15 performance indicators to follow For your blog, Does your business have a blog?
Does your business have a blog? Have you ever thought about having a blog? Well let me tell you that writing blog posts or relevant content for your Personas is a key element in a strategy of Inbound Marketing. Although very important, it is not an easy task! Indeed, we need time and effort to get to write quality content. So if we must put a lot of time and money, how to know whether these efforts will be rewarded and will bring the results, return on investment? The answer is simple: it is thanks to various metrics and performance indicators that exist!
In this article, I will present 15 performance indicators to follow your blog!
First of all, have you ever heard of Inbound Marketing? Well, if this is not the case, I'll give you the definition that my colleague wrote in his article on the subject:
In this article, I will present 15 performance indicators to follow your blog!
First of all, have you ever heard of Inbound Marketing? Well, if this is not the case, I'll give you the definition that my colleague wrote in his article on the subject:
The Inbound Marketing is the creation and sharing of relevant and useful content with the world. By creating original content specifically designed to appeal to your potential customers, inbound attracts qualified leads for your business and makes them coming back for more and more until they are ready to buy ... and buy again . By publishing the right content to the right people at the right place at the right time, your initiatives become relevant and useful to your customers, not untimely. Now it's Marketing people can love.
A little clearer? With this definition, we understand a little better why a blog is paramount in your marketing strategy and why it is important to have KPIs connected thereto. Speaking of KPI (Key performance indicators), did you know that one can find in three major stages of inbound strategy or by acquisition, commitment and conversion.
Performance indicators acquisition
1. Evolution of the average number of visits to the blog
Obviously, this indicator measures changes in the average number of visits to the blog over time (September 2014 compared to September 2013 and September 2012 compared to August). This indicator will tell if there has been a trend month after month, and if there had stronger than other months. So you can draw conclusions and relying on it for months and years ahead when planning your content strategy.
2. Comparison of sources of traffic between 2 periods
This KPI will let you know what is the changing traffic sources for your blog over time. So you can know what your traffic sources: social, organic media research, referrers, email, adwords, etc. You will also know more details on these sources, which lead social media traffic, which keywords are the most successful, which sites refer your blog, and by comparing month after month. So you can know on what traffic sources put more effort and which perform best.
3. Frequency Ratio of published articles / traffic generated
This indicator will allow you to detect if there is a correlation between the frequency of published articles, and the traffic generated on the blog. So you can find out more if you publish quality articles, it brings more qualified traffic.
Ratio frequency traffic
4. Ratio frequency of articles / leads generated
This indicator will allow you to detect if there is a correlation between the frequency of articles published and the number of generated leads. So you can find out more if you publish quality articles, it brings more qualified leads.
5. Evolution of blog posts with the most views
Watching what blog posts are the most popular in terms of views, you will know what subjects, what categories, which formats, which topics are most likely to bring traffic (visits). Then, comparing the months you can know when you have a decrease in traffic, what kinds of articles to write blog to bring more traffic to your blog.
6. Changes in the average number of views per item
The most important indicator will help you understand how each individual blog post helps traffic to your blog. You can also detect if there is a correlation between the frequency and volume of blog articles, and the results generated. For example, if you publish more articles but your average number of views per item decreases, this may be due to a decline in the quality of the content. And that means that maybe you've focused to produce a large quantity of items, but you have not put enough effort and time on the quality and relevance of content compared to previous articles.
Performance indicators Commitment
7. Evolution of the average number of incoming links from blog post
Since inbound links are important to Google (or other search engine) to have a better ranking, it is important to monitor this indicator. The more you relevant incoming links, the higher your ranking on the search engines should be good, because it means these engines that your content is relevant and appreciated in the eyes of others. It should be mentioned that this KPI can also be found in the indicators acquisition.
8. Evolution of the average number of comments per blog post
This indicator will help you keep your commitment vis-à-vis your articles readers over time. Thus, if the commitment is there, you can in your blog posts, encourage your readers to post comments. How? Ask them questions, start a discussion, try new types of content, ask the readers and especially respond to their comments for the discussion to continue.
When a drive is engaged and in a review, it is much more likely to return to the blog, to read, to subscribe to the blog and share your content. It will help to increase the reach of your content and may even become an ambassador.
9. Change in average number of shares per blog post
This KPI will give you an accurate picture of what type of content performs better on what social media. Knowing the answer to this question, you will be able to adapt your posts on social media, review your strategies and know what content to promote on what social media.
10. subscription rate to the blog
This indicator will tell you how loyal readers you have and what is the growth of this number over time. Do your readers like your content so they want to come back to the blog to read? And for them, the best way to read is of course to subscribe to your blog on a daily, weekly or monthly. So you can find out which are the most likely (daily subscription) to become ambassadors of your content. Which are the most likely to share, grow your reach and say good comments about you?
Moreover, what is very interesting is that you can compare traffic from emails to your subscription content to the blog to see if there is a correlation.
11. Evolution of the time spent on the blog
What is the evolution, over time, the time spent on your blog? How visitors or leads are engaged on your blog? If the time spent is high, it is certain that you bed!
12. Evolution of the average time spent per blog post
What is the evolution, over time, the average time spent on each blog post? Again, it is a question of the commitment of your visitors and / or leads on each blog post. Thus, you will know what items perform the best in terms of commitment.
Performance indicators conversion
13. Change in the number of new leads and customers from the blog over time
Knowing how the number of new leads and customers from the blog will allow you to know the correlation between the volume and frequency of blog posts, and lead generation. Is it effective? Is lead generation strategy is to review or not?
14. Click rate on calls to action (Call-to-Action)
If you do not know already, it is important to always put a call-to-action in the bottom of your blog posts to bring visitors to landing pages created to convert visitors into leads through forms that they must fulfill. These call-to-actions can bring visitors to downloadable resources such as white papers, webinars, videos, grids, guides, etc.
This indicator will let you know if the call-to-Action (CTA) embedded at the bottom of your blog articles are effective and relevant to the article in question and whether the CTA meets a need of your visitor.
15. Conversion Rate
When I speak conversion rate as KPI, of course, be aware that there may be several. For my part, I will present two.
Before you submit, be aware of following the conversion rates over time will help you understand the impact that changes in your content strategy (blog) on your ability to convert visitors into leads and then the leads into customers.
Increase the conversion rate of visitors to leads
Follow the increased rate will help you know the relationship between the traffic on your blog or on each item and converting those visitors into leads.
Increased customers lead conversion rate
Follow the increased rate will help you know the relationship between the traffic on your blog or on each item and converting customers leads, because often leads often need to return to your site before being ready to ask a concrete action that will transform the customer.
A little clearer? With this definition, we understand a little better why a blog is paramount in your marketing strategy and why it is important to have KPIs connected thereto. Speaking of KPI (Key performance indicators), did you know that one can find in three major stages of inbound strategy or by acquisition, commitment and conversion.
Performance indicators acquisition
1. Evolution of the average number of visits to the blog
Obviously, this indicator measures changes in the average number of visits to the blog over time (September 2014 compared to September 2013 and September 2012 compared to August). This indicator will tell if there has been a trend month after month, and if there had stronger than other months. So you can draw conclusions and relying on it for months and years ahead when planning your content strategy.
2. Comparison of sources of traffic between 2 periods
This KPI will let you know what is the changing traffic sources for your blog over time. So you can know what your traffic sources: social, organic media research, referrers, email, adwords, etc. You will also know more details on these sources, which lead social media traffic, which keywords are the most successful, which sites refer your blog, and by comparing month after month. So you can know on what traffic sources put more effort and which perform best.
3. Frequency Ratio of published articles / traffic generated
This indicator will allow you to detect if there is a correlation between the frequency of published articles, and the traffic generated on the blog. So you can find out more if you publish quality articles, it brings more qualified traffic.
Ratio frequency traffic
4. Ratio frequency of articles / leads generated
This indicator will allow you to detect if there is a correlation between the frequency of articles published and the number of generated leads. So you can find out more if you publish quality articles, it brings more qualified leads.
5. Evolution of blog posts with the most views
Watching what blog posts are the most popular in terms of views, you will know what subjects, what categories, which formats, which topics are most likely to bring traffic (visits). Then, comparing the months you can know when you have a decrease in traffic, what kinds of articles to write blog to bring more traffic to your blog.
6. Changes in the average number of views per item
The most important indicator will help you understand how each individual blog post helps traffic to your blog. You can also detect if there is a correlation between the frequency and volume of blog articles, and the results generated. For example, if you publish more articles but your average number of views per item decreases, this may be due to a decline in the quality of the content. And that means that maybe you've focused to produce a large quantity of items, but you have not put enough effort and time on the quality and relevance of content compared to previous articles.
Performance indicators Commitment
7. Evolution of the average number of incoming links from blog post
Since inbound links are important to Google (or other search engine) to have a better ranking, it is important to monitor this indicator. The more you relevant incoming links, the higher your ranking on the search engines should be good, because it means these engines that your content is relevant and appreciated in the eyes of others. It should be mentioned that this KPI can also be found in the indicators acquisition.
8. Evolution of the average number of comments per blog post
This indicator will help you keep your commitment vis-à-vis your articles readers over time. Thus, if the commitment is there, you can in your blog posts, encourage your readers to post comments. How? Ask them questions, start a discussion, try new types of content, ask the readers and especially respond to their comments for the discussion to continue.
When a drive is engaged and in a review, it is much more likely to return to the blog, to read, to subscribe to the blog and share your content. It will help to increase the reach of your content and may even become an ambassador.
9. Change in average number of shares per blog post
This KPI will give you an accurate picture of what type of content performs better on what social media. Knowing the answer to this question, you will be able to adapt your posts on social media, review your strategies and know what content to promote on what social media.
10. subscription rate to the blog
This indicator will tell you how loyal readers you have and what is the growth of this number over time. Do your readers like your content so they want to come back to the blog to read? And for them, the best way to read is of course to subscribe to your blog on a daily, weekly or monthly. So you can find out which are the most likely (daily subscription) to become ambassadors of your content. Which are the most likely to share, grow your reach and say good comments about you?
Moreover, what is very interesting is that you can compare traffic from emails to your subscription content to the blog to see if there is a correlation.
11. Evolution of the time spent on the blog
What is the evolution, over time, the time spent on your blog? How visitors or leads are engaged on your blog? If the time spent is high, it is certain that you bed!
12. Evolution of the average time spent per blog post
What is the evolution, over time, the average time spent on each blog post? Again, it is a question of the commitment of your visitors and / or leads on each blog post. Thus, you will know what items perform the best in terms of commitment.
Performance indicators conversion
13. Change in the number of new leads and customers from the blog over time
Knowing how the number of new leads and customers from the blog will allow you to know the correlation between the volume and frequency of blog posts, and lead generation. Is it effective? Is lead generation strategy is to review or not?
14. Click rate on calls to action (Call-to-Action)
If you do not know already, it is important to always put a call-to-action in the bottom of your blog posts to bring visitors to landing pages created to convert visitors into leads through forms that they must fulfill. These call-to-actions can bring visitors to downloadable resources such as white papers, webinars, videos, grids, guides, etc.
This indicator will let you know if the call-to-Action (CTA) embedded at the bottom of your blog articles are effective and relevant to the article in question and whether the CTA meets a need of your visitor.
15. Conversion Rate
When I speak conversion rate as KPI, of course, be aware that there may be several. For my part, I will present two.
Before you submit, be aware of following the conversion rates over time will help you understand the impact that changes in your content strategy (blog) on your ability to convert visitors into leads and then the leads into customers.
Increase the conversion rate of visitors to leads
Follow the increased rate will help you know the relationship between the traffic on your blog or on each item and converting those visitors into leads.
Increased customers lead conversion rate
Follow the increased rate will help you know the relationship between the traffic on your blog or on each item and converting customers leads, because often leads often need to return to your site before being ready to ask a concrete action that will transform the customer.
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