Note: As you will see below, Google Analytics is the golden standard in terms of analytics package and I strong recommend you using it even if you are already using something else such as Sitemeter or StatCounter.
1. The Bounce Rate
One of the most confusing stat for many bloggers is the bounce rate. This metric measures the percentage of visitor who leave your blog without clicking on anything. If three people visit your blog and only one click on a link to read your review of Turtle Mutant Ninja Turtles, your bounce rate is 66.7%. Hence the lower your bounce rate, the better. Now, you may ask what a "good" bounce rate may be but it all depends on individual circumstances. The important thing is to track this number and work to lower it over time.
2. The Average Time on Site
Another important metric to keep track of is the average Time on Site (not to confuse with the average Time on Page). This number is particularly useful to gauge whether your visitors find your blog boring. While no one can objectively know whether his blog is boring or not, the cumulative vote from all visitors is a big tell. A higher time on site (for movie blogs) indicates reading behavior pattern (e.g. a lot of peeps reading your posts) while a low average indicates that a big fraction of your visitors leave your blog right away.
A rule of thumb is that anything below 2 minutes is below average while anything under 1 minute is a major red flag. You can also combine your bounce rate and average time on site to have a more accurate picture of how interesting your blog is. The most desirable indicator being a high average time on site combined with a low bounce rate while a low time on site and high bounce rate would indicate that you need to shake things up.
3. Your Top Traffic Sources
 |
| AM's Top 10 Sources (Click to Enlarge) |
Knowing where your traffic comes from is important because it allows you to know how people get to your blog. For example, direct traffic is usually from people who have bookmarked your blog and come back on a regular basis. Referrals from Feedburner is another way for your most loyal readers to access your content while referrals from IMDB tend to be highly targeted as shown by the below average bounce rate. By tracking who is sending you traffic, you can quickly learn what are the most productive avenues for you to focus your energy on and not waste your time on ineffective techniques such as exchanging links (minimal incoming traffic in my experience) or maybe sending tweets to your 50 followers.
More importantly, you can gain further insight using the average time on site and bounce rate by analyzing which traffic sources are the most productive. As shown above, not all traffic sources are created equal. Social media such as Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon tend to send a lot of very short-term traffic. The vast majority of these visitors will not stick around very long, will not click on any links or leave comments. This is reflected in the high bounce rate from these sources.
4. Your Top Content
 |
| AM's Recent Top Content (Click to Enlarge) |
Much like knowing your top traffic sources, being aware of your top content sheds a lot of insight into where most of your visitors usually land or click. Most blogs will have a handful of pages that seem to get the overwhelming numbers of views and knowing which ones can help you make many important decisions:
- What type of content your readers enjoy and should you write more post like those?
- Should you update or optimize your most popular post and point your readers deeper into your blog?
- Is there something wrong with my template? (High bounce or exit rate on your homepage)
- Are people actually reading my posts? (Low Avg Time on Page)
5. The Overall Trend
 |
| AM's Monthly for 2010 (Click to Enlarge) |
All the numbers above are insightful and useful to look at but one shouldn't overly obsess about these statistics. The most important things to consider are the overall trends for your blog. Are you getting better at not only writing but also marketing your content? Is your blog growing, stagnating or even shrinking? With a bit of energy and commitment, a healthy blog should be growing on a near constant basis (month-to-month) be it in terms of visits, pageviews, comments, ad income or whatever your objectives are.
If your blog has grown stagnant for several months, it's time to shake things up. Try a new voice, new content, and a new perspective. Redouble your efforts to network with fellow movie bloggers. Brainstorm on what you can improve and do it!
I hope you found this month's blogging tips informative and helpful. What blogging statistics are the most important to you? Do you have questions or request for next month's column? Let us know in the comments.
Castor is the author of the movie blog Anomalous Material and can be contacted at castor[at]anomalousmaterial.com.
