How to Track your Blog using Google Analytics: A Beginner’s Guide
Here’s how you can track the most important Google Analytics metrics
When you use GA to track your blog, you’ll see data like how visitors came to your blog, how much time they spent, and which blogs they visited.
It can be a bit overwhelming for a complete newbie. So, this is a guide for you.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics offers you robust tools to track your blog traffic and understand your visitors.
With Google Analytics certification, you will get a better picture of your website, and it analyzes your site’s data and create reports.
Google Analytics certification is not the only platform you should know of; you can also check out Google AdWords certification.
Why Track Your Blog’s Sources?
There are many beneficial reasons to track your blog’s source.
1. Understand Your Visitors Better
Tracking blog traffic sources can help you figure out where your visitors are coming from and which platforms, they use so you can learn more about them and send them targeted messages.
2. You Can Measure Your Market Campaigns
If the goal of a campaign is to generate traffic, you can track the different traffic sources to see how effective it is.
3. For Best Results, Concentrate on Channels
You can improve your results by concentrating more on the channel that brought the most traffic to your blog.
4. Topics for New Content
People from various channels may be interested in different topics, so reviewing your traffic sources for each blog will help you come up with new content ideas.
5. Identify Traffic Gap
You can look for channels that aren’t performing well and can optimize them.
The number of visitors to your blog is simply one of the points you should measure.
You must be wondering, “why’s that?”
If you’re evaluating your blog’s performance purely on its number of visitors, then you’re neglecting the other points that provide context to the blog data.
For Example — One of your blogs has 100,000 visitors, and it may seem like a success, but there is a possibility that your visitors left your blog within 15 seconds, or they didn’t view any other blog, or the converted rate is zero.
Will you still consider this a success?
Well, the majority of bloggers would say no.
The goal is not simply about getting users to see your pages.
It’s to get people interested in the content you’ve created, to stimulate their interest in whatever you’re offering, and to encourage them to convert or, at the very least, return to read more of your blogs.
Also Read — 7 Actionable Tips to Optimize Your AdWords Video Campaign
How to Track Your Blog Using Google Analytics:
With the help of this, you will get the information you need to put your traffic data into context, allowing you to make more knowledgeable and data-driven blogs.
1. Pageview
In Google Analytics, traffic on your blog represents page views, and it means how many times your blog has been viewed.
In Google Analytics, there are numerous paths to look for pageview data.
One way is [Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages]. You’ll get to see pageview information for the entire site page.
And if your blogs are in the sub-folder, like “/blog/,” then [Behavior -> Site Content -> Content Drilldown] and then select on the blog sub-folder, and it will show the pageview information for your blog.
2. Average Time on Page
On the same report that shows pageviews, you will also see the dwell time (also known as average time on page) for your blogs; it will tell you how much time your readers spend on your blog.
The average time spent on the page shows whether or not visitors are reading your blog.
For Example — if a blog takes 20 minutes to read, but in Google Analytics, it shows only a 1-minute average time on page for that blog, that indicates readers do not like the post. The reasons behind this are as follows:
- The introduction is unappealing.
- The title was deceiving.
- There are too many interruptions.
- The page opens too slowly.
But if it shows the highest average time on the page, then you can search for the latest trends, the length of the posts, the subject matter, the graphics they put, and the source of the article.
With all that information, you can create more similar content for the future.
3. Average Page Per Session
In Google Analytics, Average Pages Per Session indicates your visitor history, i.e., how many pages they have seen on your site.
But if you’re a blogger, your main interest should be finding out your visitor’s behavior, like how many other pages they are viewing after entering your particular blog.
You can get this data/information in Google Analytics by selecting [Behaviour -> Site Content -> Landing Pages].
The landing pages report displays you the pages users looked at first when they came to your site, as well as stats like average session time, bounce rate, and pages per session for each of those pages:
4. Returning Visitors
If people spend a lot of time reading your blog, it’s a good sign, that means you’ve written something useful.
People mentioning your blog posts several times is evidence that your content is helpful and high-quality. Returning visitors provide you with this information.
Finding repeat visitors for your blog in Google Analytics is a little more complicated than finding some of the other things on this list, but it’s well worth the effort to gain the information you need. Here’s how:
- [Navigate to Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages]
- Select the [Secondary Dimension] dropdown, and then click on [User Type]
This will add a new row to your report that lists the user type (new or returning) for every page in your list.
After that, arrange your list by pages to discover how many new visits vs. returning visitors each of your blogs has. Click the Page-header to do so.
This arranges all of the information by page so you can see new and returning visitors.
If any blog post’s returning visitor data is missing, it signifies your content has only engaged new visitors, and no one has returned to view it again.
5. Goal Conversion Rate
Google Analytics’ goal is to measure the activities of our visitors after reading your blog.
Sign up for your newsletter, register for a free trial or freemium edition of your product, complete a form or make a purchase are all examples of this.
In Google Analytics, the Goal Conversion Rate will show the number of visitors who take action on your blog.
This is the most important one among the five points because it demonstrates how your blog contributes to bigger division and company goals.
It would be best if you first created a goal in Google Analytics in order to track your conversion rate.
Once you have set up your goal and give google analytics time to gather all the information, navigate to [Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages] to see your goal conversion rate for the various blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Google Analytics available for free?
A: Yes, small businesses can use Google Analytics for free. You can utilize the service as often as possible and link up to 100 sites to one account.
If you require a more detailed analysis, you will need to upgrade Google Analytics to tier-based pricing.
Q: Is it challenging to get a Google Analytics certification?
A: It’s not difficult to get Google Analytics Certification.
It will take a few days for you to become familiar with the system and learn how to get the most basic information.
However, you will need a lot of practice to get the most out of it.
Q: What is the part of Google Analytics in digital marketing certification?
A: Running a website without statistics is like being in a submarine without sonar. You have no clue where you’re heading, and you’re probably drowning.
Fortunately, Google Analytics is available to assist you in correctly guiding your company. Google Analytics and AdWords Certification without Google plays a vital role in the digital marketing course.
Q: What’s new in Google Analytics 4?
A: Google Analytics 4 is a new version of the well-known Google service. You can track your site and apps separately or simultaneously with it.
This latest system can track a single user throughout their journey, allowing you to understand how each customer behaves.
