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  • Kristie Hill

Are you watching these stats to improve your blog?

March 17, 2015

Google Analytics can be a powerful asset to your blogging tool box. It’s exciting to watch your traffic grow, but it can also help you improve your blogging strategies, narrow in on what your readers like best, and see which social media platforms are working best for you.

This post is going to walk you through the things I personally like to look at in my Google Analytics dashboard and how tracking these statistics helps me improve my blog.

Google analytic tips for Bloggers.

If you don’t have Google Anaylytics set up, here are instructions on how to do so.

Also, do yourself a favor and exclude your visits from your reports so that you are getting accurate statistics. Look at the difference in my views (the top one includes my visits, the bottom one does not).

Exclude your visits from google analtyics statistics

Alright, let’s dig into your Google Analytics reports.

First off, we have the audience overview. I’m sure most of you are familiar with this page. It’s a great snapshot of how your blog traffic is doing. This screen is perfect for featuring on your sponsor/advertise page or including in your media kit.

Google Analytics overview

Here’s a few definitions for you

Sessions – According to Google, “A session is a group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time frame.” A session or visit can include many pageviews. Sometimes sessions are referred to as visits.

Pageviews – Pageviews tell you how many times your blog or a particular page are viewed. Say I visit your blog: I land on your home page, then click your about page, then I go to your blog page. That is 3 pageviews, but only 1 session. Pageviews are obviously a more exciting number, but I usually pay attention to the sessions (visits).

After taking a quick peek at the overall statistics, I like to see where those visits came from and where they went on my blog.

Where did my blog traffic come from?

From your Google Analytics dashboard, navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels

Google-analytics-channels

This gives you a broad overview of where your traffic is coming from. I only check this screen occasionally, as the order doesn’t change very often. The main section I personally like to look in the Acquisition tab is the Referrals section.

Referrals in Google Analytics

Referrals show the specific webpage visitors were referred to your blog from. To see the referrals navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals. There are a few reasons I like to look at referrals.

First, if someone mentions me on their blog I want to know about it. For example, you can see that my blog received traffic from sarahvonbargen.com.

See who is referring traffic to your blog

By clicking on that link, Google Analytics will show me exactly which page the traffic is coming from. This helped me find the article that Sarah mentioned me in. I usually like to leave a comment on these posts and thank them for including me (I missed Sarah’s open comments window this time) and I always make sure to share their post with my followers.

Keeping track of who refers traffic to you will help you build stronger online relationships.

The next thing I like to look at in the Referrals section is the Pinterest traffic that comes to my site. Pinterest is currently my #1 traffic source (although search is catching up!).

When you click on the pinterest.com link in Google Analytics it show you all of the specific URL’s that sent traffic to your blog from Pinterest.

Track which pins bring you the most traffic

As you can see from the screen shot above, the top Pinterest referrer is the home page. This makes me happy because it means that I am showing up in the smart feed.

After that, I can see individual pins that are sending my blog traffic. I like to click on those and it will pop open the actual pin.

Knowing which pins bring your blog the most traffic will help you know what type of pins (and their descriptions) are preforming well.

Another thing I like to do while inside specific referrals is sort the report by Avg. Session Duration. The screenshot below is still on the pins sending me traffic, but you can do the same on any page in Google Analytics.

Sort Google Analytics by average timeI like to track people that spend a good amount of time on my site. I like to know where they came from and where they went.

What pages are my visitors viewing?

Landing Pages

The easiest way to see what pages your traffic is landing on is to navigate to Behavior > Site Content > Landing Page.

Google Anaytics landing page

Checking out the landing pages allows me to see my most popular pages. Knowing what type of posts bring you the most traffic will help you narrow in on your niche and write more posts in the future that your audience likes.

Sometimes I  like to add a secondary dimension to this the Landing Pages screen and see where the traffic came from to get to this page. To do so click Secondary dimension and then Source.

Add a secondary dimension in Google Analytics

Adding the secondary dimension in landing pages helped me discover that different types of posts on my blog preform better on certain platforms.

You can also do the same thing, but vice-verse, from the referrals page and add landing pages as the secondary dimension. This allows you to see both statistics in one screen.

All pages visited.

After checking out the landing pages, I go look at all pages.

See all pages visited in Google Analytics

Landing pages only show you the very first page your visitors come to. All pages shows you that and everything else. By default, the landing pages screen shows you sessions and the all pages screen shows you pageviews.

I use this screen to show me what pages are the most popular that day, week, month, and all time. You can sort any screen in Google analytics by a certain time frame by adjusting the calendar in the top right corner.

Adjust timeframe of Google Analytics reports

Who is visiting my blog?

Now that you know where your traffic comes from and what they are checking out on your site, it is also helpful to know more about who is visiting.

Geographic

The type of blog you have will determine importance of checking the geographic location of your visitors. If you post on local topics definitely make sure to check where your visitors are located. This can help you narrow in on the locations you focus on in your posts.

To see where your visitors are located navigate to Audience > Demographics > Overview

See where your blog visitors are located.

What device are your visitors on.

Knowing what type of device your visitors use when viewing your site can help optimized your blog design. Navigate to Audience > Mobile > Overview. This will tell you what percent of your visitors use desktop, mobile, or tablets when viewing your site. Most people are seeing a 50% desktop and 50% mobile device these days. Which is exactly why Google is placing an importance on mobile friendly sites in search engines.

What devices are blog visitors using.

Let’s recap.

Acquisition

Channels: Shows a broad overview of where your traffic comes from: Social, Direct, Search, Referral, Email. I check this occasionally.

Referrals: Shows you specific webpages that send traffic to your blog. I check this daily.

Behavior

Landing Pages: Shows you which page visitors landed on when coming to your site. I check this daily.

All Pages: Shows every page that was visited on your blog. I check this regularly (though not always daily).

Audience

Geography: Shows you where in the world your traffic comes from. If you blog about local topics, check this regularly. I hardly ever check it.

Device: Shows you what type of device your visitors view your blog. I check this occasionally.


What do you check in your Google Analytics? How have you improved your blog by tracking those stats?

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Filed Under: Grow, Popular Posts Tagged With: Google Analytics Conversation: 29 Comments

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Comments

  1. Holly says

    February 8, 2019 at 3:43 pm

    Really helpful! I didn’t know what exactly to look at. Now I guess I should set up a spreadsheet to track all that stuff. I just randomly look at them.

    Reply
  2. Kristin says

    February 5, 2019 at 12:10 pm

    Very helpful! I had to remove analytics from my phone cause I was checking it too often. Now I check it once per day or so. I’ll start checking these stats you recommended – thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      February 6, 2019 at 6:24 am

      Only once a day is smart – otherwise you’ll just drive yourself crazy!

      Reply
  3. Troy Emanuel says

    June 4, 2018 at 6:39 am

    It is a very advantageous post for me. I’ve enjoyed reading the post. It is very supportive and useful post. You share the google analytics tips are very useful. Thanks for such post and please keep it up.

    Reply
  4. Shafi | MyBlogLift says

    May 23, 2017 at 12:54 pm

    Google Analytics is the only reliable tracking tool I have used in a long time. Being able to know your audience helps a lot in improving the blog.

    Thank you for the article.

    Regards,

    Shafi Khan

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      May 25, 2017 at 6:51 am

      Agreed, Analytics really helps you dive in and see what is working and what isn’t.

      Reply
  5. Betty says

    August 30, 2016 at 12:44 am

    I have been using Google Analytics Counter Tracker plugin by WordPress and it has really save me a lot of stress. It gives me accurate stats of my blog visitors and location from which they are visiting from, and some other basic necessary info. Its also very easy to use and understand. check
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/analytics-counter/

    Reply
  6. Cat says

    February 28, 2016 at 9:43 am

    Thank you so much! I have read so many articles on Google Analytics, but this gives the best overview for my type of blog.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:50 pm

      Glad it helped you Cat. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Austin says

    January 26, 2016 at 1:43 pm

    Hey this is an amazing blog post. I have been spending more and more time in my google analytics. It feels like at times an alice in wonderland type adventure. I am just trying to see how deep the rabbit hole goes :).

    Reply
  8. Loren | Think Elysian says

    January 25, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    Thank you! This is THE BEST explanation of google analytics!

    Reply
  9. Tina, Little Miss Organized says

    January 2, 2016 at 2:17 pm

    Thank you for this great blogpost and all the insight I was able to gain in reading my Google Analytics. I will be saving this post so I can use it over again when going through my stats! It’s so complex and I would forget half of it again:-)
    I am really glad to see from where my traffic really comes.

    Reply
  10. JazzFeathers says

    November 12, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    Great article!
    I already use Google Analytics, you you gave me insight into info I haven’t been considering so far.
    Thanks very much

    Reply
  11. Kelly says

    October 14, 2015 at 4:49 pm

    This was really helpful, especially knowing exactly which URL the source is! I’m excited to see what my analytics look like in a few months since I just did the “exclude me” filter.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      October 15, 2015 at 11:01 am

      You’ll have to let me know how different they end up being. Mine is a couple hundred visits a month!

      Reply
  12. Dr. Travis Elliott says

    October 7, 2015 at 3:16 am

    Wow, thank you for the helpful article. I had wondered why my traffic jumped so much earlier this year. Your pinterest-centric article immediately helped me identify it was a single blog post that seems to have been pinned hundreds of times!

    I will definitely be looking at Analytics much more frequently now.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      October 7, 2015 at 7:14 am

      That’s awesome that you were able to see which post was bringing in so much traffic. I think it’s fun to watch analytics to see where people are coming from.

      Reply
  13. Shashi says

    June 6, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    Hi there, I would love a post on how to ensure your brand name appears on Google when you search for it. I am using WordPress + Yoast SEO +google analytics and think I have done all the right things but we are invisible on Google! We are only found on Google if I type the full website address.

    Reply
  14. [email protected] Peaceful Haven says

    March 30, 2015 at 11:25 am

    Amazing! I am not showing pinterest any social media on my analytics? Do I need to set up something to have it show up?

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 30, 2015 at 4:25 pm

      No, you don’t need to configure anything. Pinterest will show up under referrals and not social. Did that make a difference?

      Reply
  15. Jennifer @ Emulsified Family says

    March 22, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    I never knew how to see which pins led traffic to my site! Nice! Thanks for that tip!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 23, 2015 at 10:54 pm

      Seeing which pins led traffic is one of my favorite things to look at in Google Analytics.

      Reply
  16. Lisa (mummascribbles) says

    March 19, 2015 at 10:28 am

    This post is amazing!! I am going to read through again while looking at my analytics! It’s always baffled me!!! Thank you 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 19, 2015 at 12:43 pm

      I’m glad you found it helpful Lisa, hopefully you’ll be able to put your Google Analytics to use now.

      Reply
  17. Matija Zajšek says

    March 19, 2015 at 5:17 am

    Oh, after long period again blog that is coming directly to my bookmarked sites. Nice job done. Really. Very comprehensive and very useful. I have been blogging for three years and your tips did open my mind. Still got work to do :). Regards, Matija, Slovenia.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 19, 2015 at 12:47 pm

      Thank you Matija. I think there is always work to do being a blogger. Good luck.

      Reply
  18. Jamie G says

    March 17, 2015 at 12:28 pm

    This post was insanely helpful! I was getting traffic from a pin that I didn’t even know was that popular! AND it was for a sponsored post that I really built out to be more of a resource than just a recommendation for a great product!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      March 17, 2015 at 1:00 pm

      Jamie, that is so exciting to hear! Glad you were able to find out it is actually popular

      Reply

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