so that's the first draft of chapter four? Um, well, it might be chapter four, but it's part four of the framework. And, yeah, that's all about how, once we've put content out there, we need to watch it and watch how it performs, the kind of tools we need to do that monitoring and the kind of things we're looking for. And we'll take all those insights, that information, that data forward into the next section, which is the tune section. This is where we're going to actually make some decisions on what we're going to change and why to help improve that search visibility based on the data we've gathered and against based on all that feedback.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Um, so, anyway, please do go and look at the doc. There's a link to the doc the work in progress in the show notes. So do go there and have a look, do give any feedback. It's really, really useful and I'll be back, um in the next episode, which should be on monday. Next monday, um, with the tune phase, um which, yeah, it's where we're actually going to start looking about how we're going to take some action on this. So, yeah, um, please, if you're finding this useful, like I'm going to mention now again, go to rate this podcastcom slash seo. That's rate this podcastcom slash SEO. That's ratethispodcastcom slash SEO. Please leave a review. It really helps, helps boost the algorithm, helps us get in front of more people and raise that visibility. And, yeah, until next time, just keep optimizing, stay curious and remember, seo is not that hard when you understand the basics. Thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.

Speaker 1: 14:45

This is where I get to remind you where you can connect with me and my SEO tools and services. You can find links to all the links I mentioned here in the show notes. Just remember, with all these places where I use my name, the Ed is spelled with two Ds. You can find me on LinkedIn and Blue Sky. Just search for Ed Dawson on both you can record a voice question to get answered on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 15:02

The is in the show notes. You can try our seo intelligence platform keywords people use at keywords people usecom, where we can help you discover the questions and keywords people are asking online. Post those questions and keywords into related groups so you know what content you need to build topical authority. And finally, connect your google search console account for your sites so we can crawl and understand your actual content, find what keywords you rank for and then help you optimize, continually refine your content and targeted, personalized advice to keep your traffic growing. If you're interested in learning more about me personally or looking for dedicated consulting advice, then visit wwweddawsoncom. Bye for now and see you in the next episode of SEO is Not that Hard.