Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update.
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You’ve gotten a feel for your audience and how they visit your site using Google Analytics, but you still might not have a clear idea what page is getting the most traffic. To get a good look at your content’s metrics, click on Content then All Pages in the left hand navigation menu.*
Again, you’ll get an ordered list of your most popular pages and their bouncerate percentage, average duration of visit, and other metrics your familiar with by now.
Is your Landing Page your most popular page?
Off the bat, scope out whether your most popular page is your landing page.
Chances are, your landing page (yourdomain.com) or your blog feed will be your most popular page. Why? Your landing page is the easiest URL to type directly. Your landing page is the straight-up easiest way to get to your site – chances are, people won’t remember a long string of words to get to a certain page. Your blog page is where the action happens, and its the first place many people will click when first visiting your site
If your landing page or blog isn’t your most popular page, is the #1 section of your site something that suprises you? Think about why your most popular pages got that rank – and how you can work their popularity to increase engagement on your site.
Popularity and Bouncerate
Check your most popular pages bouncerate – if your most popular page has the highest bouncerate, you’ve got a lot of work to do! As an individual page’s popularity decreases, your worry about its bouncerate goes with it. Focus on decreasing bouncerate on your most popular pages. Not only will you increase the engagement with the rest of your site, but you’ll get the most action for your time.
* As of 01/16/2013, the left-hand navigation bar has a new quick-link section to Dashboards, Shortcuts, and Intelligence Events above the pictured sections. However, the Content section remains functionally the same.
Writing and Listening — an Interview with Brooke Randel
As a young girl Brooke Randel knew little about the Holocaust—just that it was a catastrophe in which millions were murdered, and that her grandma Golda Indig barely escaped that fate. But her Bubbie never spoke about what happened, and the two spent most of their time together making pleasant memories: baking crescent roll cookies, playing gin rummy, and watching Baywatch. Until an unexpected phone call when Golda said, out of the blue: “You should write about my life. What happened in the war.” What results is a fascinating memoir—about one woman’s harrowing survival, and another’s struggle to excavate theRead more…