Common KPIs tracked by Content Strategists

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for Content Strategists to evaluate whether content efforts are effectively supporting business goals. Rather than focusing solely on vanity metrics, a skilled Content Strategist monitors KPIs that reflect real user behavior, engagement quality, SEO strength, and content ROI. These data points provide insights that help refine strategy, improve outcomes, and demonstrate content’s value to stakeholders.

Traffic and Visibility Metrics

One of the first indicators of content performance is how much traffic it generates and from where. These KPIs help Content Strategists assess reach and visibility.

• Pageviews: Measures how often content is viewed across the site.
• Unique Visitors: Indicates how many individual users are consuming content.
• Traffic Sources: Tracks whether visitors come from search engines, social media, email, or referrals.
• Impressions: Especially useful for social or ad content, showing how many times it was displayed.

These metrics help identify which channels are most effective and which content topics attract attention.

User Engagement Metrics

Beyond reach, engagement metrics provide deeper insight into how users interact with your content and whether it resonates.

• Time on Page: Reflects how long visitors stay on a content page—longer times typically signal high relevance.
• Bounce Rate: Shows the percentage of users who leave after viewing one page; lower is better for most content goals.
• Scroll Depth: Measures how far users scroll through a page, indicating how much of the content is being consumed.
• Social Shares and Comments: Show how engaging or share-worthy content is across platforms.

Engagement KPIs reveal what content keeps users interested and what might need improvement.

SEO and Organic Performance

Content Strategists rely on search performance to ensure discoverability. SEO KPIs provide insight into how content ranks and attracts organic visitors.

• Keyword Rankings: Track the position of target keywords in search engine results.
• Organic Traffic: Measures visits that come from search engines without paid ads.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of users who click on a page after seeing it in search results.
• Backlinks: Indicates how many external sites are linking to your content, boosting authority.

These KPIs are critical for long-term growth and content discoverability.

Conversion and Goal Completion

Ultimately, content must drive action. Conversion KPIs track how well content motivates users to complete a desired task.

• Lead Generation: Number of form fills, downloads, or email signups attributed to content.
• Conversion Rate: Percentage of users who take a targeted action after consuming content.
• Assisted Conversions: Content that contributed to a conversion later in the funnel, even if it wasn’t the last touch.

Conversion KPIs help Content Strategists demonstrate tangible business impact.

Content Quality and Performance Over Time

Quality-focused KPIs assess how content performs long term. Evergreen content should continue attracting and engaging users over time.

• Content Decay Rate: Measures the decline in performance of previously high-performing content.
• Content Refresh Success: Tracks performance improvements after updating older content.
• Engagement per Word: A qualitative measure comparing length to impact.

These KPIs guide decisions on when to revise, remove, or promote specific content assets.

Internal Content Governance Metrics

Content operations also benefit from tracking workflow efficiency and team productivity.

• Content Production Rate: Number of content pieces created or published within a set timeframe.
• Approval Time: Average time from content submission to publishing, useful for managing bottlenecks.
• Revision Frequency: Tracks how often content requires changes post-review.

These internal KPIs support smoother workflows and better planning for content teams.