Until you make it big, when you have millions of readers and a ton of feedback, you won’t have a lot to go on. You’ll have data you can read, signs you can identify, but they’re like casting bones or reading tea leaves. You have to figure out how to weigh and balance each factor, how to determine what they mean and how to improve them.
Still, the information is there, if you know where to look and what to look for.
You Get Social Engagement
This is a big one. When you’re building an audience on, say,
Facebook, you can see how that audience is interacting with your posts. You can compare your reach with your shares, likes, and comments. Comparing post to post will give you an idea of how much people like individual posts.
What, then, if you don’t share the post on Facebook yourself first? You have social sharing buttons on your website, or at least you should have, so any social share you get would come from a user of their own volition. That’s a good indication that someone likes your post.
The problem with using this metric is that it’s not very accurate, particularly at low readership levels. Neil Patel wrote a post on Quicksprout once where he cited using infographics on Kissmetrics. 47 infographics resulted in 2.5 million visits… and only 20,000 likes. That’s about 425 likes per infographic, when each graphic averaged 53,000 views.
Scale those numbers down. Say your blog only gets 500 viewers per post. At that downsample, your posts would be getting 4-5 likes. A variation between a good post and a bad one is only two or three likes, but so is the variation between any two posts for any reason. It’s not reliable data.
Blog comments again have the problem of low volume and variance. You never know just how many comments your posts should average, until you reach a point where they all get at least a few comments. On blogs where most posts don’t get anything, it’s not particularly relevant to make a big deal out of one comment on one post.
The thing is, not everyone has a blog, and not everyone who has a blog is blogging in an area where they can link to your posts. You can’t expect a huge number of backlinks whenever a post is well-received. Instead, use backlinks as a sort of sample to indicate that something in that post was done correctly, but don’t let a lack of links deter you.
The other problem with links is that they’re partially more an indicator of SEO success than they are of readership interest.
First off, you have your basic Google Analytics. One of the metrics Google measures is time spent on site, or average session length. This is linked to bounce rate, in a way, as a bounce is just a visit that only lasts a second.
Interested readers spend more time on your site. Less interested readers lose interest and wander off. Therefore, a longer time spent on side is better. The only issue is readers who only view the one page on your site; often, because they don’t click away, no second action is recorded, so there’s no way to calculate how long the user spent on your site.
There are valid reasons for time spent on site to be low and your site to still be good, but if you’re the kind of site that wants that outcome, you should know already. Most blogs aren’t going to be that kind of niche site.
What, then, if you don’t share the post on Facebook yourself first? You have social sharing buttons on your website, or at least you should have, so any social share you get would come from a user of their own volition. That’s a good indication that someone likes your post.
The problem with using this metric is that it’s not very accurate, particularly at low readership levels. Neil Patel wrote a post on Quicksprout once where he cited using infographics on Kissmetrics. 47 infographics resulted in 2.5 million visits… and only 20,000 likes. That’s about 425 likes per infographic, when each graphic averaged 53,000 views.
Scale those numbers down. Say your blog only gets 500 viewers per post. At that downsample, your posts would be getting 4-5 likes. A variation between a good post and a bad one is only two or three likes, but so is the variation between any two posts for any reason. It’s not reliable data.
You Get Blog Comments
Blog comments can tell you a lot about your audience and what they like. Study your posts and figure out which get the most comments, and why. Do you ask questions to engage your readers? Are you bringing up controversial topics to spur argument? Are you just getting people thanking you for your contributions? Are the comments spam that got through your filters, and you just haven’t remembered to remove them?Blog comments again have the problem of low volume and variance. You never know just how many comments your posts should average, until you reach a point where they all get at least a few comments. On blogs where most posts don’t get anything, it’s not particularly relevant to make a big deal out of one comment on one post.
Your Posts Earn Links
Backlinks are a greater source of recognition than mere social shares or comments. If someone links to your post, chances are good that they really liked it.The thing is, not everyone has a blog, and not everyone who has a blog is blogging in an area where they can link to your posts. You can’t expect a huge number of backlinks whenever a post is well-received. Instead, use backlinks as a sort of sample to indicate that something in that post was done correctly, but don’t let a lack of links deter you.
The other problem with links is that they’re partially more an indicator of SEO success than they are of readership interest.
Your Time On Site is High
All of the above methods require you to rely on fickle social reinforcement to determine which posts users like. What about all of your silent readers? That’s where analytics tools come in.First off, you have your basic Google Analytics. One of the metrics Google measures is time spent on site, or average session length. This is linked to bounce rate, in a way, as a bounce is just a visit that only lasts a second.
Interested readers spend more time on your site. Less interested readers lose interest and wander off. Therefore, a longer time spent on side is better. The only issue is readers who only view the one page on your site; often, because they don’t click away, no second action is recorded, so there’s no way to calculate how long the user spent on your site.
There are valid reasons for time spent on site to be low and your site to still be good, but if you’re the kind of site that wants that outcome, you should know already. Most blogs aren’t going to be that kind of niche site.
Your Heatmaps Show Scrolling Below the Fold
Using a heatmap tool, you can often see precisely
where the fold on your page is for most readers, because a huge number
of readers never even scroll when they’re on a page. They just read the
intro, the top couple paragraphs, and leave. If you hook them, they
scroll, and that’s an indicator that they’re enjoying your post.
Therefore, check your heatmaps. Well, first, implement some heatmaps. Then post a few posts and wait a few days. Then check your heatmaps. You should see a difference between uninteresting pages and interesting pages, primarily on the number of people scrolling below the fold.
Therefore, check your heatmaps. Well, first, implement some heatmaps. Then post a few posts and wait a few days. Then check your heatmaps. You should see a difference between uninteresting pages and interesting pages, primarily on the number of people scrolling below the fold.
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