Metal Mummy

I’ve been meaning to write a brief post about Google Analytics for a while. I’m by no means an expert on the subject, but I think I know enough about it to understand what a blogger needs out of the software. We don’t need to know as much of the information as businesses do (for the purpose of SEO) – we just need the stuff the PR companies ask for when they ask about our stats and also enough to have a little nosey if we so wish.

I’m just going to briefly run through the different parts of the main GA dashboard so that you know where to look and what to look for, to find the interesting bits. To be fair, Google Analytics is fascinating. You can find so much out, but a lot of that is through exploring and finding different reports etc. once you know the basics.

When you sign in to Google Analytics and you click on the URL of the site you want to analyse, you load a “Dashboard” screen. From here, you can see most (if not all) the stuff you will need to make note of.

This is where you can find the stuff you need for when the PRs and brands ask you for stats. Just to give you a quick rundown of what you can see, we’ll start with the top graph. This is a graph of visitors to your site over the recent month. You can change the dates by clicking on the date range in the top right corner. If you click it, a calendar will pop up. If you just want to compare to the previous month, you can click “compare to past” and apply – this will overlay a new graph on top of the existing one for you to compare site usage.

If you want to use custom dates, do so by clicking the first date of the range you want to look at, and the last date of the range. Then apply. This will select the date range and show you the graph and stats accordingly.

The next part of the dashboard is Site Usage

In this section, you will find the main selection of stuff you may need to know about:

Visits – the number of visits your site has received in the current month
Page Views – the number of pages those visitors have viewed in the time scale
Pages/Visit – the average number of pages clicked on per visit. This isn’t necessarily important for a lot of bloggers, seeing as their posts are all on the same homepage. It does indicate the number of other pages people are viewing though, such as the about & disclosure pages.
Bounce Rate – this is the percentage of visitors that enter your site and leave without so much as a wave. They don’t stick around to read anything because they know they have landed on a site they aren’t interested in. These guys could have found your site through a search engine or something, trying to find an answer to their search term and not finding it in your site, so leave again.
Av. Time Spent on Site – Pretty self explanatory. It gives an average amount of time that the visitor is spending on site. Obviously, the longer it is, the more interested in your site they are. Unless they came into your site, and fell asleep before exiting because it was that boring…
New Visits – the percentage of visitors in that month that are newbies to your site and that have never found you before.

PR companies and brands commonly want to know:

- Page Views per month – this is the pageviews value
- Visits per month – this is the visits value
- Absolute Unique Visitors per month – this is the visitors value in the next section of the Dashboard

Visitors Overview

This basically gives you more insight into your visitors. The value on the dashboard screen is the number of visitors that have been to your site in the past month that are absolutely unique and can be one of the first things a PR or company ask you for. After all, they want to know about the scope of your site and how much reach your site has. This is the value you give them when they ask you for your unique visitors.

If you click on the “view report” link at the bottom of this section, it will take you through to a more detailed description of your visitors, as well as a recap of all the stuff you found in the “site usage” part of the dashboard. It shows you what days these unique visitors stopped by and also looks into the browsers your visitors use as well as giving you a link to the “map overlay” which tells you where in the world your visitors are. This map can also be seen on the dashboard. Interesting, but pretty pointless when you know your main demographic is UK parents.

Traffic Source Overview

Back on the dashboard page, you will then see Traffic Source Overview, in the form of a pie chart. This tells you what percentage of visitors found you through:

- Referring sites – another site that has your link, such as in a blog hop, a meme, or a blogroll. This also includes any link URLs you may send through Twitter of Facebook. Basically, this is any link to your site that someone clicks to get there.
- Search Engines - using search words to flag up your site, such as metal mummy to find mine
- Direct Traffic – typing in your URL directly into the address bar
- Other – Usually through feed subscription

If you click on the “view report” link in this part, it will take you through to a more detailed look at your top traffic sources, such as the referral sites people found your link through and the top search terms that were used in that particular month to find your site on Google etc.

Content Overview

The final part of the dashboard is your content overview. Basically, this is a description of your most popular posts and pages over that month. When it just says ‘/’ that means your homepage. Anything else is explanatory.

If you click on the “view report” link in this part, you will go through to a more complex look at what content your visitors have viewed. It also looks at how many people have viewed that content, how long they stayed on the site and how many pages they flicked through before they left. All very complex but gives you a chance to have a nose. It’s not all that useful for the purpose of a blogger. Or at least, I don’t think so.

That’s a rough overview. At the end of the day, as a mummy blogger, I would have thought the main thing is to write for you. Who did you originally start this site up for? If the answer is you and your family, then stats shouldn’t matter at all. If you get opportunities to review products or attend events etc, then good for you. You will need Google Analytics to provide information to the person asking for it. Just try not obsess over your stats. Look at them when you need to; when someone asks for them. They shouldn’t matter any other time. It’s definitely nice to see lovely big numbers, but don’t judge how you are writing and your content on how many views you get that month. The only person that matters is you. High viewing figures are a bonus.