In plain English
The mistake is one metric across everything. A comparison page and an awareness article have different jobs, and traffic flatters one while hiding the value of the other.
Each piece should be judged against what it was for. If the brief did not say, the performance question cannot be answered.
What to know
Judged per purpose
The metric follows from the brief.
Traffic is not the goal
Except for pages whose job was reach.
Assisted conversions matter
Informational content contributes without converting.
Measured over time
Content compounds; monthly snapshots mislead.
Why it matters
Reporting all content on traffic causes the useful pages to be cut. The pages that convert often have modest traffic, and the ones with high traffic often convert nobody.
Common mistakes
×One metric across all content types.
×Judging content in its first month.
×Ignoring assisted conversions.
×No stated objective, so performance is unfalsifiable.
FAQs
What should I measure?
Whatever the piece was for: enquiries, assisted conversions, rankings, or reach.
How long before content can be judged?
Three to six months for anything relying on search.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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