As a blogger, you may have developed your blog with a variety of blog Post having different intentions. You may just want a place to share your ideas and point-of-view with the world and see your blog primarily as a hobby or creative outlet. It may be that your blog’s purpose is to grow your brand with the intention of selling a product or service of your own. You may also want to monetize your blog through the use of affiliate marketing or other methods.
Though the purpose of your blog may vary, there are some things that are a constant no matter what you want your blog to achieve. Once you have learned how to make a WordPress website and turned that site into your personal or business blog, you need to attract visitors to the site. And you don’t want them to just visit once. Engaging your visitors with interesting and compelling content and convincing them that a return visit will provide value or entertainment is the goal of all bloggers. If you didn’t want to attract attention, why would you have created a blog in the first place?
Tracking metrics is the best way to find out how your site is performing. It enables you to discover ways to make it better and increase your traffic and profitability. Google Analytics is the leader in providing website metrics. There are plugins available that let you add a Google Analytics dashboard to your blog site, making it easy for you to analyze your site. Here are 5 metrics that you should be tracking on all of your blogs as a way to draw more traffic and inform you on how to make a better performing website.
1. Traffic Sources
If you are interested in knowing how people found out about your site or where they were right before landing on your blog, you need to understand what the traffic sources metric is telling you. Using the Acquisition > Overview in Google Analytics, you can obtain a breakdown of where your visitors are coming from. According to thinkbonfire.com, these are the main sources of traffic that the metrics will display:
Organic Search – These are visitors who used a search engine to find your site. Social Media- These visitors are drawn to your site from social media profiles or content. Direct – This indicates users who typed in the actual URL of your site.
Referral – This shows visitors who were referred to your site from another site.
Analysis of this data can help you tailor your online marketing strategy. You may want to focus on the areas that already generate traffic and try to increase your appeal to that market segment. Another way to use this information is to go after the sources that are not currently driving the traffic that you want in an effort to increase overall traffic.
2. Bounce Rate
The bounce rate metric indicates the percentage of visitors who do not interact with your pages in any way except for the initial page view. This is important information for you to know as you go about making improvements in the design and content of your blog. The way you use this metric is determined on a page-by-page basis because different types of pages will generate different bounce rates.
In some cases, a high bounce rate may actually be a good thing. If you have all the information that a user needs in your landing page or in a sign-up form, you should expect a high bounce rate as it shows the visitor got everything they needed in one shot. If you are getting high bounce rates on pages that are intended to elicit further investigation of your site, consideration needs to be given regarding how to appeal to your visitors and increase their interest in your offering.
3. Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Ranking
This metric needs to be looked at in a different way than some of the others. You will not be presented with a percentage or a hard number that you can work with. Instead, you can see how your content is performing by analyzing your SERP ranking.
Over time, making adjustments to your content can result in changes to your SERP rating. The way to use this metric is to search using different terms and keywords that are relevant to your content and noting your position in the rankings. Google uses over 200 factors to determine your ranking. Studying them can give you a better insight into the changes you need to make to improve your rankings.
4. Average Views Per Post
This metric is important when you are looking for ways to increase traffic through the use of the content that you are providing to your visitors. The question of quality over quantity rears its head when looking into this metric.
If you find that over time the average views per post is increasing, then it is a good indicator that your audience is satisfied and engaged with your content. A reduction in the number of views per post may be due to an increased frequency of posts at the expense of their quality and value to your visitors. Use this data wisely as you plan out your next set of blog posts.
5. Overall Blog Visits
The total number of visitors that your blog attracts in a given time period can be crucial in planning your blogging strategy or in determining when is the best time for you to post specific content. If your blog is targeting snowboard enthusiasts and you notice a traffic reduction in the winter months, it might be time to rethink your content or marketing plans. Knowing when your blog is challenged for visitors will enable you to take steps to reverse the trend and leads to a blog that attracts more visitors over the course of the year.
Conclusion
These are some of the more important metrics that you can glean from working with Google Analytics. Take advantage of the information that is presented in these metrics to improve your site and attract more traffic.
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