Tracking blog statistics might seem like a boring task to some while to others it might be almost an obsession. Regardless of where you fall on the scale of interest, you really should be tracking your blog statistics.
First, you should have a traffic tracking widget or plug-in installed on your blog. Google Analytics is one of the most popular, so we’ll talk about that in this post. If you have others you use and would recommend, feel free to share it below. If you don’t know how to install Google Analytics, grab a free copy of our “Blogging for Business” course at the right. You’ll find helpful instructions there.
Here’s our top 10 list of stats you should be tracking. We’d also love for you to share which stats you feel are most important to you, so be sure to leave us a comment below.
1. Overall Visitors - From week to week and month to month, is the number of visitors to your blog going up? This is a good indication of how your traffic-generation strategies are working for you.
2. Traffic Sources – Where are your visitors coming from? If you haven’t a clue, you need to find out! Knowing the top sources of your visitors will give you a good idea as to where you might want to focus your efforts. On the flip side, it will also show you where your efforts may not be producing the results you want.
3. Bounce Rate – This is one of the least understood but in our opinion, one of the most important statistics. A bounce rate is a measure of whether people click on links or read other pages in your blog…or just leave from the same page on which they arrived. If your bounce rate is 50%, for example, that means half of your visitors leave without looking at any other page on your blog except the one on which they first arrived.
If your bounce rate is 5%, it would mean that 5% left without reading deeper into your blog, but 95% clicked on a link and looked at least one other page on your blog.
Your bounce rate is a good indicator as to how interesting visitors find your blog. It also is a great indicator as to whether or not your traffic generation strategies are targeting the people who would find your blog most interesting.
4. Average Time on Site – How long do your visitors stay on your blog? Often referred to as “stickiness,” how long your visitors stay is a good indicator of how interesting they find your blog. The longer the stay, the better the odds of them subscribing to your blog or other offerings you may have.
5. Page Views – How many pages of your blog are your visitors viewing? Again, the more pages your visitors look at, the better.
6. Keywords – This statistic shows you how visitors arrived from one of the search engines, like Google, by showing you the words or phrases they typed into the search engine. If you are deliberately targeting traffic through keyword-rich posts, this statistic can be a good indicator as to how well your efforts are producing. You may also be surprised to see some unexpected results.
If you use book titles or movie titles in your post title,for example, you may find people landing on your blog who were looking for information about that book or movie. Paying attention to the kewords that brought people to your blog can help you target your efforts in the future.
7. New or Returning Visitors – What percentage of your visitors are coming back to read more? Are you getting any new visitors each day? If you’re not seeing a good proportion of new visitors, you may want to ramp up your traffic generation.
8. RSS Stats – How many people have currently subscribed to your blog through the RSS reader services? These are people who enjoyed your blog and don’t want to miss any upcoming posts. Again, this is a good indicator of how well your visitors like your blog content.
9. Exit Pages – This is more of a trouble-shooting statistic. If this stat shows that a large percentage of visitors are leaving from the same page, take a look at that page. You will want to try to determine what it is about that page that is “turning off” your visitors.
10. Top Content – Understanding which posts your visitors find most interesting is key to knowing what you should be posting about in the future. This stat will show you the most popular (most read) posts on your blog. Keep an eye on what your readers are interested in reading. If your readers like how-to type of posts, then do more. If they like your motivational posts, then do more.
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The clues to what your visitors want are there. You simply need to read the signs by monitoring your statistics on at least a monthly basis. Over time, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what works well and what does not.
What kind of statistics do you currently monitor? Do you have some that aren’t on the list above? Feel free to share them with a comment below. Have a question about blog stats? We’re happy to help if we can, so ask away!
Wishing you much success,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 9:16 am
Hi Robin and Judy,
Great informative post! I love Google Analytics. I think it’s so important to track your blog statistics. You need to know what’s working and what is not.
Thanks for the post!
MaryKay
MaryKay Edelen´s last [type] ..What Is A DMO -amp Why You Need One-
7. July 2010 at 3:14 pm
MaryKay,
Thanks for your comments! Google Analytics makes tracking stats so much easier to do and to understand. Glad to see you use it, too!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 9:29 am
Hi Robin and Judy,
Great post on analytics. Bounce rate is a real big one for me. It doesn’t do any good to get a ton of traffic if they don’t stick around…just drives up that old bounce rate.
Linnea´s last [type] ..Niche Marketing
7. July 2010 at 3:06 pm
Linnea,
Have to agree with you….the ol’ bounce rate is a real telling statistic. You make a very good point about the waste of good traffic generation if your bounce rate already shows most visitors leave as soon as they arrive! Better to make some changes in the blog or how you target your traffic first!
Thanks for sharing!
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 12:18 pm
Are you familiar with a widget provided by feedjit.com? It gives real time traffic information that includes location, where they came from, what page they visited and more.
I really enjoyed the real time updates but I removed it after fearing that visitors wouldn’t appreciate seeing that they were being tracked.
Your thoughts?
Thanks!
Just Me Saying´s last [type] ..Tri-Tex Grass Throws 4th of July Bash in Granbury-
7. July 2010 at 3:04 pm
We’ve seen the widget and like the overall idea. But, like you, we think it would tend to make visitors a tad bit uncomfortable. The real time updates would be a great deal of fun if you were promoting a new book or something where real time statscould produce some added excitement. For “every day” use, though, we’d have to agree with you…. it just might put off visitors from staying longer (and returning!).
7. July 2010 at 2:47 pm
Robin and Judy,
Excellent post and some very valuable content here for people with blogs. I would say on an average that most people don’t even look at these numbers which is ridiculous. How do you know how to become better if you don’t understand your past results.
As you mentioned,these are things you should be tracking and it’s people like you that help other people understand the importance as well.
Keep up the great work!
Dave and (Dawn)
Dave and Dawn´s last [type] ..Find Your Profitable Path to Personal Development
7. July 2010 at 2:59 pm
Dave,
Thanks so much. I think you are right, most people don’t look at the results. Granted, it seems a bit difficult in the beginning to understand all of the information available, but as you said, without doing any tracking we can’t know what works and what doesn’t. If a person wants to blog as a hobby, that’s one thing. However, if we want to blog for business, it’s essential!
Thanks for the comments… we appreciate you!
Best,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 3:55 pm
Robin and Judy:
Thank you for this article. In coaching clients on how to market online and tweak their sites, I always point to analytics as being absolutely vital to their ability to respond appropriately to their market.
After all, if you don’t know it’s broken, how are you gonna fix it?
You made analytics easy to understand. At least people will know what to pay attention to, and what indicators to look for.
Live with passion and purpose,
Vanessa
Vanessa´s last [type] ..Why You Should Use Social Media Management
7. July 2010 at 4:33 pm
Vanessa,
That seems to be the recurring theme with analytics…you can’t fix what you don’t know is broken! Such a simple concept but overlooked so often. Perhaps people try Google Analytics or other programs and it seem overwhelming at first. Taking just a few of the stats and understanding how those particular one apply is the key. Google Analytics can do a great deal more than perhaps we even understand and definitely more than we need! By just focusing on the most important ones, it makes it so much easier to understand…
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts…we really appreciate it!
Best,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 6:23 pm
You’ve pretty much covered all the bases here.
I would add that anyone using Google’s analytics software to set up Site Search reporting.
It tells you what people are searching for and what they are finding as a result. It’s a little on the advanced side but very enlightening.
Thanks for sharing!
9. July 2010 at 11:09 am
William,
You are right about Site Search…it’s very interesting but can be a tad daunting to set up when it comes to the “Query Parameters.” Thankfully, Google’s help file talks about where to find that information….though it took us a few read-throughs to understand it…
Thanks for mentioning it…..it is definitely a great addition to those of us who love stats!
Best,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 9:56 pm
This is an excellent review of Google Analytics. I never paid a lot of attention to the bounce rate. Thanks for your thorough explanation. I’ll be watching it much closer now!
Darlene Davis´s last [type] ..Shall We Dance
8. July 2010 at 7:35 am
Darlene,
Thanks so much! Yes, the bounce rate can say alot about a blog or website. Such a great tool to have in our analytic toolbox!
Sincerely,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 10:15 pm
Great value in this post. I signed up for Google Analytic but could not figure out how to get it going. So, now I know there is a plugin for it. Thanks so much for this information.
Nicole Rushin´s last [type] ..Releasing Butterflies to Manifest Your Dreams
8. July 2010 at 7:09 am
Nicole,
Some blog themes also have a place to insert the tracking code. For example, our theme here does, which made it very easy to install. Google gives you a snipet of code to copy and paste either into the widget or into your theme’s framework if there is already a place for it.
Thanks so much for stopping by! We appreciate you!
Best,
Robin and Judy
7. July 2010 at 10:46 pm
Hi Robin and Judy,
Great overview. I’m one that didn’t understand what the bounce rate was
so that in particular was very helpful to me.
Thanks, Laura
Laura Paulson´s last [type] ..Network Marketing Success- Get Your Newbies Started Right
8. July 2010 at 7:04 am
Laura,
Don’t feel bad…there was a time when we didn’t know what a bounce rate was either.. However, once we found out, it soon became our favorite statistic….
Sincerely,
Robin and Judy
8. July 2010 at 1:28 am
Thank you Robin & Judy for this very chock full article. I have WordPress Site-stats installed, which gives another set of stats, and some same ones. I am going to take your cue and get this.
Thanks again
Laura Morris
Laura Morris´s last [type] ..Your MLM “PhD” is A Continuing Education Worth Millions
9. July 2010 at 11:02 am
Hi Laura,
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts… We are definitely huge fans of Google’s Analytics…
Have a wonderful day!
Robin and Judy
8. July 2010 at 4:02 pm
I’m addicted to blog stats! My daily visits are good – average is currently 45 with 65 logged for today. Stumbleupon is a great source of traffic but I haven’t got the hang of keeping visitors on my blog..bounce rate over 50%. In April this year I peaked with 2,000 visits a day…yes you read that right! Clearly I’m doing something right but still, problems in converting visits to clicks etc. Any help much appreciated..it’s kind of a work in progress..constructive criticism always welcome. Great article and just what I was looking for
Best wishes
Joanna
9. July 2010 at 11:00 am
Joanna,
Your visit stats are great….. perhaps the issue for you is “who” is visiting. You have a great-looking blog with great information that appeals to a particular demographic. Without knowing how you’ve generated your visits so far, we might be making suggestions that you are already doing…. but, you should definitely find out where other like-minded people (runners) congregate online, then connect with them there (forums, groups, etc). It’s possible that your visitors are not runners which would attribute to your higher bounce rate?
One other suggestion… consider moving your newsletter opt-in box to the top of your sidebar (where your visitors don’t have to scroll down to find it) and then offer something to them for free that would be helpful, valuable information. Your tag line tells me that beginning marathon runners would love to get some additional information about that topic…perhaps a report, digital book or 5-10 day training series via email would be very helpful?
Love how your personality comes through on your blog and especially your “About Me” page…
To your success,
Robin and Judy
9. July 2010 at 4:15 pm
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my queries. Your suggestions are all valid and I’m investigating each and every one! I’m rather new to the whole opt-in box and offering digital books etc. would love to connect with you over skype or email for more chats.
Thank you again for your time and kindness
Joanna
11. July 2010 at 8:42 pm
Joanna,
Happy to help! We’ll shoot you an email…….
Best,
Robin and Judy
8. July 2010 at 9:25 pm
Excellent, Excellent information! I appreciate you taking the time to explain in detail the various functions of analytics.
Clint White´s last [type] ..Is your blog multi-browser compatible
9. July 2010 at 10:47 am
Clint,
Thanks so much! We appreciate you!
Best,
Robin and Judy
9. July 2010 at 8:05 am
Thanks for the heads up!
I know and realize that you need to pay attention to Blog statistics.
I appreciate the post and tips!
9. July 2010 at 10:45 am
Maggie,
Thanks so much for stopping by!
9. July 2010 at 7:34 pm
Thanks Robin!
Great helpful info. In one blog post, you just shared what took me months to figure out.
This is very helpful for anyone who wants to track the traffic on their site. Using Google Analytics is a must for any serious entrepreneur who wants to measure how effective their website is.
To Your Genius,
Eiji
11. July 2010 at 8:46 pm
Eiji,
Thanks so much for your comment and your kind words!
To your best,
Robin and Judy
9. July 2010 at 7:48 pm
Hi Robin – Great description of the analytics – helped me understand some of them better. How do you track RSS stats, though? I don’t see this option in Google Analytics? It’s something I would like to track.
Thanks,
–Lori
Lori Tisot´s last [type] ..Status Check – Where Are You
11. July 2010 at 8:49 pm
Lori…..great question and one which wasn’t made clear in the post. We get our feed stats straight from Feedburner, which is part of Google but not included with the Analytic account. We just log into Feedburner.com to our account and get our stats there as often as we like. If you don’t use Feedburner, just go to whatever system you use for your feeds and track your stats from there……
Thanks for pointing that out!!
Sincerely,
Robin and Judy
11. July 2010 at 8:40 pm
I found this post to be very informative and has clarified some questions I have had in regards to interpreting the data from Google Analytics.
Thanks,
11. July 2010 at 8:52 pm
Brenda,
Thanks so much for your comments. We appreciate you!
Best,
Robin and Judy
12. July 2010 at 7:56 pm
Robin,
Yes, we do use Google Analytics on our blog. It’s great you shared with others the value of tracking the traffic on their blog and what the information from Google Analytics means to them.
Thanks,
~ Pat and Lorna
http://TheCoolestCouple.com
Pat and Lorna Shanks´s last [type] ..Were Not All the Same… How Do You Really Reach Your Target Market
13. July 2010 at 8:19 am
Pat and Lorna (our favorite ‘coolest couple’ ),
Thanks so much for stopping by….. we appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Robin and Judy
15. July 2010 at 7:25 am
Hi Judy & Robin,
AGAIN: Great blog post. I also use Google Analytics for “all of my sites/blogs, etc” – You’ve offered a couple things to track I was unaware of. I’m not quite sure what an exit page is. I’ve never seen this in my analytics account. Maybe I’m not looking good enough. As well with the RSS. I need to find a way to track that too. Thanks for all the tips. Its a pleasure to be in your TSA group this week. There are a lot of great blogs and YOURS IS AT THE TOP!!!
Blessings,
Curt
skype: the1cbiz
Curt Bizelli´s last [type] ..Promoted Trending Twitter Topics – Did You Lose Some Power Over What is Trending in Social Media Who Calls the Last Shots
15. July 2010 at 8:08 am
Curt,
Thanks so much for you comments! An ‘exit page’ refers to the last page your visitors were on before they left your site. You can find “Top Exit Pages” under “content” on the left side menu (when you are logged into your site’s Google Analytic account). It’s not a stat to get too wrapped up in because it can mean many different things…but if it showed that your site’s home page was the top exit page, it might be cause to worry…
Similarly, from that same left side menu, you can bring up the “Top Landing Pages.” This is a great one to look at because often, your visitors will not arrive at your blog through the home page, but to a specific post page…especially if your blog posts are tweeted or shared on Facebook, for example. After you have clicked on “Top Landing Pages” look at the pages it lists. Click on one of them…then look for the heading “Landing Page Optimization” (under the graph). Next click on “Entrance Sources.” If you scroll down under the graphs you will see the websites from which your visitors found that post. This can be a very interesting statistic….
There are so many stats to look at with G.A. that we could likely spend a good day drilling down through all of it. (We personally like the map overlay to see how many countries have visitors to our site…not important but certainly fun!).
Thanks again for your kind words…..Have a wonderful and awesome day!
Robin and Judy
15. July 2010 at 6:04 pm
Robin, since I’m still learning this Internet world of marketing, these are huge tips for me. Thank you so much!
Bill Cowan´s last [type] ..Green Goddess Smoothie
19. July 2010 at 11:13 am
Bill you are so welcome….always happy to share what we can!
To your continued success,
Robin and Judy
31. July 2010 at 12:10 am
Hello, Robin and Judy:
Just when I think I know the most important factors to consider, I find out there’s still more to learn! LOL! Thank you for such a great post, very thorough. I appreciate visiting blogs where you can tell you are not only experienced, but are giving REAL value!
A new fan,
Deborah
Deborah A. Ten Brink´s last [type] ..Making Money Online First- Find the Passion in Your Life!
31. July 2010 at 11:45 am
Hi Deborah…
LOL…loved your comments on “there is still more to learn”! We thank you for your kind thoughts, and look forward to learning more, along with you! Together, we can all master the steps, that lead to success, and happiness.
To your success, always…
Judy and Robin
14. August 2010 at 11:31 am
Thanks Robin and Judy for this post. I have Google Analytics installed on my site but this is a great reminder that I have not paid as much attention to it as I should.
Thanks for the reminder,
Michael
16. August 2010 at 10:04 am
Michael,
Thanks so much for your comment…. We actually have checking our stats as part of our monthly action plan to help us remember to review all the valuable information it offers (though we do generally take a look at it almost weekly). Because it runs invisibly in the background, it’s so easy to foget to check Analytics…..but it’s definitely a treasure trove of information about what’s working well and what may not be working so well.
Thanks for stopping by!
Robin and Judy
20. September 2010 at 1:24 am
Thank you for this timely blog post. I have recently begun marketing my novel Charlotte Collins and installed Google analytics on my website and blog. I am definitely interested in learning how to use the program to its fullest potential. Thank you for explaining bounce rate. Until reading this post, I didn’t fully understand it.
Jennifer
20. September 2010 at 9:16 am
Jennifer,
So glad you found it helpful. Google Analytics can be a tad overwhelming with all the information it offers!
Congratulations on your novel!
To your success,
Robin and Judy
29. November 2010 at 3:06 pm
Hi!
I really liked the article. I have a blog called The eBay Life. I talk about my recent finds and how much I paid for item and how much they sold for.
I have a question. Are “absolute unique visitors” the same as new visitors?
Thanks for the info!
Miriam
1. December 2010 at 8:19 am
Miriam,
In Google Analytics, it’s virtually the same information (for absolute unique and new). You can read more here:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113734
Thanks so much for stopping by…..
Robin and Judy