blog
Do you know whether your blog is a success? More often than not, the frequency and quality of your posts result in a positive or negative trend in viewers, traffic, and other factors. Many bloggers don’t know when to increase the frequency with which they post on their sites because they don’t know what to look for in their analytics. Here are five signs that your blog is in danger, all of which you can check with Google Analytics.
Number of Page Views and Pages Viewed by a Visitor Reducing
When working with analytics for a blog, page views are one of your primary metrics. The number views can tell you just how many times, in a set time period, people looked at one of the pages on your blog. The pages with higher views are usually what visitors find most interesting. You should generally increase how often you post on these pages and link these posts to other pages on the same blog.
The other metric is called Pages Per View, and is the number of pages on your blog visited by any one reader. This is a good indicator of whether your blog is interesting overall. Use the most read post’s topic and niche as a foundation and start sending out posts of this type more often. As popularity rises, increase the frequency with which you post other topics too, and link to them from the top post. If you notice a reduction in either of these metrics over time, you need to practice virtual first aid immediately to patch it up.
Decrease in Blog Traffic Over Time
A very good sign that your blog is dying is a reduction in site traffic. This metric is one of the easiest to read and understand. It tells you how many new people visit your site in a certain time period. It also tells how many of them are returning readers. Both types of traffic tell you something about the success of your site, and give you an idea of how often you should post. If your returning visitors are dwindling, go back to your page and post view analytics to determine which types of posts are needed in greater amounts.
Social Media Shares Reducing
If you already have a social media share button on your blog, then good for you. Use this tool to check how often people share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. If your posts aren’t being shared often enough, your blog is on a downhill path and needs to be revived as soon as possible. You need to post more often about topics people will want to talk about on social media.
Referrals Not High Enough
Unlike social media shares, referrals are backlinks from other blogs to your own. If you aren’t getting enough of these, your blog is dying. Post more often on topics that interest readers and other bloggers. Work on building backlinks by guest-posting on other sites, or asking for links to be made.
Comments from Readers are Negative
Always check the comments your readers make on your posts. Whether happy or angry, a larger number of comments show that that specific topic is of interest. Use this to your advantage, and post more frequently on those topics, because they encourage more comments. Don’t forget to link to other posts on your blog to improve their popularity too.
Check your readers’ comments, their shares, how interesting they find your posts and pages, and your traffic statistics regularly and often. Work on building better links, getting more referrals, and reducing your bounce rate over time. If you notice any of the five signs of a dying blog mentioned here, it is high time you thought about improving the frequency, quality, and niche of your blog posts.