Hopefully, you have a basic blog setup and are on a proper track following the basic ten steps( How Do I Create A Side Hustle Blog ). What is fantastic, after creating a few blog posts, you are way more experienced than before you started. Now you can further develop your skills by continuing to analyze, track results, and continuously improve your blog.
Simple Analytics Of A Blog
When analyzing a blog, you must recognize the partnership offered by the 800# gorilla in the room. Google. Google provides services to the website owner for tracking the performance of their sites.
What I’m talking about is Google Analytics.
So, to keep this simple and continue to go forward with these initial ten steps( How Do I Create A Side Hustle Blog ) post for the new blogger, let’s cover a few essential topics.
What Is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a website analytics service offered by Google. Google Analytics provides information such as page views, session counts, new users, retention time, etc., to the website owner.
What Is Google Analytics Used For With Blogs?
Blogs are websites that use a blogging system or methods to create content. So again, blogs are just websites.
Google Analytics is a service that collects information from your web pages that can be later confabulated into reports. These reports can help track the performance of your website overall and individual pages.
With these reports, you can determine what posts/webpages are getting the most traffic on your blog.
What Useful Data Is Collected By Google Analytics?
Essential information like what pages are getting the most page views and what device types are being used most for accessing my site is the most valuable.
You can get the location of the visitors, which is essential too since for revenue (monetizing your site URL), you want to focus on high revenue-generating countries like the US of A, Canada, the UK, and Germany (I am told these are the countries with the highest ad rates).
But, my site is geared toward the US of A by location, top level domain type(TLD), GrowingPIGs.com, and how I write(speak). The location has not been much of a focus for me since it was automatic, and You might have different concerns.
How Do I Add Google Analytics To My Website?
- Sign up for Google Analytics.
- Follow Google Analytics information on creating a property to track your blog/website.
This process will generate a JavaScript code you can paste into your blog’s header. This step can be done in a few ways.
The Harder Way.
The more complex way, and the way I started, I went into the Theme File Editor(found in the Appearance tab in the WordPress Dashboard) and added the JavaScript code into the specific file “header.php.”
Header.php is the file used to generate the header section(like, duh, right?) of every webpage in your blog. This way, when you add Google Analytics to that file, every page on your blog will contain the necessary tracking JavaScript.
So every time a page loads in someone’s browser, one that allows the JavaScript to execute, Google Analytics collects information that can be later used to generate reports.
Problem With This Google Analytics Code Method.
Whenever the theme was updated, my ‘header.php’ file would be overwritten, losing the necessary Google Analytics code addition.
Easily fixed by re-pasting the code back into the header.php file, but a few times, I didn’t know the theme updated with the auto-update feature of my theme.
You can turn off auto-update but don’t recommend that; find an easier way.
The Easier Way.
I’m not particularly eager to use plugins since they add overhead to your website, and if I use a plugin, I evaluate its worth by how often I use it or what it returns to me while giving up a bit of website performance.
This plugin works for me and has multiple uses, so I continue to use it: Header Footer Code Manager by 99Robots(https://draftpress.com/products/header-footer-code-manager-pro/).
How To Use Header Footer Code Manager For Google Analytics Code.
In the Header Footer Code Manage(HFCM) plugin, I clicked on “settings” and then “Add New Snippet.”
I give it a name in the Snippet Name field: Google Analytics
Leave Snippet Type as default “HTML.”
Leave Site Display as default as “Global”; I want to track every page.
Leave Exclude Pages & Exclude Posts as blank.
Leave Location default with “header.”
Leave Device Display default with “Show on all devices.”
and, of course, turn it on with the Status “Active.”
In editing the new HFCM snippet, I paste the Google Analytics code into the large text box.
Complete the HFCM snippet creation by saving the snippet.
Regardless of which method you use or another, I should have mentioned; you need to test the Google Analytics service on your website.
How I Test New Google Analytics Code.
With my Google Analytics account open, I go to “Reports” and “Real Time.”
In another browser tab, I access my blog. Do a quick refresh to bypass the browser cache feature, usually a SHIFT-F5 method or SHIFT, and click the refresh button.
I should see myself as my location currently displayed in the real-time map and showing activity on the page I am refreshed/visited.
If it doesn’t work, I check for any turned-on browser anti-tracking add-ons that I can turn off or use a dedicated browser just for website testing, other than the default one I use every day.
Other Website Tracking Services?
There are other services for tracking website performances, like ManageWP, which uses a plugin on your site to see analytics; still trialing this and will give a recommendation or not later.
There are others, but I am dealing with the big boy on the block, Google.
Now that we can analyze how your website is doing with page views, session time, etc., let’s track how well we are attracting visitors to our website.
As mentioned before, the typical traffic source to your new blog without active website advertisement campaigns is Search Engine Results.
Again, in this situation, we are dealing with a Giant of Search Engines, Google.
Google has a service called “Search Console.”
What Is Google’s Search Console?
Google’s Search Console is a service focused on tracking a website’s search engine performance, providing tools and insights to help site owners improve visibility and presence to search engine searchers on the search engine results page.
FYI: Why High Impressions Low Clicks On My Blog?
How Is Search Console Different From Google Analytics?
Google Analytics provides information(reports generated from tracked visitor data) related to those who visit and interact with your blog/website.
What Information Do I Use Search Console For?
There is so much that can be listed here, but let’s focus on the basic uses a new blogger and seasoned blogger might use.
Generally, I look at Search Console to identify what search terms people use to see results and access my web pages.
One Way I Use This Information:
With this information, I can determine what information Google feels I’m a trusted expert at and focus on creating more pages on these topics.
Another Way I Use This Information:
I might find that a page I created on a topic is weak when related to a targeted search phrase and might be listed low on the first page (4+), and this helps me determine that I need to strengthen the content on that page to move further up.
So many use for Search Console; just trying to cram it here on this post would be difficult and undermine its importance.
So create your Search Console account and link it to your Google Analytics(having a Google Analytics account will help verify your website ownership).
Once you have Google Analytics set up and created your Search Console account linked back to your Google Analytics account, you are fully prepared to Analyze, Track the Results of Your Blog.
Now comes Continuously Improve Your Blog.
Continuously Improve Your Blog!
I will keep this simple, with steps universal for all blogs, new and old.
Promote Your Blog Posts To Google!
A quick step to get search engine results is to get a search engine to crawl your posts.
Add your sitemap to your website’s account in Google’s Search Console. The sitemap is usually easy to find; it’s your domain + “/wp-sitemap.xml.”
For example https://GrowingPIGs.com/wp-sitemap.xml
This is a road map for the Google bot to crawl your site and find new posts created, index them within Google, and set up to present your blog pages to Google’s searchers.
This was easy and a great way to promote a new blog.
New Blog, No Or Limited Data.
Early on, you have no traffic or search engine results. Also, what results or information you draw from Google Analytics and Search Console are so hit-miss they can be a distraction till enough data is collected.
So take their information with a grain of salt.
New Blog Improvements!
I focus on creating posts about topics I know the most, which are typical questions or discussions of people looking for information, and where I can group like-minded topics.
For example, at this time, I have very little traffic on this blog. GrowingPIGs.com is not a major site for people looking to grow their passive income generators, although it should be.
However, as a person who has been growing passive income generators for years(decades for some), I am posting information that other people interested in growing passive income generators might be interested in.
Also, grouping topics so I can create posts related to that topic. Hence the ten steps(URL) with all the following posts expand on each blog creation step.
I am sharing information I wish I had when I started and reminiscing on my experience creating passive income blogs.
This is the basic new generation of content on a blog. With time, I can analyze post performance with user information from Google Analytics and track my search engine performance with Google SERPs via Search Console.
Over time, website data will be collected, and you will start seeing information in Google Analytics and Search Console. You can feel they are solid enough to move in a new direction.
For now, create great content for your readers, and flood your blog with as much information about that topic so you can reach a topical authority.
User Date Collection Concerns.
Now if you jumped to this post before you read Blogging For Passive Income, Step 7: Create Your Blog Content., you must ensure you are open and honest with your blog readers. Please go to Step 7 and create your Privacy Page, detailing what information Google uses to generate those useful reports you plan to use.
Now Google is collecting the information directly, but you should be informing your readers you have taken steps to help Google Analytics track their usage of your blog.
Got to Step 7, and you can read more about Privacy Pages and how it should be one of the first pages created for your blog.
| Previous Blogging Step | Simple Blogging Steps |
| Step 9: Promote Your Blog. | I Create A Side Hustle Blogs(My Steps). |
Your Feedback!
Again, this post was meant to be a high-level review of Analyzing, Tracking Results, and Continuously Improving Your Blog, but it’s just scratching the surface on many topics.
Focus is a new blogger, and sharing information I review in my head; I wish I had made it easier and gotten me into blogging sooner.
Often too much information is tossed at us when we are initially making decisions, and we can become overwhelmed.
I thought silly things like I needed a perfect theme were the first step, and having the most plugins made my site great. All of these were wrong but easily construed from the blogging advice you see flooding the internet.
This post was helpful for everyone, and to help improve this post, the topic of blogging for passive income or blogging in general, please leave feedback by leaving a comment below. Thank you for your time, Everyone!
 Myself with an interesting Bull Sculpture. Notice: No Lambo’s. :/ | Hi I’m Tom, A Blogger And A PIG Farmer. PIG Farmer as in I grow Passive Income Generators(PIG’s). I’ve been playing with stocks, mutual funds, and options for decades, as well as always working on my side hustle stacks. Unlike what you read online, I’ve yet to find a way to get rich quickly. Get Rich Quick isn’t happening for me. My journey has been long and continues. I hope to have so many PIGs I can stop working at my current job and volunteer as a medical worker overseas. Still waiting, but getting there. I still am a family man, and while on this Journey of Growing PIGs. I wanted to share my adventures(ups and downs), hoping you will contribute with your feedback and comments. Fun Fact: In my spare time, I am a Band-Dad! |