In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, let's explore the stats that matter, the ones you should be paying attention to on your site and off.
On your site, you should be paying attention to:
- Most Popular Posts: Are your most popular posts related by topic? If so, there is clearly a driving interest in that topic. Consider writing more. If not, then what about these are interesting enough to keep bringing in traffic on a regular basis? If they aren't consistent over time, why are they your most popular posts? Analyze them to help shape your future posts.
- Click-Throughs: What links on your site are they clicking to leave your site? Where are you sending them? Why? Is it for more information because you haven't helped them enough, or is it because you are the key referring source to help them further? Analyze your clicks and evaluate where people are going after leaving your site. If it is intentional, fantastic.
- Where are They Coming From? Where are your readers coming from? Which country? Which language? If enough of your reader aren't fluent in your language, consider how you write for them.
- Search Terms: What search terms bring people to your site from search results, and what words do they use to search for content on your site? Are you serving up content on these topics?
There are many stats that don't matter unless you are currently developing your website. Honestly, no one cares which browser your visitors are using, the size of their screens, or operating system. What matters is if a good majority of your visitors are using smartphones to access your site. Then your site better be mobile-friendly, then you can forget about that stat again.
Bounce Rate is a funky stat to fuss over. Many digital marketing experts emphasize monitoring this stat, an indicator of how long someone stays on a web page before they leave. The longer someone stays on your site or on a web page might be important, but not if they opened it, got a phone call and wandered off, or left the tab open and forgot about your site. If you are an online delivery service, you want the shortest bounce rate EVER. After all, what does someone want to know from an online delivery service? Where's my package and when will I get it? The faster the site delivers that information, the better the customer feels, thus a tiny bounce rate is the goal. Look at the bigger picture. If you publish a post with the goal of sending people to a valuable resource, you want a short bounce rate. Always explore this stat with common sense and a bigger picture understanding of your goals.
Learn which stats on your site matters, then explore stats from beyond your site.
Stats you should be paying attention to that don't come directly from your site but from your industry and the blogging, social media, and web publishing industry in general, include:
- Popular Keywords: Research the most popular keywords on your topic or in your industry. Are you covering these topics on your site?
- Most Popular Sites: Who is your competition and how do you compare to them? Called a competitive marketing analysis, consider using one or more of the tools listed by Orbit Media Studios, Mention.com, and Kast.
- Industry Reviews and Updates: Every industry has an umbrella group or representative organization. They typically publish annual reports on the state of their industry, and most include statistics associated with blogging, social media, and digital marketing. An example is Stikky Media's Social Media and the Tourism Industry Statistics, exploring the data around travel and social media.
- Blogging and Social Media Stats and Trends: The blogging and social media world is constantly shifting and changing. Facebook used to be the hottest place for college and university students. Today, the largest demographics for Facebook are 50+ and long out of academia. They are there to track what's happening with their children and grandchildren, while the youngsters are off to SnapChat and other social media networks. Here are some recent stats and trends on blogging.
Here are some articles to help you learn a little more about the stats on your site.
Your blog exercise is to learn more about the stats on your blog and off your blog and integrate them into your decision-making process for your blogging.
If people are coming to your site for specific information, serve it.
If the industry in which you blog is shifting and changing, follow the trend. Be ahead of it if you can. Bring those topics to your post content.
Where are people in your industry hanging out online? Are they on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, or where? Go there. Check out what they are saying. Interact there. Share your insights on your blog. And bring them back to your blog, your sandbox, to play.
There is much data found in web stats. Which matters to you? Which influences your blogging? Which do you need to help you achieve your goals?
You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.
WordPress.com
Your WordPress School assignment is to experiment with simple uses of the display post and archive shortcodes.