Reverse Engineer Your Content in 4 Steps Based on Keyword Insights

The data coming in to your Google Analytics account provides valuable information related to how the different keywords you target are performing. With this information, you can better understand your site visitors and begin to reverse engineer the creation of future content, as well as fine tune the layout of your site’s existing content to effectively match content to meet visitor intent. The result is increased visitor engagement levels and improved conversion rates.

The first step in this process involves mapping out a content strategy based on clearly identified buyer personas and the different stages each persona moves through on their way down the conversion funnel. People normally enter the sales cycle at the top of the funnel, move through one or more stages in the middle of the funnel, and finally move through to the bottom of the funnel on the way to converting.

By understanding the different questions varying personas may be asking at each stage in the funnel process, you can begin to design a content strategy that effectively answers those questions at the time when your visitors are seeking the answers.

Gingerbread Houses with Solar Panels

Let’s run through a quick example of how someone might reverse engineer their content based on keyword insights. Shawn runs an eCommerce site that sells extravagant gingerbread house patterns. These cardboard patterns are what people use to support their gingerbread creations. His customers come to him when they want to build a mansion, castle, or some other complicated structure, as opposed to just a traditional single-family gingerbread structure.

Now, imagine that a visitor arrives on a landing page on Shawn’s website that’s dedicated specifically to the explanation of how to modify the mansion template he sells in order to include customizations and make the gingerbread creation truly unique. Maybe it’s a page called “How to Add Solar Panels to Your Gingerbread Mansion.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This type of visitor, the one searching for information on how to successfully complete a DIY project that incorporates one of the products Shawn sells, is clearly looking for additional information, assistance and education of some sort. They completed a Google search with keywords that matched up to that specific landing page and their intent behind navigating to the site is pretty clear — they want information.

Shawn can assume that this particular visitor is searching for information related to customizing a gingerbread house design. Because this person is still in the research stage, he or she would be associated with the top of the funnel because they are still at least a few steps away from converting and may actually have already completed a purchase and are now seeking support resources on how best to use the product.

With this information, Shawn can double check and ensure that the call-to-action (CTA) on this page is appropriate and matches the visitor’s likely intent for visiting the page. A Download the Gingerbread Solar Panel Installation eBook CTA would make a lot of sense, while a Price Shop Custom Gingerbread Designs datasheet CTA would make less sense.

Now on the other hand, if someone performs a search that results in their being directed to a pricing-specific page on Shawn’s site, he could make a good guess that this visitor may be somewhere closer to the bottom of the funnel, because he or she is past the point of educating themselves on the product and has moved further into the buying process where price points are being reviewed.

How to Reverse Engineer Your Content in 4 Steps:

1. Isolate your most popular landing pages on Google Analytics. Perform an inventory of the most popular landing pages on your site and identify the types of content they provide. Take note of the CTAs on each page.
2. Look for the keywords driving traffic to those pages. Powerful content insights can be gleaned by understanding how people are arriving at particular pages on your site. What are people searching for when they come to a specific landing page? What are they typing in the search bar? Line up your content to anticipate needs, answer questions and meet the expectations of what they’ll find on the page. Now go back to the landing page inventory you created in Step 1 and make sure that the CTAs on each page match up to visitors’ intent based on what they’re searching for. Are you asking people to “Buy Now!” when they’re just beginning to research your brand? Or are you offering a free eBook download to someone who has just typed “Buy custom gingerbread house overnight shipping?” Get your content and CTAs in line with visitor intent.
3. Decide which stage of the funnel these pages align with. Go back to the landing page inventory you created in Step 1 and decide where in the sales funnel these particular pages might be aligned with? Are they focused on basic, entry-level type education around your product? Or do they include more detailed information that compares your product to your competition and offers pricing? Make a note on the inventory about where in the sales process each page appears to line up with and fill in any gaps where you need to develop additional content.
4. Tailor the content on each page to match that stage of funnel. Use the detailed information you’ve found by completing Steps 1-3 to edit and/or create highly-tailored landing pages that meet the exact needs of the people arriving on them.

Start with The End in Mind

This four-step process can be summed up pretty easily, “To write a landing page well, start with the button.” Great advice from the pros over at CopyHackers.

Basically, when you start with the end in mind, it’s easier to identify and piece together a strategy that will touch on all of the major pain points, curiosities and concerns your customers might experience on their path to conversion.

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