Where Should I Focus My Efforts?

Here’s a look at a couple of Saved Views to help answer four questions on focusing your efforts around traffic, ROI, results, and rankings. Both views rely on the Topics Inventory. Like any other view, they’re useful for creating a shortlist of potential candidates. With your list in hand, you’ll want to evaluate each item to determine the best course of action, whether that’s updating an existing page or creating new content.

This post only scratches the surface of what you can do using MarketMuse Saved Views. We’ve compiled dozens of different ways you can use these views in What Should I Write About?

Focus – Biggest Traffic Lift

Use this view to find topics where you’ll have the biggest potential traffic lift. It’s a more realistic metric than search volume for example.

For this view, Top Rank is a great metric to filter on as higher ranking topics typically have more potential traffic. Stack your filters so that you have a range of rankings (say greater than 5 and less than 31) and you’ll end up with a shortlist of quick wins that have the biggest traffic lift.

With the focus on traffic, this view includes data columns for Organic Traffic Est. (current traffic) and Potential Traffic. The latter metric is based on your current ranking and authority and reflects the potential traffic once could receive by updating the content. For example, the Potential Traffic of a poorly ranking page with low Topic Authority will be substantially less than one that already ranks well and is highly authoritative. Consider fine-tuning your list by applying a filter to either of these two metrics.

Keep in mind that, as your ranking changes, so will your Potential Traffic. A content update won’t necessarily bring you to the top spot in the SERP, especially if you currently rank on the third page. But over time and successive content updates, you will see improvement. That’s why it’s helpful to include Topic Volume in this Saved View as it provides additional text. Think of it as an inspirational metric. You’ll never capture all the search volume because you have to share the traffic with everyone else in the SERP, but it is something to aim for. You may even want to apply a filter to this metric.

Difficulty, Topic Authority, and Personalized Difficulty are a powerful combination of metrics that enable you to focus on those opportunities where you’re more likely to see success. Specifically, you’re looking for high Topic Authority (strong competitive advantage) and low Personalized Difficulty (easy for you to rank).

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Focus – ROI, Results, & Rankings

This next Saved View can work well to answer the following questions around focusing your efforts:

• How to get the best ROI from content investment?
• How to get quick results?
• How to get improved rankings?

Top Rank is helpful for understanding context (where are you currently ranking?) and filtering to create a shortlist. Depending on your goals, you may want to filter only those topics ranking on the first page of Google, maybe the first three pages, or just the second. That by itself can significantly reduce the size of your working list.

Potential Traffic is another piece of data against which you can apply a filter. This metric looks at your current ranking and traffic, in combination with authority, to estimate a likely ranking after updating your content. That potential ranking in turn determines the Potential Traffic.

Difficulty, Topic Authority, and Personalized Difficulty help to focus your efforts on those situations where you’re most likely to succeed. Ideally, you’re looking for high Topic Authority (means you have a distinct competitive advantage) and low Personalized Difficulty (it’s easy for you to rank). You can sort on any one of these data columns in addition to applying filters to any or all of them.

Topic Volume is included in this view to provide some context in relation to Potential Traffic. Plus, you can add a filter to this metric as well.

Takeaway

These two views offer insight on where to focus your efforts in order to get more traffic, better ROI, results, and rankings. Applying filters to these metrics enables you to fine-tune the list so you can focus on those opportunities that will make a difference and where you’re most likely to succeed.

Like always, you’ll want to investigate each item in the list. Just click on the row to open up its details. Take a good look and add the best candidates to a plan. Make sure to also create a content brief and assign it to a writer.