How to Analyze Your Online Community’s Content

By Deborah Ng from Online Community Management For Dummies

Next to your online community, your most important online asset is your content. Your content brings people in and keeps them coming back. When you begin your community, content is trial and error. As you evolve and as your stats pick up more details, you can determine the types of content that your members and visitors enjoy most and create more content accordingly.

A good stats program, such as Performancing Metrics, shows your most popular content. Use this information to create more relevant content.

Your content is more than just blog posts and articles. It’s also made up of comments, Facebook posts, Twitter updates, promotions, video, podcasts or online radio shows, images, and anything else that you post online. Try a variety of content to see how your community responds.

Because your stats program lists all your website and blog content by title, as well as how many people visited each piece of content, how long they stayed on each piece of content, and what they did afterward, you have a golden opportunity to create the types of content that your community clamors for most.

Your stats also reveal other important content-generating information. If the majority of your visitors are landing on your page because of a particular search term, you want to be sure to write more content that includes that search term.

Also, if you find that you receive more visitors on the days when you post funny photos, you’ll want to do more of that in the future. When it comes to content, let your stats and your community be your guides.

Take advantage of search terms. Your stats give you a good idea of the top search terms used to find your community or website. Don’t write unnatural content to include these terms, but create topics that relate to them. If the majority of your members or potential members are searching for those topics, give them what they want or risk losing them to another site that’s providing them.
Note the most popular content. The best way to see what your community is responding to is to check your stats or analytics tool. All stats tools have sections for content. Set up a date range to see which content is most popular. When you know the best-received content, you have a good idea of your members’ tastes and habits; write with them in mind.
Note the least popular content. Also check the least popular content by scrolling down to the bottom of your stat tool’s content page. There, you’ll find the content that is least well received by visitors to your community. Use these topics sparingly, or find a way to repurpose them so that they work to your advantage.
Note who is linking to you and why. Your stats program reveals other blogs or websites that are linking to you. It’s in your best interest to check out these links. If you’re receiving a number of people are linking to your content, it could be you have others in agreement or you touched a nerve. Read what others are saying and find out why they’re linking.

Knowing how your community and other communities react to your content helps you determine appropriate future content. In addition to using your stats to write content for your blog or website, you can determine the content that your community responds to best on the social networks.

Your content and your community are your brand’s most important assets. Don’t lose them by providing inappropriate content. Use your stats to guide you.