Use Your Stats to Effectively Define How Readers Find Your Blog

Right from the beginning of blogging I've used a counter that gives me stats on my visitors.  Looking back on it I find it rather funny that I honestly did not know how to use some of the stats data to help bring new visitors to my blogs.  When it comes to stats counter data there is actually a lot of information there that can help you improve your blog traffic. 

One of the first things I noticed is some of the seemingly funny ways that readers were landing on my blog.  Then as the blogs got older I recognized some terms came up over and over making those effective keywords for use in blog posts and in meta tags.  Essentially those visiting the blogs were telling me what keywords I should be using.  Some of the odder combinations to have proved to be well worth using as well.  Another thing about the search terms used to get to my blogs is they provide an amazing source of blog fodder!  A simple term like home canned green beans one of my popular keyword strings actually draws up search results for those wanting to home can green beans using non-approved or unsafe methods.  This immediately gives me the opportunity to write a blog post regarding the unsafe methods, why they are unsafe and how to properly can the green beans.  So those questions posed in searches to get to the blog are very, very useful.

The stats analyzer I use  gives me detailed information on users, time on site, referring url, entrance page, exit page and that type of thing.  This allows me to narrow down on where I need to do a bit more work.  For example if the time spent on my blog is low meaning my bounce rate is high it means I need to focus on doing things that will keep readers on my blog longer.  Now this data does have to be taken with a grain of salt since blogs by default tend to have a higher bounce rate than regular websites.  That may mean adding a poll or more interlinks in my posts as well as posting a bit more interesting content is needed to help keep readers on my blogs longer.  Quite often I will go through my stats visiting referring urls of blogs and leaving a comment on their blogs as a way of thanking them for sending me traffic.  It is a great way to discover who is actually linking to your blog as well.  Entrance and exit pages give a good clue as to popular pages.  I also use Google Analytics in addition to my basic stats analyzer taking advantage of anything I can use to help make my blogs better.

Garden Gnome
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