Internal Content Audit – Identifying Low-Hanging Fruit

Overview of the Lesson

  • Focus: Beginning an internal content audit aimed at maximum SEO benefit.
    • Break-down of where and how to start when a site has many pages.
    • Core tools: Google Analytics (GA), Excel/CSV for optional data manipulation.

Step 1 – Pinpoint the “Low-Hanging Fruit”

  • Definition: Pages already getting organic traffic.
  • Rationale
    • Existing interest → easiest wins once optimized.
    • Improvements can yield more traffic and social shares quickly.
  • Scope of data reviewed: 66 months (enough volume, still recent).

Using Google Analytics to Surface Organic Landing Pages

  • Navigation path:
    1. Behavior
    2. Landing Pages
    3. Secondary Dimension → Medium.
  • Result: Table of every landing page listed with traffic sources (organic search, paid search, referral, etc.).
  • Filter steps:
    • Advanced filter → include Medium containing “organic”.
    • Excludes all non-organic sessions.

Segmenting by Site Section (Blog vs. Internal/Resource Pages)

  • Reasoning
    • Different content types need distinct notes/metrics.
    • Prevents data overload when sites are large.
  • Practical filter:
    • Include Landing Page containing “/blog/”.
    • Works if blog directory = “blog”.
    • Substitute term (e.g., “articles”) if directory differs.
  • Implementation choices:
    • Stay in GA UI or export report as CSV → analyze in Excel.
    • Either path acceptable; instructor kept workflow inside GA for demo.

Working With the Data

  • Sort by Sessions (ascending) to see pages with the fewest organic visits first.
  • Why start at the bottom?
    • Highlights pages in need of optimization.
    • Easier to detect opportunities that have been overlooked.
  • Example privacy note: Actual URLs not shown (client confidentiality).

Filtering Out Irrelevant Listing URLs

  • Common noisy URLs surfaced in blog audits:
    • Tag pages
    • Category pages
    • Archive pages
    • These pages show lists, not single posts.
  • Filtering options:
    • Apply additional GA filters (e.g., exclude “/tag/”, “/category/”).
    • Or remove rows in Excel after export.

Engagement Metrics vs. Traffic Volume

  • Observation:
    • Many low-traffic pages still show strong engagement (e.g., very low or 0%0\% bounce rate).
  • Interpretation:
    • Users find value once they arrive → content quality likely fine.
    • Search engines may not yet recognize that value → opportunity for SEO gains.

Optimization Opportunities & Recommended Actions

  • Add or expand on-page content (text, media, resource links) to signal depth and relevance.
  • Improve internal linking to funnel authority and help crawlers.
  • Update metadata (title, meta-description) with targeted keywords.
  • Promote via social channels to incite fresh engagement signals.

Key Takeaways

  • Begin audits with pages already drawing organic interest—quickest ROI.
  • Use GA’s Medium filter to isolate organic traffic, then segment by directory.
  • Sorting by low sessions + reviewing engagement pinpoints high-value, under-optimized pages.
  • Remove listing-type URLs from analysis to stay focused on real content.
  • High engagement + low traffic = clear signal to enhance SEO elements.

Looking Ahead

  • Next lesson: Methods for organizing the collected URLs & notes, and systematically mapping improvement tasks.