On-page performance

Writers must understand how readers actually interact with their content. On-page metrics reveal this interaction from day one, long before you can measure business outcomes like sales or subscriptions.

What on-page metrics tell you

On-page metrics measure immediate reader behavior:

Click-through rate (CTR) from search shows the percentage of people who see your content in search results and click it. Low CTR means your title and preview don’t appeal to searchers.

Bounce rate shows the percentage of visitors who leave without any interaction. High bounce means readers didn’t find what they expected.

Time on page measures how long readers stay. Very short time with high bounce indicates a mismatch between what readers expected and what they found. Moderate time with low conversion to your desired action suggests the content doesn’t guide readers effectively.

Scroll depth reveals how far down the page readers scroll. If most readers stop at 30%, your opening failed to engage them or they found their answer immediately.

Click-through rate (CTR) to your objective shows the percentage of people who continued from your content to the “business objective”. For example, if your content is the company’s homepage and the objective is to sign-up to a free trial, this CTR is the percentage of visitors who went to the sign-up page. Most content has such a “desired next action”, but some content (like an errata page) doesn’t necessarily have it.

These are leading indicators

On-page metrics appear as soon as readers visit your content. You don’t wait months to see if content drives sales. You see immediately whether readers engage with what you wrote.

A page with high traffic produces meaningful metrics within hours. A page with sparse traffic needs days or weeks to accumulate enough data to distinguish patterns from random variation.

Check metrics as soon as you have enough visits to see patterns. For high-traffic pages, this might be the day after publication. For niche topics, wait until you have at least 100-200 visitors before drawing conclusions.

Measuring page performance using Google Analytics (GA)

Google Analytics organizes data by page and date range. You select your page, specify the time period, and view the metrics listed above. GA4 groups metrics under “Engagement” for bounce rate and time on page, and under “Acquisition” for how readers found your content.

Measuring page performance using Matomo

Matomo presents similar metrics with different terminology. “Bounce rate” appears as “single page visits.” Time on page appears as “average time on page.” The logic remains identical.

Good versus not good depends on content purpose

No universal threshold separates “good” from “bad” metrics. Context determines whether numbers indicate success or failure.

A troubleshooting guide with 70% bounce rate and 45-second average time might be excellent. Readers found their answer quickly and left to implement it. The same metrics for your product overview page would be terrible. That page should introduce readers to multiple features and guide them toward trying the product.

A pricing page with 3-minute average time suggests confusion. Readers should understand pricing quickly. A tutorial on translation memory with 8-minute average time might be too short. Complex technical concepts require time to absorb.

Remember the chapter on funnels? The source of traffic matters when you set performance goals. If it’s your own clients, clicking on a link in your newsletter, to read about new features in your product, you’d set different objectives than for search traffic.

Optimize until readers demonstrate understanding

Publish your content, then monitor these metrics within days or weeks depending on traffic volume. When metrics indicate problems, update the content.

High bounce rate with short time on page means your opening doesn’t match what readers expected from search results. Rewrite your opening to immediately address what readers searched for. Update your title and meta description to set accurate expectations.

Low CTR in search results means your preview doesn’t compel clicks. Rewrite your title to include the specific problem readers want to solve. Adjust your opening paragraph because Google uses it to generate search previews.

Long time on page with low conversion to your desired action suggests unclear guidance. Add explicit calls to action. Simplify your explanation. Break complex topics into smaller, more digestible sections.

Continue this cycle. Content is never “finished”. Readers’ taste changes. Competitors publish better content. You get fresh ideas. Your job includes maintaining performance and pushing it up, not just achieving it once.

What these metrics cannot tell you

On-page metrics reveal reader behavior but not business impact. Strong engagement doesn’t guarantee sales. A low bounce rate doesn’t prove readers trust your content enough to act on it.

You need these metrics because they appear immediately and guide optimization. But you also need business metrics like trial signups, purchases, and customer retention. On-page metrics are your early warning system. Business metrics are your proof of success.

The relationship between on-page metrics and business outcomes is complex. A page with mediocre engagement metrics might drive significant revenue if it reaches the exact right audience. A page with excellent engagement might generate zero business value if it attracts the wrong readers.

Track both. Optimize for on-page metrics first because you can improve them quickly through content edits. Then track business metrics over longer timeframes to verify that improved engagement translates to business results.

Search-performance and business-results will follow

Once you’ve defined the correct target values for on-page performance and you’ve optimized your content to achieve it, lagging indicators will follow. Your content will generate business and appear in high positions in search results (see the next section on SEO). Don’t wait for “no sales” or “poor SEO performance” to evaluate your content. Use the on-page performance to be the first to notice problems with your work, and correct it.

Great writers don’t need to seek praise for their content. Their content’s performance does it for them.