Which Web Analytics Actually Matter Most?
Which Web Analytics Actually Matter Most?
If you’ve ever gazed with vacant eyes at an analytics dashboard, just willing it to make sense, you’re going to want to pay attention. In this data-driven world, everyone is so focused on chasing numbers that often, we aren’t even sure which numbers really matter—and which are simply noise.
Not All Analytics Are Created Equally
Your boss is probably leaning on you to show that blog posts, marketing campaigns, and social media posts are getting “good engagement,” but that’s difficult to quantify. What’s the difference between a pageview and a unique view? Do Twitter followers really mean anything if they never seem to click through to your posts?
The truth is that there are some key performance indicators (KPIs) that are better gages of your success and impact than others. The next time you’re trying to parse out which analytics actually tell the story of your marketing attempts, here’s what to look for.
8 Blogging Metrics To Watch
Whether you’re using an analytics dashboard like Google Analytics, or one that’s built into your CMS (like the dashboards in our FusionCMS), there are a few metrics that carry more weight and do a good job indicating how successful your posts are. A few of those include:
Total visits per month: This number is the best way to know whether or not people are even visiting your site. It’s a big-picture number that doesn’t necessarily offer you that much information other than a ballpark estimate of how many eyeballs you’re getting, but it can be useful in tracking other, more granular metrics—like if posting more frequently increases visits (if you're doing it right, it does!), or if your monthly marketing campaigns are working.
Bounce rate: Much like a golf score, the lower your bounce rate, the better you’re doing. Bounce rate tells you how long people stay on your site once they’re there, and whether or not they’re clicking around. If you’ve got an extremely high bounce rate, it could be an indication that your material isn’t grabby enough, or that your website isn’t working for your users.
Traffic source breakdown: Look to see how people are arriving at your page to figure out which sources are the most fruitful. Is Facebook driving a lot of traffic? What about Twitter? Or are there other people linking out to your content that’s driving clicks? You can also use this to conduct a kind of informal A/B test; if your Facebook and Twitter click-through rates are similar, try different wording on your posts and see which seem to draw more attention.
New Leads and Lead Breakdowns: Overall traffic is a great number to know, but if you’re not capturing email addresses, making contacts, and generally turning visitors into leads, your blog isn’t doing much more than raising your profile (not that that’s a bad thing). Be sure to check how many leads your blog is generating, and where those leads are coming from—which platforms or sites are generating the most—to maximize your marketing attempts.
Top overall posts: If you have a handful of posts that totally killed, it’s good to know which they are and why they succeeded. Look to see which posts are consistently getting good engagement, even weeks or months or years after they were posted. Then, evaluate what was so compelling about them, and try to figure out how you can match it with future posts.
Top lead/customer posts: Similarly, it’s important to note which blog posts generate the most leads. If there are a few stand-outs that seem to really speak to potential customers, they’re worth noting—and re-sharing in the future.
Conversion rate: The higher-ups always want to know: Is it making us any money? Conversion rate is a quick, easy way to determine whether or not that’s the case. Some platforms calculate this for you (usually by comparing the number of leads or customers to the number of conversions), but if yours doesn’t, or if you’re not sure if it’s calculating correctly, there’s an online tool which can help you determine how many of your leads are actually converting.
Top search engine terms: What are people Googling that lands them on your blog—and how can you continue including those things in posts and social sharing? Checking which search terms are resulting in clicks can help you come up with new post ideas, and tailor your posts to people looking for those exact services or ideas.
Even if the point of your blog is chiefly to demonstrate your company’s authority in the market, it’s good to know what’s resonating with readers and customers. Your analytics can be essential in showing you what’s working—and what’s not.
Not getting the results you want? The digital marketing experts at efelle creative can help.
The award-winning team at efelle creative in Seattle includes website designers, web developers, SEO copywriters, and digital marketing specialists that will help your business maintain an SEO content strategy that gets results. Call us at 206.384.4909 or use our online contact form for a free consultation.