I would first like
mention that I ran into some hiccups in my first couple weeks using Google
Analytics. After my first time installing the tracking code, it took over 12
hours before I started receiving data. The few times I logged back in to check
my data, Google Analytics reported that the “tracking code was not installed.”
Each time, I reinstalled the code and the site began receiving data again. So
my data has undoubtedly been underreported.
For the time being the problem is resolved, and although it has been a
minor source of frustration, it is a learning process!
Below I will list a
few measurements that caught my eye when tracking the progress of my personal
blog (the one you are reading right now)
In these early stages
of my blog, promotion has been on the light side. I’ve sent out a few emails to
friends and family notifying them of them of the blog, and I’ve posted a couple
links on social media. As you might imagine, my number of unique visitors thus
far is quite low. So at this point, this measurement is a signal of my lack of
promotional support if anything. So, what I thought would be a more reliable
indicator of site success in these early stages is average visit duration.
Average visit
duration can answer a few very important questions. First, am I reaching out to
the right audience in terms of my promotional activities? In other words, when
I tell people to check out my blog, do they end up liking it? Or maybe you have
the right audience but your content is not up to par. If your content is not
holding the attention of your audience then average visit duration will
decrease drastically.
However, my average
visit duration was 00:00:00, which I was not particularly enthused about until
I started doing some research on the measurement. According to experts, for
Google Analytics to accurately capture average visit duration, it needs to
record at least two timestamps. One time stamp is recorded at the beginning of
the visit and the next time stamp is recorded when the user clicks to another
page. (Wedderburn, 2013) So, theoretically, some of my users visit times could
have been counted as zero because they only viewed one page. Even if they spent
5 minutes reading a post and never clicked to another page, this is counted as a bounce and recorded as
zero on average visit duration.
This also explains
why my bounce rate was 100%. If you look at how a lot of blogs are organized, a
reader could read every post of your blog and still spend their entire visit on
only one page. This is because all the posts appear on one page, you simply
scroll down.
So how do we start getting
better data in terms of average visit duration? My first thought is to organize
your blog in a more interactive fashion that encourages users click on another
page. Whether it means limiting your homepage to one post with other posts as
links on the sidebar, or creating email subscription and comment pages, it will
encourage more page views and start giving you more accurate data regarding
average visit duration.
Source/Medium
I found the
source/medium function to be a great resource to track the origin of your web
traffic. Viewing your traffic in this way allows you to see what channels are
responsible for the visits to your site. Are they coming from sites on which
you are promoting your blog? Or are they coming from a source that is otherwise
unknown to you? In my case, the source/medium measurement revealed that
promotion via social media accounted for the majority of traffic to my blog. This
is considered referral traffic.
Traffic sources can
be broken down into three major traffic categories; search, referral, and
direct. Search traffic comes from search engines. Refferal traffic is caused
when someone clicks on a link to your site. Direct Traffic comes from individuals
entering your URL directly. (Using google analytics, 2013) Google Analytics will indicate in a percentage
how much each source is responsible for site traffic.
Again, it comes down
to the principle of accountability. Am I putting my time and resources in the
right place? Are my marketing activities paying off? Source information is
extremely valuable in answering these questions.
Social Reports
As I was looking into
traffic sources I also came across the social report function. Social reports
allow you to determine how many people are finding your blog via social media
sites. Looking at social reports can give you valuable information on the
effect of specific campaigns executed through social media networks.
I was drawn to this
metric because social media can seem like a challenge when it comes to
measuring ROI. Devoting time and money to these “gated communities” can
sometimes seem like a toss up. To some degree, with Social Reports Google has
addressed this issue. Giving us real time data regarding the contribution of
social networks to our blog sites, shedding a little more light on the social
media world.
Keywords
Another area of
Google Analytics that I think is extremely valuable in the development of my
blog is the keyword function. Although I haven’t received any specific keyword
data at this time, I am closely monitoring the report. Once I start receiving
organic keywords that were searched to arrive at my blog, I will start getting
a better idea of the issues that people want to read about. How can I give the
people what they are they looking for? The more closely my content caters to
these keywords the higher my blog will appear on search engine results.
The fact that I am a
beginner to web analytics and SEO, and that it is a complex and evolving topic,
the keywords function becomes a helpful resource. Are their innovations and
schools of thought that are new to me? Is my terminology and phrasing on point?
Studying keywords and making sure you are seeing results via Google Analytics
is a great way to stay up to date and informed on your topic.
Wedderburn, J. (2013).
Meaning of 00:00:00 visit duration. Retrieved 25 November 2013 from http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/analytics/GLFvjrucTME
Side Income Blogging.
(2013). Using google analytics on your your blog: Traffic sources. Retreived 25
November 2013 from http://sideincomeblogging.com/analytics-for-your-blog-traffic-sources/
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