Want to know what I know about you? Are you a marketing or data nerd? Or would you like to learn how people use Google Analytics to enhance their websites? Then read on, because I’m going to share what I’ve learnt about readers of this blog – and what I’m going to do with that knowledge.
You’re in the UK on a laptop or desktop
UK vs Australia: who will win? In September, this blog had 182 sessions originating in the UK and 136 in Australia. Honourable mentions include the USA (28) and Canada (10). The only other countries with more than one session were Norway (3) and Vietnam (2) – I’m pretty sure I know who these people are! On average, people in the UK also spent a lot longer on the site than anyone else. About 70% of sessions used a laptop or desktop, while 23% were on mobiles (mostly iPhones) and 7% on tablets. A third of sessions used Safari, just under a quarter used Chrome or Firefox.
What am I going to do with this info?
I’m going to tell the 2% of you poor fools who are using Internet Explorer to try a better browser. Other than that, nothing. The content I’m posting is mainly focused on the UK, so it makes sense for British people to visit my site more. However, if you’re one of my Australian friends and you are annoyed that the UK is beating you at something, feel free to share my blog more frequently with your own Australian network. I won’t complain about the free publicity!
What am I going to do with this info?
I’m going to tell the 2% of you poor fools who are using Internet Explorer to try a better browser. Other than that, nothing. The content I’m posting is mainly focused on the UK, so it makes sense for British people to visit my site more. However, if you’re one of my Australian friends and you are annoyed that the UK is beating you at something, feel free to share my blog more frequently with your own Australian network. I won’t complain about the free publicity!
You clicked through from Facebook
People on social media eat more pie. The majority of visits came to the blog via social media (67% of all visits). Over half of social media referrals were from Facebook, and a third from Twitter. I initially thought my non-social media referral stats were too high (10% of all traffic), but digging down I found the majority of these people came via the blogging platform Dreamwidth, with six coming via links in comments I made on other blogs. Only three people found my site through internet searches (this amuses me, since I do SEO for other websites as part of my freelance work).
What will I do about this?
It’s interesting that Facebook is responsible for so much traffic, because I’m far more active on Twitter. This might be because Facebook updates can have a longer life-span than tweets, especially if people continue to like or comment on a post. I’ll continue linking my updates on all sites, and I’ll see if these stats change next month (my last few updates were all but ignored on Facebook).
In terms of searches/SEO, free Weebly blogs have limited options. However, they’ve just given us more metadata fields (i.e. SEO title and description – yay!), so I will fill that in for all my posts and see if it makes a difference.
What will I do about this?
It’s interesting that Facebook is responsible for so much traffic, because I’m far more active on Twitter. This might be because Facebook updates can have a longer life-span than tweets, especially if people continue to like or comment on a post. I’ll continue linking my updates on all sites, and I’ll see if these stats change next month (my last few updates were all but ignored on Facebook).
In terms of searches/SEO, free Weebly blogs have limited options. However, they’ve just given us more metadata fields (i.e. SEO title and description – yay!), so I will fill that in for all my posts and see if it makes a difference.
You like reading about food on weekdays
I think you can probably guess which days are posting days, right?
My most visited post is my first post about tea, followed by foraging in Norfolk then, almost equal third, un-beet-able chocolate mud muffins and the future of Hastings. The most popular landing pages (i.e. the page that someone first visits when they come to the site) are also tea and foraging in Norfolk, followed by Special K's brand identity and tiny houses. The days with the most traffic were, in order, Monday 1 September (Tea), Tuesday 23 September (Special K) and Tuesday 9 September (Norfolk). I suspect that the Special K post went almost as well as the tea and foraging posts because I hashtagged the bejeesus out of it on Twitter, where a few fellow social media marketers, brand nerds and comms people probably picked it up.
My least popular post was about The Secret of Kells. (What’s wrong with you ? Go and look at that cute movie!)
What does this mean for the future?
The most obvious pattern in these data is that not as many people are reading my weekend blog posts. That could be due to the content, because I promote things differently on social media on the weekend (I don’t think I do) or simply because not as many people are online.
If I was a proper marketeer, I would spend the next month only writing about food, only "sharing the love" if it was a recipe and only posting on weekdays. Instead, I am going to keep posting mainly as I have been. Then, starting in November, I will change my posting days to Monday and Thursday (instead of Tuesday and Saturday) and see if that makes a difference to my audience (i.e. you).
My least popular post was about The Secret of Kells. (What’s wrong with you ? Go and look at that cute movie!)
What does this mean for the future?
The most obvious pattern in these data is that not as many people are reading my weekend blog posts. That could be due to the content, because I promote things differently on social media on the weekend (I don’t think I do) or simply because not as many people are online.
If I was a proper marketeer, I would spend the next month only writing about food, only "sharing the love" if it was a recipe and only posting on weekdays. Instead, I am going to keep posting mainly as I have been. Then, starting in November, I will change my posting days to Monday and Thursday (instead of Tuesday and Saturday) and see if that makes a difference to my audience (i.e. you).
You’re just about to leave (if you haven’t already)
In September, my blog had a bounce rate of 70%. That means that for every 10 times someone visited the site, 7 people left it without looking at more than one page. This is a pretty high bounce rate! Most ‘real’ visitors (who stayed longer than a second or two), stayed between 1 and 10 minutes.
How can I make you stay?
I probably already have. I’ve linked to a number of other pages throughout this post, so chances are that more than a third of you have clicked on those links. Sneaky!
Actually, there are two reasons I’m not currently worried about the bounce rate. First, this is a blog – not a website that’s asking you to buy or donate or sign up to something or trying to inform you in-depth about a specific topic – so by its nature, people will be arriving to read the most recent post then leaving again. Second, it’s a pretty new blog, so there isn’t much to see. The more posts there are in each tag, the more likely people will be to stay and read them.
How can I make you stay?
I probably already have. I’ve linked to a number of other pages throughout this post, so chances are that more than a third of you have clicked on those links. Sneaky!
Actually, there are two reasons I’m not currently worried about the bounce rate. First, this is a blog – not a website that’s asking you to buy or donate or sign up to something or trying to inform you in-depth about a specific topic – so by its nature, people will be arriving to read the most recent post then leaving again. Second, it’s a pretty new blog, so there isn’t much to see. The more posts there are in each tag, the more likely people will be to stay and read them.
Do you think this stuff is interesting? Boring? Creepy? If your name is Belinda or Margot, you will probably leave a comment. There's a reasonable chance that either Emily, Dan or Mary will comment, too.
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