It takes an average of 3:28 hours to write a blog post, in addition to other accompanying tasks involved in crafting a relevant piece.
All that work is not just for fun; it is to an end. Although the goal may differ between creating brand awareness, marketing products and monetising a website, the post is written to perform well.
So, the question is, how do you measure this investment of time and its effect on your blog? Guesswork won’t cut it, as you want precise answers. Thankfully, with technology, you can get an accurate score on how well your blog is doing.
10 Major Blog Metrics to Track Success
Certain blog metrics, like post engagements and social shares, are used to track success. These metrics show the number of visitors to your blog, the pages viewed, and their duration.
The purpose is to measure performance to see where you need to intensify effort, what needs to be corrected and what needs to be done away with.
What are these blog metrics to track success? This article will explore them.
1. Traffic
It is important to know how many people visit your blog daily or weekly. This metric provides insights into your blog’s reach and readers’ engagement. It’s useful in identifying popular content and topics of your blog.
This will help you understand your reader’s preferences and behaviours and the effectiveness of your campaigns. It’s an all-encompassing metric that includes page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, time on page, conversion rate, and click-through rate.
2. Engagement
Feedback from readers is a good indicator of blog performance. They’ll help you identify low-performing content, which can enhance your content strategy.
The parameters measured here are page views, time on page, and bounce rates. All of these indicate your reader’s preferences and will help you increase overall engagement.
3. Social Media Metrics
Social media helps blogs achieve more visibility. The more your blog posts get shared on social media, the more valuable they are and the higher their rank on search engines.
This metric consists of the number of your followers, likes, reach, and impressions per post. Others include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and engagement rates.
They all reflect your blog’s reputation, reader sentiment, and the growth of your audience.
Also Read: Best Social Networking Sites for Writers
4. SEO Metrics
Millions of articles are posted daily, and yours has to compete for a good ranking on search engines. SEO metrics measure click-through rates from search engine results pages (SERPs).
They track the number of organic search visitors, keyword rankings, headlines and meta-tag efficacy.
It measures your page load speed and backlink profile, which show the quality and quantity of websites linking to your blog. These help to establish the authority of your blog.
5. Email Marketing Metrics
Email Marketing is a common and affordable way for blog owners to expand their audience. When you carry out email campaigns, you must measure the success of your emails.
These metrics will determine your audience’s response to your emails. They track open rates, CTR, conversion, unsubscribe, and email list growth rates.
6. Revenue Metrics
It’s good to know the turnover of your blog unless it’s non-profit. If not, you must track which content generates the highest income. Revenue metrics help you make data-driven decisions for the monetisation of your blog.
They measure Ad revenue through cost per thousand impressions (CPM), CTR, and revenue per thousand impressions (RPM).
If you earn through affiliate marketing, they’ll measure your conversion rate, average order value (AOV), and earnings per click (EPC).
They also track content, reach, engagement, and cost per engagement (CPE) for sponsored content.
7. Content Metrics
The content is the lifeline of a blog. You write for your readers, and knowing how they view your blog and its content is important. This is determined by their comments, engagement, and social shares.
You can also measure this by the number of page views, unique visitors, and returning visitors.
Furthermore, assess the time visitors spend on your blog and the bounce rate, as it indicates if the content matches readers’ expectations. This analysis shows how your audience resonates with your blog’s content and its relevance.
8. Conversion Rate
If your blog has actionable content, you’ll need to know the proportion of visitors who took the desired actions. They could be email sign-ups, subscriptions, or product purchases.
Conversion rate metrics measure the conversion rate per channel and the conversion rate per landing page. It also measures the conversion per device viewers use (desktop, mobile). They determine this by measuring your blog traffic and sources (organic, direct, referral, etc).
9. Audience
All of your blog posts are meant to please your audience. The best way to gauge their satisfaction is by analysing them. Knowing their demographics, interests, and preferences will help you understand your main audience and their needs.
The resulting information will help you identify trends and patterns among your readers. A combination of traffic metrics, engagement, and conversion rates will give you a complete picture of your audience.
10. Industry/Niche Metrics
No two blogs are the same, and neither is their measure of success. You must take into consideration that some blog metrics are industry-specific. Knowing this will help you fairly score your blog. This boils down to your blog’s niche and your target audience.
For instance, an e-commerce blog must measure its cart abandonment rate and customer lifetime value. Conversely, a healthcare blog tracks appointment bookings and social shares on health-related posts.
This implies that the specific goals of your blog should determine its metrics. This will help you progress towards your long-term objectives. Every industry has benchmarks, and you can customise your metrics if your blog niche is rare.
Also Read: How to Choose the Perfect Blogging Niche for You
Strive for Continuous Blog Improvement
You get personal satisfaction from knowing your blog is on the right track. This is why the blog metrics to track success are vital in evaluating performance.
The knowledge that comes from the analyses will increase the quality of your content and the success of your website.
What other metrics do you measure apart from those listed here? Let me know in the comments section below.