How to analyze your blogs user behavior metrics
A well-defined content strategy and constant analysis of your blogs user behavior metrics are the basis for your post’s effectiveness. Doing so lets you achieve the goals, get readers, reach a wider audience, and generate more leads.
Measuring your blog’s user behavior metrics and evaluating this data allows you to find potential issues that you pay attention to improve your content. So the importance of doing it right and knowing what those are for you to perform and analyze this data correctly. Besides, in this post, I explain how to make measurements with Google Analytics, a tool widely used for its potential to improve the reach of your content marketing.
Blogs User behavior metrics
Optimizing your website for conversions and traffic isn’t always easy. Many factors are outside your control – but user behavior metrics can indicate how you are doing. These are great metrics to track the success of blog posts.
You can get creative with user behavior metrics. You can define your metric and measure it against the number of visitors you have in a given period.
Your blog user’s behavior refers to what your audience does once they click on any link that directs them to your posts. The moment your website is loaded with the information they’re interested in.
In this regard, one may ask:
- Do you read all the content?
- Do you click anywhere on the page?
- Do you quickly access and leave the page?
That’s why here I detail the metrics related to this behavior on your blog.
Essential User Behavior Metrics for Analyzing Your Website
| User Metrics | Analysis | Rating | Supporting Study | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pageviews | Total number of pages viewed by visitors on your site. | High | Google Analytics: Behavior Overview Report | https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-analytics-behavior-reports/ |
| Bounce Rate | Percentage of visitors who left your website after viewing only one page. | High | Google Analytics: Bounce Rate | https://klientboost.com/analytics/bounce-rate-google-analytics/ |
| Time on Page | Average amount of time users spend on a page. | High | User Behavior Metrics Affect Rankings: Improve | https://ignitevisibility.com/user-behavior-metrics-affect-rankings-improve/ |
| Click-Through Rate | The percentage of users who clicked on a link, call-to-action, or advertisement. | High | The Ultimate Guide to Click-Through Rates | https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-terms/click-through-rate |
| Conversion Rate | The percentage of users who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase. | High | Understanding Conversion Rates | https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/conversion-rate/ |
| Engagement Metrics | The measurement of user engagement through social shares, comments, likes, and followers. | High | User Engagement Metrics: The Most Important Ones | https://www.parlor.io/blog/user-engagement-metrics/ |
The table above shows user behavior metrics commonly used to analyze website performance. These metrics include pageviews, bounce rate, time on page, click-through rate, conversion rate, and engagement metrics.
Pageviews represent the total number of pages viewed on a website.
Bounce rate indicates the percentage of visitors who left after viewing only one page.
Time on page shows the average time users spend on a page.
Click-through rate measures the percentage of users who clicked on a link, call-to-action, or advertisement.
Conversion rate is the percentage of users who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase, while engagement metrics measure user engagement through social shares, comments, likes, and followers.
These metrics are rated as high in importance and are supported by studies such as Google Analytics: Behavior Overview Report, Google Analytics: Bounce Rate, User Behavior Metrics Affect Rankings: Improve, The Ultimate Guide to Click-Through Rates, Understanding Conversion Rates, and User Engagement Metrics: The Most Important Ones.
Pageviews
A pageview is a single visit to a web page. Pageviews are usually not equal to sessions. A person browsing one web page, then going back and forth between a couple more pages, will be counted as 2 pageviews. Pageviews are generally expressed as the equivalent of a single printed page. Still, various metrics for website traffic may differ depending on the type of content published (such as blogs, e-commerce sites, etc.).
Page Views relate to how often a specific content or webspace within your blog has been uploaded. This metric gives you information about visits compared to other posts simultaneously. For example, if you post two positions, you can look at each post’s views and analyze why you have more traffic on each other.
Regardless of the number of new or recurring sessions or users visiting web pages, this metric is considered. Accessing a post 5 times in the same session will count the 5 visits without considering that it is the same reader.
To measure Page Views, use Google Analytics and go to the Behavior section. Then you have to go to Site Content and finally click All Pages. Once there, you can use this tool’s filter to observe specific URLs, view unique views, etc.
New and recurring visitors
New and recurring visitors represent a metric that shows you the relationship between users who visit a specific page of your blog for the first time and those who return. In this way, new readers are potential leads, and the returning ones represent those who like what they read.
To measure this metric, go to the Google Analytics platform and click on the Audience section. Then you must select the Behavior tab and click New vs. Recurring.
Pages/session or Depth of visit
The Depth of the visit represents the average number of pages viewed in a single session, starting with the home page on which they land. If you reach one of your posts from a link on any website, the account begins from that section of your blog.
This indicator is interesting because you know the degree of commitment readers who visit your content have. So if it’s too low, it represents disinterest for some reason, such as low quality of your blog design, slowness, insufficient information, or anything that prevents them from moving forward.
You can use this metric to analyze the most visited pages from a given section. This allows you to improve them to achieve conversions and satisfy your users.
To measure this metric, go to Google Analytics, locate the Audience and Behavior section, and click Engagement. Then keep you from choosing the number of pages per session, and you do this by finding the distribution tab.
Traffic sources
Traffic sources represent the channels that most capture visitors to your blog. This metric helps you evaluate which channels are best for you and which to discard.
If you want to measure this parameter to Acquisition, then click All traffic and last click Channels. Using this indicator well, you discover the most powerful channels to invest your resources and time.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate is an important metric that shows how many visitors left your site instantly and never returned. It is calculated by the ratio of total page views and total unique visits or counting the number of pages each visitor visits and dividing by the number of unique visitors. Regarding online marketing, users with a higher bounce rate are 2x less likely to convert into customers than those who stick around.
The bounce rate refers to visitors who leave your blog without visiting any other section. To learn about this value, visit the behavior section, Site Content, in Google Analytics, and click All Pages.
Average time spent on the page
The average time spent on the page is a fact that allows you to find different readers who are committed to your content and those who are not. You can decipher those who carefully read what you post from the curious. However, the time in some sections of your blog is significantly lower than in others. For example, reading a Mission or Vision page as a post of 1500 or 2000 words is not the same.
In this case, you should evaluate your blog’s websites with less time to stay than those with a higher value. It would help if you determined what strategy you can apply to improve those and to do this. You must analyze issues such as length, format, theme, etc. Evaluate that they have the best performance sections and apply them to which you want to optimize.
To measure this parameter, go to Analytics, visit the Behavior area, then Site content, and click All Pages. If you do it right, you can get the value you need to give your users a better blog experience.
Unique visitors
Unique visitors are a metric for new users who visit a specific section of your blog. Unlike Page Views, this gives you more detailed information that indicates how much you’re public.
To measure this value, open Google Analytics and go to the Audience section. Then it would help if you went to Overview and Top Row. In this case, you must select the tab second from the left in the program interface and choose the date you want to analyze.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the number of unique visitors performing the desired action divided by the total unique visits. The desired action might be a sale or a click on the affiliate link in affiliate marketing terminology. Conversion rates can be calculated for individual marketing channels, the whole online community or website, and extended periods, like year or quarter. These are important to consider if you want to define your affiliate marketing success rate and improve it over time.
Conversion rate has become a buzzphrase in the affiliate marketing world. Affiliates need to understand how important it is to convert customers as much as possible while on your website. This article will explain why the conversion rate is so important and ways of integrating affiliate marketing for success into your website.
Pages per session
The pages per session parameter indicates page views in a single session and determines if the content is well organized. This lets you know if your audience can feel motivated to discover new sections of your blog.
Open Google Analytics and go to Audience, Overview, and Visit Depth. If you analyze this value well, you optimize the internal link-building or apply what you think is appropriate to improve your readers’ experience.
Analyzing User Behavior Metrics
Analyzing your blog’s user behavior metrics is a great way to identify trends, understand user preferences and discover problems. Here are some of the most common ways you can analyze your data:
- Identifying trends: If you have multiple posts with similar titles and content, it may be helpful to see how they perform relative to each other. For example, if one post receives more traffic than another but has lower conversion rates (e.g., leads), then perhaps there’s something about its title or content that isn’t resonating with users as well as it could be. You could then determine whether changing those elements would help improve conversions on that particular piece of content in future iterations (or even other pieces).
- Understanding user preferences: If one type of content performs better than another type overall but has lower engagement rates within specific segments such as gender or age groupings (e.,g., men vs. women), then this might mean there’s something those groups’ preferences make them less likely to engage with specific types/genres/topics, etc.
Tools for Analyzing User Behavior Metrics
You can use Google Analytics to track user behavior on your website. It’s a free tool that you can use to see how people are using your site, what they’re looking at, and how long they stay on each page.
Google Analytics has a lot of helpful information about traffic sources the visitors come from), demographics (who the visitors are), engagement (how long they spent on your site), conversions (what pages people viewed before they converted), and much more!
You should also consider using Hotjar or Crazy Egg to get more detailed information about specific pages/sections of your site. These tools allow you to see heat maps of where users click most often on each page so that you know exactly where improvements need to be made!
Interpreting User Behavior Metrics
Now that you understand how user behavior metrics work, let’s discuss how to use them.
- Understand the data. To make sense of your site’s user behavior metrics and make decisions based on them, it’s essential to understand what they mean in terms of your business goals. For example: If someone visits your blog but doesn’t subscribe or comment (or even click on any links), that could indicate that something about the content or design isn’t working for them–and therefore needs improvement.
- Set goals for each metric category based on what’s most important for your blog at this stage in its development (i.e., traffic vs. engagement). These goals will help guide future decisions about content creation, monetization efforts, etcetera!
Using User Behavior Metrics to Improve Your Blog
- Optimizing content: User behavior metrics can help you understand which topics are most popular with readers and what posts they prefer. This information will help you optimize your content strategy so that it’s more likely to resonate with your target audience. For example, if you notice that a particular post is receiving a lot of engagement (likes, comments, shares), it may be worthwhile to write more like that in the future–or at least consider making similar posts more frequently.
- Improving user experience: User behavior metrics can also provide insight into how people interact with your blog’s design elements, such as navigation menus or image galleries. Suppose there are any parts of your site where users tend not to click on links or buttons (such as social sharing buttons). In that case, this could indicate that those features need redesigning to become more usable for visitors from different devices (e-readers vs. smartphones).
Common Mistakes When Analyzing User Behavior Metrics
- Ignoring data.
- Relying too heavily on one metric.
- Over-optimizing.
FAQs
Conclusion
The user behavior metrics are a great way to see how your visitors interact with your blog. You can use this data to improve your site by making changes that will increase the number of people who sign up for a newsletter or make purchases on your site.
Knowing user behavior metrics on your blog is essential because it lets you determine if something fails to optimize it and attract more visitors to your site. Use tools like Google Analytics and quickly analyze each metric described here.
References
- Google Analytics: Behavior Overview Report. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-analytics-behavior-reports/
- Google Analytics: Bounce Rate. Retrieved from https://klientboost.com/analytics/bounce-rate-google-analytics/
- User Behavior Metrics Affect Rankings: Improve. Retrieved from https://ignitevisibility.com/user-behavior-metrics-affect-rankings-improve/
- The Ultimate Guide to Click-Through Rates. Retrieved from https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-terms/click-through-rate
- Understanding Conversion Rates. Retrieved from https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/conversion-rate/
- User Engagement Metrics: The Most Important Ones. Retrieved from https://www.parlor.io/blog/user-engagement-metrics/
I’m Alexios Papaioannou, a word wizard, and affiliate marketing ninja with a decade of experience crafting killer blog posts that captivate and convert. Specializing in affiliate marketing, content writing, analytics, and social media. My secret weapon is a love of running that boosts my creativity and energy. Let’s create epic content together!
