Hey friend,

How’s it going? 🌻

A blog is not a write-and-forget kind of thing. Every blog has a lifecycle, and to understand its performance, you have to:

1. Give it some time (at least 60 days or more)
2. Keep monitoring its performance throughout this phase

That's how you really decide on whether to keep, refresh, or delete it.

But what are those metrics? Here's everything you should know 👇

Phase 1: After 5 days of publishing

• How long does it take for the blog to get indexed? Did you request indexing on Google Search Consold,e and still it took time? Keep a record of it all
• Once you know it's indexed, find out which position it's holding at the very beginning in Google? If you are targeting a high-intent topic and your content aligns with the intent, it should start by getting indexed on the first page of Google. But, even though that's not the case, keeping a track of it always helps you later

Phase 2: Between 15 to 30 days of publishing

• Was there any improvement in the SERP ranking of the blog? For example, if initially it was on the 2nd page of Google, did it reach the 1st page?
• This is when you start monitoring the blog impressions on Search Console
• If the blog has already started towards the top positions, check if it is appearing in AI overviews. At least for the main target query/keyword
• What's the initial organic traffic? It's fine if it is less or even zero, but you should track it anyway
• What's the repurposing status of the blog? Have you repurposed it into social posts, emails, and other content formats? Has its traffic/impressions/SERP ranking improved after that?

Phase 3: Between 30 to 45 days of publishing

• Has traffic improved by now? Because ideally it should. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to check the same. You can also check the source and location of this traffic using the same tools as well as with Google Analytics. You can go a step further and use tools like Factors.ai to see the quality of this traffic
• If the blog is still not generating traffic, your next job would be to check its position in SERP, has it declined or improved from the last time
• This is also a good time to check the number of clicks a blog is getting. You can check this on Google Search Console
• Next, check if it is ranking in the AI Overview for multiple keywords/queries. If yes, keep track of those queries and their relevancy

Phase 4: Between 45 to 60 days of publishing

• This is a good time to check if the blog is triggering any event or not. It could be: downloading a resource, scheduling a demo, or even reading other blogs interlinked within the content. You can track this through Factors.ai
• What's the average time spent on this blog? Check on Google Analytics. Of Course, the more time spent, the better
• What's the scroll depth score? How far are people scrolling and where are they stopping? Again this data can be tracked through Factors.ai. You can also use Hotjar heat maps for this

Decision Time

• If the blog is generating traffic, ranking in AI Overviews, but not triggering any significant events, give it more time
• If it's generating impressions but neither position nor clicks are improving, consider making minor adjustments, such as rewriting the meta title and descriptions, introduction, etc. To take a call on a detailed refresh, you should wait a little longer
• If you see absolutely no improvement in the position, traffic, or any other metrics of the blog, consider auditing why you wrote it on the first place. If its purely from thought-leadership POV, you should see some impact after refreshing. If still not, consider deleting

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Onwards and upwards,

Sreyashi

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