Use In-Page Analytics to Gain Valuable Feedback on Your Blog

Unfortunately, many people run their businesses without a written plan.  So it's not surprising that reports are also not being used at all. There are some entrepreneurs who would rather have a root canal, rather than run reports or interpret what they mean. Google analytics is a great tool for learning about users, traffic and if used on a regular basis can provide some great insight into how well you're doing online. 

Most entrepreneurs track their income (if they have monetized their sites) because that is the bottom line, But without information (data) they won't know what works well versus what doesn't.  So while  they have a pretty good idea of how much money is coming in, they may not be as knowledgeable about how much money is going out of the business.  Additionally, they probably won't know how to improve their pages so that they can generate even more income. 

Are Your Readers Clicking the Right Links?

What are your visitors (readers) doing once they land on your page? Are they bouncing or do they stick around for a while?  Are they clicking on your links? If not, why? What links are getting the most clicks?  What does that tell you about what your readers are looking for? Are your visitors doing what you intended when you wrote the post? If so great, but if not you might consider figuring out why they didn't take the desired action.

These are the kinds of questions you should be asking for each post.  And the great thing is that the In-Page Analytics report will also give you this information.  For additional ways to optimize your posts, use our Free Blog Transformation Checklist each time you write a new post.

If you've read the article "Are You Setting SMART Goals?" you know how important it is to have goals for your business. You also need goals and a plan for your blog... a plan that covers your overall business goals, that covers what you want to accomplish with your marketing.  The goals established for your blog can be entered into Google Analytics and tracked as well.

Without data, it's hard to make sound decisions about your business. You can only use hunches and intuition for so long.  And the big thing is that your hunches may be wrong.  If your blog or website is doing well, you will have a different approach than if you find that it's doing poorly.  If you don't know, you're not able to take the right actions to move your business forward.  Google analytics is a free tool that is used to track data and it  helps business owners know where their business stands in terms of traffic, and any other specific goals and criteria they decide to measure.

If you've been intimidated by Google Analytics this video will give you a first hand look at the tool and I'll walk you through getting some quick, easy data to help you really know how your site is doing.  Google Analytics in-page analytics report gives users a lot of great feedback at the blog post level, not just for the overall blog. This feedback will help you make better decisions, and help you increase traffic and attract qualified leads to your pages. Take a look at these books on Google Analytics on Amazon that will be an asset for any blogger or business owner.

Obtain direct feedback on each blog post on your site that will help you gain traffic and leads, This video will also help you learn to use the tool and translate the information you see in the reports.  You can track progress over time and see how you're improving. You can improve your writing process as you move forward forward versus guessing.

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Run In-Page Analytics on a Regular Basis

Since this data is at the post level, you'll want to have a procedure that enables you to see this report on a regular basis. I suggest that after publishing your posts, distribute them as you normally do on social media channels and other sites. Give your post about a week, and then run the report to track your progress.

Another great idea is to pick a day of the month to review the report.  Place it on your schedule or editorial calendar to make sure that you run it routinely. Once you have a few, you will be able to see changes in your blog, hopefully for the better.   If things get worse, you will be able to make improvements quickly so that the changes doesn't negatively impact your blog as a whole.