{"id":2908,"date":"2025-08-17T09:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T09:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.todhost.com\/blog\/?p=2908"},"modified":"2025-08-19T07:16:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T07:16:40","slug":"7-google-analytic-metrics-you-need-to-monitor-for-your-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todhost.com\/blog\/7-google-analytic-metrics-you-need-to-monitor-for-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Google Analytic Metrics You Need to Monitor for Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Analytics is an amazing tool that can help you\u00a0optimize your blog posts<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for\u00a0conversion<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0search engine presence<\/a><\/strong>. If you take blogging seriously, then you need to know how well your blog posts are reaching your audience, and what kind of response they\u2019re eliciting.\u00a0Google Analytics<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is an amazing free tool that can help you do just that. In this post, we look at some Google Analytic metrics you need to track to measure how your website or blog is performing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How Does Google Analytic Metrics Impact Website Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

SEO Facts Revealed on Google Webmaster Central<\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is Google Analytics?<\/h2>\n

Google Analytics<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is software created and provided by Google that tracks how\u00a0people find and interact with websites. It\u2019s free to set up and use. And once you have it set up on your website, you gain access to a wealth of data about how many people are visiting your website, how they found you, and their behavior once they\u2019re on it.<\/p>\n

For anyone that has specific goals in mind for their blog, it\u2019s an invaluable\u00a0tool for measuring<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0how well your work is paying off.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the best way to gain ideas for how to do better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to Get Google Analytics Set Up<\/h2>\n

Adding\u00a0Google Analytics to your website<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is one of the first steps new website owners should take. Luckily it\u2019s a fairly simple process.<\/p>\n

First, set up your Google Analytics account. You\u2019ll either need to use an existing Gmail account, or set a new one up. Once logged in, the tool will walk you through the steps of getting set up.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics will then provide you a tracking code to add to your website. You can add this directly to the HTML of your web pages immediately after the <head> tag.<\/p>\n

Or if you have a WordPress site, you can go the easier route of using a plugin like\u00a0MonsterInsights<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0ExactMetrics<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to add the code to the site for you.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t have data right away after installing Google Analytics\u2014it doesn\u2019t retroactively show website analytics from before when the tracking code was added. But it will start collecting data immediately, so it won\u2019t be long before you start to gain meaningful blogging insights.<\/p>\n

7 Valuable Blogging Metrics to Monitor<\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve had Google Analytics long enough to start collecting data, you may be overwhelmed by just how\u00a0much<\/em>\u00a0information the tool provides. It\u2019s a lot!<\/p>\n

Which metrics you prioritize will depend on the primary goals you have for your blog. If you haven\u2019t clarified your goals yet, take some time to do that now. But most bloggers will have a few main metrics in common to track.<\/p>\n

1. Blog traffic numbers<\/h3>\n

Traffic is a prerequisite for any other goal you might have for your blog. People have to find and read your blog before it can accomplish anything else. Google Analytics puts your blog\u2019s traffic data front and center. As soon as you\u2019re logged in, it\u2019s in the chart at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

You can see at a glance how your traffic has trended over recent weeks or months, and see both how many unique visitors you\u2019ve had (Users) and how many total visits people have made to your website (Sessions).<\/p>\n

Traffic numbers are an important indicator of how well your marketing is working. This is one of the main metrics that will help you measure the success of your efforts in\u00a0search engine optimization (SEO),<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0social promotion, and any paid advertising you do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A detailed guide to web page optimization for better ranking<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Guide to Website Optimization for Mobile Devices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Top blog pages or articles<\/h3>\n

Scroll further down the page, and you\u2019ll see a snapshot of which pages and blog posts are getting the most visits.<\/p>\n

To get more detailed information, click on Pages Report. This shows you which of your blog posts are attracting the most traffic. At a glance, this provides information about the posts your audience is most interested in.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t tell you\u00a0why\u00a0<\/em>these are your top posts. For that, you\u2019ll need to do some human analysis to try to figure out what about these pages makes them popular. This list can help you gain insights into the types of topics your audience cares most about, the types of headlines and keywords that work best, and what marketing tactics are yielding the most success for your blog.<\/p>\n

3. Referral sources<\/h3>\n

Knowing how much traffic you have is nice, but Google Analytics goes one step further and tells you how you got it. In the Acquisition section of Google Analytics, you get a snapshot of how your traffic is divided by a few main types of referral sources.<\/p>\n

For each channel, you can click for more detail. For example, clicking on Social will give you a breakdown on which social channels your traffic is coming from, and what pages they\u2019re clicking on. Clicking on Organic will provide some information on which keywords people are using to find you (although much of that information is obscured), and which search engine your visitors used.<\/p>\n

Digging into this data can reveal more useful information. For example, if you see that a lot of organic traffic is coming to a particular post, you can quickly check whether it\u2019s ranking for your target keywords. And looking at the data in the Referral section will reveal other websites that have added links back to your site, and which of those backlinks are most valuable for driving traffic your way.<\/p>\n

4. Time on page<\/h3>\n

You don\u2019t just want people to find your blog posts. You want them to\u00a0read<\/em>\u00a0them. Ideally all the way through to the end.<\/p>\n

For bloggers, that\u2019s a real measure of quality\u2014do people like what you\u2019re saying enough to read the whole thing? Google Analytics can help you figure that out with their Time on Page metric.<\/p>\n

You can see this in a few places within Google Analytics. In the Behavior Overview page, Average Time on Page is included in the metrics below the graph. You can also choose it in the dropdown menu to be the metric you view in the graph.<\/p>\n

In these spots, what you\u2019re seeing is the average time people spend on a page across the whole website. That provides a snapshot of whether people who land on your website are sticking around long enough to really take in what\u2019s on a page.<\/p>\n

But for bloggers, it\u2019s more valuable to see that information broken down by blog post. You can find that in the Behavior section, by clicking on Site Content, and All Pages. Average Time on Page is in the list of metrics provided for each page here. This information will give you a pretty good idea of whether or not people are taking time to read individual blog posts on your website.<\/p>\n

5. Behavior flow<\/h3>\n

Most of your visitors will find the information they need in the first blog post they read, and move on. But some will like what they see enough to want to read more. The Behavior Flow section shows you the path those visitors typically take once on your site.<\/p>\n

This provides a visual representation of where your visitors most often start, and which pages they head to from there. It will help you determine whether people are using the internal links you include in your blog posts and which ones they click on.<\/p>\n

And it reveals which pages are most successfully getting visitors to stick around. A blog post that makes visitors want to check out other pages on your website may be more valuable to you than one that gets more traffic, but only from visitors that never go beyond that page.<\/p>\n

6. New vs. returning blog visitors<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s a success if someone reads and finds value in one of your blog posts once. But the most successful blogs are the ones that readers like enough to return to time and again. You can see how many of your visitors have come back for more in the Audience Overview section.<\/p>\n

On the right side of the page, you\u2019ll see a pie graph that shows the percentage of visitors that are new versus returning. To see the specific number of returning visitors, simply scroll over that section in the pie graph.<\/p>\n

7. Conversion numbers<\/h3>\n

If you started a blog to help promote your business, then knowing that people can find, read, and like your stuff isn\u2019t necessarily enough. You also want to track if it\u2019s helping you meet your business goals.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics lets you set up conversion tracking to that end. The Conversions section of Google Analytics doesn\u2019t track data automatically, you have to take time to tell it what conversions matter to you first. But once you\u2019ve done that, you can learn how often your blog posts lead to actions like email signups or form submissions. That helps you connect your blog results to your larger business strategy.<\/p>\n

8. Page Indexing<\/h3>\n

This provide good insights into the indexing status of your page. This metric will be particularly useful in understanding why some pages are not being indexed.<\/p>\n

The “excluded by noindex tag” helps website managers discover and address why a page may not appear in the Google search. One of the good side of the Google search console is that it reports critical issues that affect page indexing and gives some clues to help fix it.<\/p>\n

Monitoring the page index status will help you understand if your website pages are being indexed or if they are not being indexed as they should. Take note that your website wouldn’t rank well for targeted keywords if its content are not indexed in the first place.<\/p>\n

Free But Mighty<\/h2>\n

People say you get what you pay for, but Google Analytics packs a ton of value into a free tool.<\/p>\n

Whether your blog is about helping you find a community of people that share your interests, a way to promote your business, or designed to help you build a personal brand, Google Analytics is just what you need to track your progress and learn how to best appeal to your audience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alternatives to Google Analytics<\/p>\n

Google Analytics is definitely a giant in the industry. However, combining its metrics with some other analytic software can unravel more power for the search engine advantage you desire. Here are a few Google Analytic alternatives you should consider.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Woopra<\/a><\/h3>\n

Woopra focuses on four main categories of data: people, journeys, trends, and retention. The idea is to understand user actions to define their customer journey across multiple touchpoints so that you can increase engagement and retention. Woopra offers one-click integrations with your other systems such as Salesforce, Google Ads, and more so that you can get all your data in one place.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Inspectlet<\/a><\/h3>\n

The idea behind Inspectlet is that it approaches analytics from the perspective of figuring out why visitors are doing what they\u2019re doing instead of simply what they\u2019re doing. While Google Analytics is great at telling you how long users stay on your website, what the bounce rate is, and more, Inspectlet looks to dive deeper.<\/p>\n

Inspectlet brings session recording, dynamic heatmaps, A\/B testing, form analytics, error logging, and much more to the table. Its core functionality is recording visitor sessions to analyze all actions taken, specifically with the mouse. This can then be processed as a visitor session video, which can let you see exactly which parts of your website receive attention.<\/p>\n

Inspectlet\u2019s free version can record 1,000 sessions and A\/B test visitors, and 10,000 page views per month. There is a max of one website and one month of storage, and the free version supports session playbacks, heatmaps, and mobile devices.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Heap<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

Heap isn\u2019t exactly like Google Analytics, but it\u2019s kind of like the Google Analytics of product analytics. Heap\u2019s selling point is that while Google Analytics was created when websites consisted mostly of static pages, Heap is more geared towards tracking analytics for buttons, features, CTAs, and user flows.<\/p>\n

Heap\u2019s free version offers up to 5,000 sessions per month, three months of data history, a single user license and project, and Silver-level support. All of their paid plans also include a 14-day free trial and unlimited virtual events.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Clicky<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While Clicky isn\u2019t the most comprehensive solution, it definitely deserves its spot as a simple, entry-level analytics software.<\/p>\n

The main draw to Clicky is its intuitive interface, which makes all of its reporting easy to digest. The homepage offers a glance at your visitors, actions, bounce rate, uptime, Twitter and search analytics, and more. There are many more views available on the Spy, Visitors, Content, Searches, Links, Platforms, Locale, Goals, Campaigns, and other pages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Final Words<\/h2>\n

That’s it. Hope it made some happy reading. Do drop your comments and suggestions on what you thin about Google Analytics metrics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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