What is KPI, Metrics, or Indicators for Blog?

The creation of a blog is a process that can be simple since there are tools such as CMS that allow its creation with a few simple steps, but the adjustment that must be made and the writing or creation of content constantly becomes a challenge where it is necessary. the development of habits and even creating processes for their execution.

Therefore, the effectiveness of quality content cannot be measured, from what we consider and think, but must be evaluated through the numbers obtained and thus understand what is attracting people to my blog.

How are metrics defined for a blog?

On many occasions, before defining the metrics, you must start with the definition of the objectives to be achieved, through the blog, therefore, you must use the SMART or smart model, such as:

Achieve 10,000 visits in January, and have progressive growth of 10%, during 2021, increasing the publication of content 5 times a week to increase advertising revenue on the website.

• S: increase traffic to the website.
• M: 10,000 visits in January and progressive growth of 10% each month.
• A: increasing content posting 5 times a week.
• R: to increase advertising revenue on the website.
• T: in the year 2021.

As you can see, once the objectives have been defined, the respective metrics will be linked to monitor their behavior and evaluate the strategies applied within the platform. The objectives are adjusted according to the indicators or metrics obtained.

What are vanity metrics?

Vanity metrics are known for all the indicators that people want because they directly impact their ego, therefore, many specialists consider that the number of followers is not proportional to the success of a brand but to a number that influences the vanity of the person.

Example: number of followers, visits,

What are actionable metrics?

The actionable metrics are known by all the indicators that an action can be generated through a strategy and thus achieve the silver objectives, in short, it is information that gives a clearer vision of what you want to achieve and how the current situation to understand what has been achieved and what must be adjusted or improved to achieve the proposed objective.

Example: subscriber rate, number of downloads, sales, …

Differences between metrics and KPIs

Statistics tools mostly deliver raw data, where their objective is to record an exact value of an activity, such as traffic, and the number of visits on a specific channel, among others. These are known as metrics or indicators.

In the case of KPI (Key Performance Indicator), as its name indicates, they are KEY indicators, which allow evaluation accurately according to the objectives of the company. KPIs accurately show whether or not a company is progressing towards its goal, so raw data is transformed to create information and then become knowledge.

It should be noted that you can always measure, but without a defined objective that you need to achieve, the KPIs will not be useful.

Advantages of monitoring metrics or KPIs

• The indicators provide information to make a more accurate decision and thus be supported by a base.
• It allows for improving the processes created, according to the numbers obtained, and thus adjusts the objectives.
• The business can adapt to today’s market, based on information collected from customers, competition, business performance, and new market opportunities, among others.
• Obtaining an accurate measurement allows you to optimize and make decisions in real time.
• It gives more security to the stakeholder, who are all the people, entities, departments, and allies involved in the process, by having an accurate measurement.
• Having real numbers will give more motivation to the work team for all the work done.

Frequency when monitoring indicators

There is no maximum or minimum frequency since in many cases it depends on the habits that the people in charge of the indicators are cultivating. But, by recommendation, it is better to monitor it day by day, to be able to evaluate the constant changes, however, it is always good to carry out monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual closings; to have a history of the behavior and changes taking place.

Remember that without monitoring there are no improvements, therefore, to cultivate the habit that was mentioned above, you have to create constant activities and be constant.

Tools to measure your blog

There are various tools to measure and monitor your blog, but it depends on the use you want to give it, such as:

Google Analytics

Google launched this application in November 2005. It has a dashboard that presents a complete set of reports. With this application, low-performance pages can be identified with techniques such as funnel visualization, which allows us to know from which sender the user comes, how long he stayed on the web page, language, geographical position, etc. It also offers advanced features, including custom user targeting.

Google Search Console

It is another tool that belongs to the Google family. It allows you to check the indexing status and visibility of the web page, details the errors that the site presents, or if it has received hacker attacks. It is a simple and effective tool, however, all the information it shows is based on searches made through Google and does not provide information from other search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing, Yandex, and Baidu, among others.

Semrush

It is an extraordinary tool, very powerful, and easy to use. It is very practical to analyze and study the competition; of course, depending on the plan that is used it will have more or fewer benefits. The data offered by this tool are the type of backlinks, the relationship between following and no follow links, anchor text, and the number of backlinks, it allows us to know what the keywords are, where it is positioned in organic searches, and know the keywords that are positioning the competition, among others.

Alexa

It is a complete tool that analyzes various aspects of the web page, however, it also establishes a world ranking used for the location of the pages based on different aspects such as traffic, duration time, amount of pages viewed, and bounce rate, among others.

Metrical

The tool is very complete since it not only offers traffic statistics but also statistics on social networks. It allows us to see in real-time the evolution of the metrics obtained through the web page. Shows page views, visits, visitors, countries, and traffic sources; It also evaluates blog metrics, analyzes social media actions, and provides personalized reports. Also, if you forget to check the statistics, Metricool sends a monthly summary to the associated email.

There are much more, but they are the ones I normally use in my day today.

Indicators, metrics, or KPIs for a blog

Within the blog, it is necessary to take into account the management indicators since these allow for evaluating the quality of the published content and the interaction with the web page. They will be divided as follows:

• Basic
• Community or public
• Content
• User behavior and loyalty
• Audience acquisition
• Conversion or profitability of the blog

Basic

They are basic indicators that you need to know to understand the growth of a blog and its relevance.

DA (Domain Authority)

It is an indicator, that measures the authority, quality, and credibility of the content of a website in total, unlike the PA which focuses on measuring a specific page.

PA (Page Authority)

It is a value that measures the authority of a page, where the value can be between 0 to 99, this also drives the position within a SERP search engine.

Global blog position, country, or category

The position is represented through the Alexa Rank, where the position of a site can be classified globally, by country, and according to the item that stands out the most.

Investment cost in the blog

It is an indicator that allows you to manage the resources that are invested for the creation and maintenance of a blog, resources such as:

• Domain renewal is paid annually.
• Hosting or VPS renewal.
• Template purchase.
• Plugin purchase.
• Payment of digital tools services.
• Fixed costs (electricity, internet, rent, among others).
• Variable costs.

Community or public

The indicators that are classified here are mainly focused on understanding our community or loyal public.

Total number of visits

It is the total amount of visits obtained on the blog, it can be measured for a certain period, mostly this indicator is obtained through the tool.

The number of total visits can be obtained by days, weeks, months, quarters, semesters, and years, among others; They can be used to make comparisons and evaluate the behavior of the same.

Pageviews per visit (pageviews/session)

It is the average number of pages they see for each visitor. Mostly this data is obtained directly through the tool, this is directly related to the bounce rate.

Sessions or visits

It is the number of sessions or visits obtained by the blog or website, it should be noted that a user can have several sessions.

Unique users or visitors

It is the total number of unique users who visit the blog, this indicator is mostly monitored, to know their behavior and thus evaluate the abrupt changes that may occur according to the content published on the blog.

Time spent on the blog

It is the time that a user stays on the blog. If the user stays for a long time, it means that the content adds value, since normally a person who enters a web page and does not get what they are looking for leaves immediately.

Location of the public o Percentage of visits according to geographical data (by country and city)

It is an interesting metric since it allows you to know where your audience, city, and country are geographically located, and thus develop segmented content or info-products, and how much of that place it represents.

Percentage of devices and screen resolutions (computer / mobile phone/tablet)

It can be detailed about those used most frequently by the public, it can be smartphones, pc or laptops, and tablets; and also know in detail the resolution of the screen used, this information can be obtained in detail with the Google Analytics tool.

Percentage of recurring visitors

They are the visitors who visit the blog constantly, this metric can give a clearer idea about the loyalty of the community, and know the type of content or topics you like to know.

The higher this value, it means that the loyalty rate of users or readers is higher.

Percentage of new visitors

They are the new visitors that the web page gets, who visit the platform for the first time. Mostly this value is used with the percentage of recurring visitors, to evaluate what each value represents and how this influences the growth of the website.

New visitors versus recurring visitors (number and percentage)

It is the relationship between the traffic and the type of visitor, where it is evaluated how much the new visitors represent within the traffic and the recurring ones.

Percentage of traffic by demographic data (by age or gender)

It is the value that traffic according to their age or gender, this information can be complemented when it comes to understanding our community and if it is the target audience we want to attract, this can be merged with tools such as empathy map or buyer persona.

Interests and affinity.

It is a function that the Google Analytics tool has, where it has an option that shows the categories of interests and affinity of the community that visits our website.

Content

This category focuses on knowing the impact of the content on the blog, and how this influences the growth, behavior, usefulness, and loyalty of users.

Most visited pages (top 10)

It presents the values ​​of the pages with the most visits and that attract more traffic to the blog, with this information, an estimate of the value can be made, to have a quick overview it is recommended to select the top 10 and thus evaluate the impact it represents.

% of pages generating traffic

By obtaining the above information, an analysis of the percentage it represents within the website or blog traffic can be performed.

Here you can apply the 80-20 ratio, where 20% of the existing pages generate 80% of the traffic on a blog.

Content format and category analysis

It is an analysis that can be done through the category of the content, versus the quantity and quality and evaluates the percentage of the traffic that it can generate.

Apart from the above information, you can make an interesting cross concerning the content format, for example, it contains infographics, podcasts, videos, templates (form), and tools, among others. All the formats can be integrated into the blog and generate a different impact and are capable of attracting the community or more public.

Number of posts or entries

It is the number of entries that have been written, within this number 2 interesting graphics can be generated:

• Several entries concerning time (per month or year).
• The number of entries according to category.

Percentage of own content posts versus guest blogging

It is the relationship between the number of entries that have been created by the writing team or content as an own resource versus the number of entries or articles that have been accepted through the guest blogging mode. This value can be related to the number of sessions and users, and thus evaluate the impact it has with its own content and guest blogging and how this helps in the growth of the blog.

% of own content post = (total number of own content / total number of posts) x 100

% guest blogging post = (total number of guest blogging / total number of posts) x 100

Number of authors

It is the number of authors you write for a blog, this can be a relationship between internal authors and guest blogging.

• Internal authors or collaborators: they are the editors who constantly write within a blog or a webspace.
• Guest blogging: they are authors who write an article with prior agreement, where they are given a series of guidelines of the internal requirements, and in the end, they get exposure within the blog and inbound link, their participation is not constant.

Evergreen content rate

It is the percentage of content developed, where its life span is long and has no expiration date, therefore, it is content that as time passes can continue to attract an interesting amount of traffic to the blog.

This information can be obtained through the analysis of the most visited pages or entries, versus their growth during their publication to the present.

Post or entry cost

To obtain a return on investment, it is necessary to understand how much time you have spent writing the post, which contains the following steps: definition of the topic, search for information, content curation, writing, layout, planning, design, publication, and dissemination of content.

The sum of all the time to create an entry, and if you want to include fixed expenses such as internet services, electricity, space rental, and payment of tools, among others; you can get a value closer to what it costs to write an article.

Average time spent per post

Concerning the previous point where the process for creating content is explained, an average time spent on writing the publication can be obtained.

Average visits per post

It is the average value of the visits obtained by the publications made, in a given period.

Average visits per post = total visits within the blog/number of posts

User behavior and loyalty

They are the indicators that are responsible for measuring and understanding the behavior within the blog and also allow knowing their loyalty and interests in the published content.

Exit page

Analyzing which page the customer left the site for allows us to assess if there is a problem and then correct it or optimize the page, or if the published content is attractive to readers, this allows us to understand the user and their behavior.

Pageviews

It is the number of views obtained by the pages in a blog, it should be noted that the pageviews would be like the impressions since a visit by a user can consume more than one page.

It should be noted that page views are not the same as a session or visit, this means that a visit can have more than one pageview on the same web page, and this depends on the content consumption that each user has.

Bounce rate or bounce rate

This occurs when an Internet user leaves the blog after having visited the page and lasts only a few seconds on it. Or when the user only enters the page and leaves and does not navigate or does not visit or read other content provided by the website.

Social share or number of times the publication was shared (social networks)

It is the number of times that users or readers share the publication or images to a specific social network, some tools give you this option if you work within a CMS such as WordPress known as SumoMe, or there are also web page templates that it has the social share function.

Engagement or interaction

It is a very important indicator, which is the total of all the interactions that a publication obtains (likes, shares, comments, clicks, etc.).

Engagement rate

The interaction or participation rate is one of the metrics that allows for evaluating the reaction of the public to the content, images, or advertising material that is published in the account.

Engagement rate = (Sum of all engagements per post / Total visits per post) x 100

Average comments per post

This is part of the interaction or engagement that the blog gets.

Average comment = total blog comments / total number of posts

Subscription fee

This indicator allows you to know the number of subscribers that can be captured through the quality of the content offered, and also the possible solutions that you offer or recommend on the blog as tools, and info products, among others.

Subscription rate = (total subscription / total visits) x 100

The above formula is to calculate the subscription rate, based on the number of visits the blog gets.

Exit fee

It is the proportion of the visits obtained, where users go to a specific page, this information is obtained through the Google Analytics tool, in the user flow option.

Audience acquisition

It is a category that focuses on understanding how you attract the public. Through which channel or keywords?

Traffic source

How do users get to the blog ?, that is, through Google, email marketing, and ads on social networks, among others. Knowing it allows you to properly direct your efforts towards online advertising or organic SEO positioning.

• Organic search: it is the traffic that is obtained through the organic words or phrases by the search engine such as Google, and Yahoo !, among others.
• Social: it is the traffic obtained through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp, among others.
• Referral: is the traffic obtained through the links of referrals from third parties.
• Direct: it is the traffic that is obtained when users enter the website directly, by the address.
• Email: is the traffic obtained through email campaigns.
• Paid traffic: it is the traffic obtained through paid advertising either on social channels, websites, or email, among others.

With this indicator, if you combine it with the conversion rate, you can get to know precisely which is the most attractive, profitable source of traffic or which should be reinforced.

Another way to use this indicator is the distribution of traffic according to the source, and thus achieve a balance to maximize growth and expand the reach radius.

Keywords

Although it is a compound metric, since it is not only about analyzing the position achieved, or the traffic obtained through the keyword but also evaluating the words related to said words, there are complete tools that help you analyze this, such as ubersuggest or Keywordtool.io.

With the “organic search” type of traffic source, you can cross-match your keywords and thus get the percentage of natural traffic from your keyword search.

Number of inbound links

It is the number of inbound links, inbound links, or backlinks that the blog gets.

Conversion or profitability of the blog

It is the profitability or monetization that the blog can generate, either with advertising space using platforms such as Google Adsense or Moneytizer (my favorite tool), or also the payment of article publication.

Conversion

A conversion consists of a certain action that is expected to be achieved within a website. Some more common conversions are the number of people who registered in a form, the number of downloads, sales made, or requests for information about a product or service.

CR (Conversion Rate) or conversion rate

In Spanish it is known as the conversion rate, where if the objective of the brand is to generate income; This metric is the most important to consider.

Conversion rate = (Number of conversions / Number of clicks) x 100

eCPC (Effective Cost Per Click)

The goal of CPC is to determine the revenue earned from an ad for each click the ad receives.

eCPC = Total profit / total number of clicks.

eCPM (Effective Cost Per impression)

The eCPM is a metric that allows knowing the performance of the digital advertisement, where it determines the income generated from the 1,000 impressions, the difference that the eCPM and the CPM is that the CPM determines the cost for the advertiser, and the CPM determines the income that was earned through the ad.

eCPM = (Total profit / total number of impressions) X 1000

$ Income per visit

It is the income that you can generate for each visit, when you generate a sales conversion, be it the purchase of a course, tool, or info products.

# of leads directly attributed to the blog reference

It is the number of potential clients that can be obtained through the blog, with the number of leads collected.

conclusion

The blog is an interesting platform that allows promoting the presence of a website, therefore monitoring allows constant improvement, expansion of scope, and course the growth of authority.

Indicators are interesting data that, depending on how they are used, become knowledge for the development of strategies.