Thanks to different Web Analytics, it is possible to precisely measure the impact of the blog in its entirety or a single publication. With this information in hand, it is easier to carry out optimization measures for followers and search engines.
Web Analytics tools for blogs
Each tool allows the monitoring of a certain type of factor. Google Analytics is, without a doubt, the most popular and most used solution since it adapts to the most modest blogs and large companies’ projects. This is mainly due to its great diversity of functions, such as measuring visits and average permanence on the page and analyzing the origin of the users or the software they have used. To be able to use it, you must integrate a tracking code on the page, although if you have a Google email address, you can start using it for free.
Traffic indicators: this is what happens on your blog
After registering in a Web Analytics tool, the beginner is faced with a remarkable diversity of figures, diagrams, and values. At first, it is somewhat difficult to extract an overview. Where do you start the analysis of a blog? What are the most relevant figures? And how are these interpreted? In the beginning, the most interesting may be those related to visitor traffic.
Page impressions
This indicator defines the times the page was shown to a visitor, which in marketing is called page impressions or page impressions. If the number is high, it means that the blog in question is attractive and reaps a lot of impressions thanks to good links and references. It can also reveal that the user does not find what they are looking for at first sight and, therefore, flips through the pages uncoordinated, repeating visits.
This is why the impressions by themselves do not say much and only reveal something valid about the quality of the page if this indicator is combined with other values, such as, for example, the duration of the visit. If you want to offer online advertising, the price of impressions is calculated based on the thousand times the ad is displayed, the so-called CPM (cost per thousand impressions).
Sessions / visits
Visits count all the pages visited by a user in one session. If this user revisits the blog the next day, a new session is posted. This Web Analytics indicator identifies users who repeatedly extract the number of times a user visits a blog. If it comes back again and again, it is a very positive sign.
Visits (Unique Visitors)
The number of unique visitors or unique visitors is an important factor analysis blog because it reveals how many people reached the blog. To calculate it, Google works with cookies, which identify each user unequivocally. However, they are not exempt from certain variables such as, for example, two users use the same computer, thus counting only one visitor.
All this without counting those users who use anonymization tools gives them a different IP each time they visit a page.
What the user does: measure their behaviour on the page
Having many visits does not automatically mean that a blog is successful, as it could be that users visit only the first page and leave it after a few seconds. For this reason, it is convenient to observe variables such as user behaviour on the page.
Pages per visit
If pages per visit are very less, it is worth considering those regular readers who only need to read the latest publication and not the entire page, because they already know it, leaving it once they have read the latest update. In the Web Analytics tool, the data can be filtered, so that information about new followers is obtained exclusively.
If they leave the page after reading the last entry, they should be retained by links to other articles or similar topics that can be placed at the end.
The average duration of the session
This value is an undoubted quality factor that Google also takes into account. The implementation of an internal search function, its tools, an image gallery, or links to similar articles can increase the duration of visits. Using the so-called heatmap, the behaviour of a user on the page can be better understood, since it graphically shows where it was clicked most frequently, that is, what content caught the most attention than others.
Bounce rate
This Web Analytics indicator reveals how many users leave the blog after visiting a single page and is also relative. Followers-only read the newest because they know the rest, and those who came to the blog through a search abandoned it after finding what they were looking for. Consequently, a high bounce rate does not have to be negative. It is advisable to try to retain the reader in the blog through links to relevant content.
Traffic sources: where your followers come from
The different Web Analytics tools are handy to find out if a reader is a regular visitor to your page or if they reached it thanks to a search since they allow this differentiation to be made using the data provided by traffic sources and acquisition. Google differentiates these traffic sources:
- Organic search: users reach a page through an organic search in one of the search engines (Google, Bing, etc.)
- Derivatives (referral): visitors who come to the blog through a link from another page (if the rate is high, it defines a good backlink profile)
- Social: users who access the page thanks to social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
- Direct (direct): these users access the page by entering their name in the browser bar or marking it as a favourite, which usually defines them as followers.
- Electronic mail (email): the users who take this path have used, for example, the links in a newsletter.
- Others: other access routes could be RSS Feeds.
These indexes are significant for the administrator of a blog since they allow us to understand what could be improved. In a particular case, which channels are especially important to reach your readers, from where you can also extract, where more effort would have to be invested.
Content check: which content is more interesting
With these Web Analytics tools, it is possible to filter the views of a publication to know which texts were especially popular. However, you have to be cautious again since an older entry will probably accumulate more clicks than a younger one. Therefore, it is decisive to take both the visits and the period in which they are carried out. Given this relationship, these tools are handy to capture the interests of our readers better.
Often, whether a text becomes popular does not depend only on the content. The title, an interesting entry, or a particularly attractive image, can be decisive factors when it comes to attracting the reader’s attention. Some programs allow a detailed analysis of separate publications. WordPress users, for example, have the Google Analytics Dashboard by Analyfy. On the other hand, Google Trends can help you in the search for new topics for entries.
Social signals: are your posts shared?
Social platforms can be very powerful expansion tools. In a few seconds, you can broadcast an entry, an image, or a video around the world without necessarily counting on the creator’s active participation. Bloggers must also be aware of the behaviour of their readers on social networks.
Facebook, Twitter, and the company have their web analytics tools to track these activities about a blog. Information on the diffusion of a publication, the interaction it has caused, and the resulting number of clicks on the main page are obtained in the statistics panel of the Facebook pages.
Through Google Analytics and the data provided by the Social Sources Report, in the Traffic Sources tab, it is also possible to delve into the impact of social channels on a group of followers and, therefore, on the success of the Blog. It is also possible, through the reports found in Sources and Pages, to monitor the reverse, that is, how much the publications are discussed and shared and what the public’s reactions are.
You can also track this activity in Google Web Analytics tool if so-called social widgets are integrated into a blog. The buttons that readers can use to indicate if they like entry and if they share it in their profile.
Remember that subscribers to the newsletter and Feeds are also important sources of visitor traffic that should not be underestimated in the analysis of a blog. These reveal the loyalty of the public reading a blog. A subscriber can often have more value than a Facebook “Like” achieved through a one-off promotion, as the newsletter represents a direct channel to the reader.
Web Analytics Tools of a blog: more than just figures
Large companies also use tools such as Google Web Analytics tool or Piwik, and that is why the great breadth of the range of functionalities can be somewhat intimidating at first for the most modest blogs. However, after a period of adaptation, any blogger learns to extract from them the most relevant statistics and indicators for their blog, being able to better adjust their content to their readers and thus connect better with them.
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