15 Blog Statistics To Analyze And Why They Are Important
Google Analytics is the best tool for this kind of information.
Today, in this article, I will explain these stats in some detail so that we can examine what stats are most important to analyze and why they are important.
Today, in this article, I will explain these stats in some detail so that we can examine what stats are most important to analyze and why they are important.
Before I start, I encourage you to make sure that you have some kind of metrics package installed on your blog, so that you can understand the terms used in this post.
1. Total Visitors
The 'total amount of visitors' is one of the most basic and popular metric statistics that webmasters generally analyze the most.
Check whether your total visitors are increasing or decreasing, and if they are decreasing, research the reasons why and try to improve on them.
2. Most Popular Posts
This statistic gives you a clear idea on which posts are being read more than others. Try to convert such posts into "Key Posts", by hyperlinking to other posts on your blog.
Also, once you know which articles are getting read the most, this should give you an idea on which of your topics your readers are most interested in. From gaining this knowledge, it may be wise to focus some future articles around a similar topic.
3. Traffic-Sending Keywords
Check what keyword(s) are sending you most of the traffic through search engines. This should give you an idea on which keywords you have to optimize for your pages to get better search engine rankings.
Google Webmaster Tools are free to use and provide all the keyword information you need.
For keywords that are getting a low click-through-rate; try optimizing as many of your pages for those particular keywords. This stat also gives you an idea that on what content you should emphasize in future.
4. Referral Sites
Through this metric you can find out which site/blog is sending you the most traffic. It might be a search engine, site/blog or a social media site.
For me, after Google, social media sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) are sending most of the traffic.
5. Bounce Rate
This is a very important, yet generally overlooked statistic you need to observe. Many metric packages like 'Google Analytics' provide the "Bounce Rate" of your site.
This statistic basically shows you how many visitors arrive at your blog, but then leave without viewing any more of your pages.
Set some goal to lower this; the lower this stat the better. Try to increase the page views per visitors by making your blog "sticky".
6. Page Views Per Visit
This is directly related to Bounce Rate. It tells you whether visitors coming to your site are going deep into your content or not.
7. Average Time On Site
This is another statistic to take notice of, because it basically shows whether your visitors are interested in your site or not. Obviously if they are interested they will stay longer and vice versa.
Try to post interesting content on a regular basis, so as to engage your visitors, which will ultimately increase in time.
8. RSS Feed
Keeping track of your RSS Feed statistics is free and very simple. There are numerous RSS tools, but personally I use Google's FeedBurner.
Feedburner allows you to check how many subscribers you have, the subscription trends of your blog (e.g. increasing or diminishing), and which posts people are reading the most.
9. New Vs Returning Visitors
This statistic should give you an idea on whether you are successful in converting your visitors into loyal ones or not.
If your 'returning visitors' are increasing together with new visitors, this is always a good sign for you.
10. Outbound Links
Some metric packages will provide you with this information. Track this stat to know which links people are clicking on within your site when they leave your site, or for seeking more information. [Try to provide that information on your blog to engage your visitors more.]
11. Top Exit Pages
This statistic is very similar to the 'Outbound Links'; as it tells you about which pages on your blog people leave your site from, even without clicking on any outbound link.
Check such pages and try to improve the content and formatting of these posts, and do some internal linking to your own posts in your blog.
12. Top Landing Pages
Your 'Top Landing Pages' are basically which pages visitors land on the most when visiting your blog.
Try to optimize such pages more than other pages. If you want to advertise a newsletter or simply increase your subscribers, create a nice 'welcome' page, to eventually grow to a 'top landing page'.
13. Where People Click On Your Blog
Some metric packages (Google Analytics, CrazyEgg) track this stat by creating "heat maps" and visual pics of what and where people click on your site.
CrazyEgg is better than Google Analytics for this particular statistic, because they are more focused on this specification, and they give more detailed information than Google.
Besides improvement in design and layout, you can also use this statistic for better ad placement on your blog.
14. Monetization Stats
Many bloggers want to make money from their blog, for this purpose there must be some tool to determine your blog/site progress from money aspect.
Such metrics are different for different income streams e.g. for AdSense you can use Google Analytics. Try to find out which pages are earning more than others; alternatively you could use the channel and tracking option of your ad network to help you to determine which pages are performing well.
Try to increase or at least maintain income from such pages.
15. Browser Capabilities
You must always be sure that the browsers of your visitors have such capabilities to take proper advantage of your site. For example; if your site relies heavily on flash videos, check which version of flash your visitors are using.
Also, be sure to keep track of the browsers, java support version, screen resolution, and operating systems etc. of which most of your visitors are using.
To your success,
Jonny Tyson
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