Measuring Success: Understanding Your Blog Analytics and What to Do with Them

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You've put a lot of work into making content, improving your site, and promoting it like a pro. But how can you know if all that work is worth it? This is where blog analytics come in. Beyond just seeing numbers, understanding your analytics is about decoding the story your readers are giving you, so you can make informed decisions to build your blog, engage your audience, and achieve your goals.

Think of analytics as your blog's health report, highlighting what's working, what's not, and where the biggest opportunities lie.

Important Analytics Tools You Need

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the most important tool for any blogger. It's free and really useful.

Google Search Console (GSC): Also free, GSC provides statistics focused on how your site performs in Google Search results. It shows you the keywords people use to discover you, your average ranking position, and any technical problems that Google identifies.
If you haven't previously, set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 for your blog.

Key Metrics to Track and What They Tell You
These are the most significant metrics to keep an eye on in GA4 and GSC, along with what you can learn from them:

* From Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Users / Active Users:

What it is: The number of unique visitors to your website over a certain period. "Active Users" in GA4 measures people who had an engaged session.
What it shows you: How many specific people are actually visiting your blog. It's a basic way to find out how many people read your blog.
What to do with it: If this figure is low, you should work harder to get more traffic (via SEO and promotion). If it's increasing, your promotion is working!

 
*Sessions / Engaged Sessions:

What it is: The number of times users visited your site. A single user can have more than one session. "Engaged Sessions" signifies that the session lasted more than 10 seconds, had a conversion event, or had more than two pageviews.
What it tells you: How frequently users are returning to your site or how many visits your site received. Engaged Sessions show that people are having good conversations.
What to do with it: A lot of sessions per user could mean that people are coming back and are loyal. Low engaged sessions could suggest your content isn't appealing enough or your site is slow.

*Page Views:

What it is: The total number of times pages on your blog were seen.
What it informs you: Which sites or posts are the most popular.
What to do with it:
Identify Top Content: What posts get the most views? Create additional articles on comparable topics.
Update Popular Posts: Refresh and optimize your highest-performing content to keep them relevant.
Internal Linking: To spread traffic, link from popular posts to less popular but relevant ones.

*Average Time Spent Engaging:

What it is: The average amount of time people spend on your site or a certain page.
What it tells you: How interesting your material is. Longer times often suggest viewers are finding your material worthwhile.
What to do with it:
Low Engagement Time: Your material might be too brief, not matching reader expectations, or your site has usability concerns (slow loading, distracting adverts).
High Engagement Time: Identify what makes these posts sticky and repeat that success.

*Bounce Rate (or lack thereof in GA4):

What it is: In Universal Analytics, it was the percentage of single-page sessions (people that leave your site after seeing only one page). GA4 focuses more on "Engaged Sessions" and "Engagement Rate." A session that is not engaged is somewhat akin to a bounce.

What it says: If users are quickly departing your site. A high non-engagement rate usually means that visitors aren't finding what they were looking for or that your site has problems.
What to do with it:
A lot of people aren't interested: Check if your headlines correspond with content, improve intro hooks, optimize readability, ensure fast load times, and use clear calls to action for internal links.

*Traffic Sources / Channels:

What it is: Where your visitors are coming from (e.g., Organic Search, Social, Referral, Direct, Email).
What it shows you: Which of your marketing strategies work best.
How to handle it:
Find Strong Channels: Double down on channels that are performing well.
Improve Weak Channels: If a channel (like social media) isn't working well, change how you use that platform.
Have a variety of things: Don't rely on just one source. You are at risk of algorithm modifications if 90% of your traffic comes from one source.

*Demographics and Interests of the Audience:

What it is: The age, gender, location, and hobbies of the people that visit your site.
What it tells you: Whether you're attracting your target audience, and reveals new audience segments.
What to do with it: Make your content, language, and marketing more relevant to the people you want to reach. Discover new sub-niches depending on interests.

*Conversions / Events:

What it is: Keeping track of certain things you want people to do, including signing up for emails, clicking on affiliate links, buying products, or filling out a contact form. In GA4, "events" are used to keep track of practically all interactions.
It tells you how well your site is meeting its goals, including making money and growing your list.
What to do with it:
Find the Bottlenecks: If you have high traffic but few conversions, there's a disconnect. Optimize your calls to action, page layout, or offer.
Copy Success: Look at pages that have a lot of conversions and use those parts on other pages.
From Google Search Console (GSC):

*Questions (Keywords):

What it is: The actual search terms users used to locate your website on Google.
What it shows you: Which keywords are getting you clicks and which ones are ranking for you. It shows what the user is looking for.
What you should do with it:
Find New Chances: Find keywords that you're ranking for but haven't specifically gone after. Create extra stuff around them.
Make the most of what you already have: If you're ranking on page 2-3 for a relevant keyword, optimize that post to attempt and push it to page 1.
Find Content Gaps: See what relevant terms you aren't ranking for and generate new content to cover those gaps.

*Average Position:

What it is: The average position of your site in Google search results for certain queries.
What it tells you: How easy it is to find you in search. More clicks come from higher rankings.
What to do with it: Concentrate on enhancing content and acquiring backlinks for pages ranked 11-30, as these possess the highest potential for substantial traffic growth.
Clicks and impressions:

What it is: Clicks are real visits that come from search results. Impressions are the number of times your site showed up in search results, even if no one clicked on it.
What it tells you: Your content's exposure (impressions) and how enticing your title/meta description are (clicks/impressions = Click-Through Rate or CTR).
What to do with it:
Low CTR, High Impressions: Your title and meta description aren't attractive enough. Rewrite them so they are more interesting and make the value evident.
Low Impressions: You need more content, better keyword targeting, or more backlinks to gain authority.

*Status of Coverage (Indexing):

What it is: It shows which of your pages Google has indexed and any problems that are stopping pages from getting indexed.
What it means: Google is able to crawl your site and add your material to its index.
What to do with it: Make sure that all of your material is easy to find by fixing any "Error" or "Warning" messages (like 404s or problems with redirects).
Putting Analytics to Work: The Process of Iteration
It's not enough to just collect data; you need to know how to use it to make smart choices.

Check in on a regular basis: Set aside time each week or month to analyse your critical metrics.
"Why?" is what you should ask. When you witness a spike or a decline, ask yourself: "Why did that post perform so well?"
"Why is the traffic from social media down this month?"
"Why are people leaving this page so quickly?"
Formulate Hypotheses: Come up with concepts based on your "why" queries.
"If I add new content to this old post, it might move up in the rankings."
"If I post more interesting pictures on social media, my traffic might go up."
Test and Implement: Make changes based on your hypotheses.
Check the Results: Look at your metrics again to determine if the modifications worked.
Say it again: This is a never-ending cycle of looking at things, making changes, and getting better.
You can turn raw data into useful information by constantly looking at your blog analytics. This makes your blogging journey more efficient, effective, and, in the end, more successful.