As Monty Python would say, "And now for something completely different" - I'm going to let Neil Patel tell us why you need to blog, in case you were not convinced by my arguments. And then we'll see why it's good to get creative with your numbers...

Numbers Tell a Story

If you are willing to take the time to listen.

The infographic I have attached to this post tells a story through the numbers Neil Patel has cobbled together. The story, one you should be familiar with by now, is that blogging is a super important thing you should be doing for your business.

Corporate blogging, or business blogging, only adds to your bottom line.

Google Analytics + 

Last week, we talked about using Google Analytics to provide important metrics (things to measure). From this information, you should be able to tell who visited you, how often and from where.

A few other things to look at, to give you a full picture, are backlinks, who's sharing your posts where, and how many people are subscribing to your newsletter (and how engaged they are with that content).

Backlinks

As you must be aware by now, not all links are the same. A good blog links to other posts and pages within your own site and also links out to blogs and websites that are a good fit -- a good example of this is my link to Neil Patel in this post. He's an authoritative genius when it comes to successful blogging, and I think you will truly, authentically benefit by checking out what he has to say. 

And when people link to you, they're ultimately saying the same thing. Now, when Neil Patel links back to me, it's going to be a great pat on the back for me -- a link from an authority on blogging is a great boost for my reputation. And the more of these you have from reputable sources, the better. The two things to notice are:

1. How authoritative are the sites linking to you and
2. How many of these awesome links do you have?

For SEO purposes, these backlinks are important as well. They tell Google and other search engines that you are a site worth crawling and mentioning. 

There are a few places to go to look at your backlinks: Check Moz's Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs Site Explorer, and Majestic SEO. Each has a slightly different feel and gives slightly different feedback.

Who's Sharing Your Posts?

This is great information to know. Check out BuzzSumo for great information on who has shared your stuff, and also which content your competitors are rocking -- this information is helpful not only to find out where you are popular, but also to find out, potentially, what you should be blogging about. This will, of course, make you more popular still.

What Should You Be Posting?

A question I feel is not asked enough  is what you should be posting. Use Social Crawlytics to find out what is popular, and then riff on that in your own way. See what you have posted that has worked and been wildly shared, and then keep writing about that topic in a new way. Check out Google Trends, too, to look for popular topics that also mesh with your subject area.

Engagement

Finally, if you have been collecting email addresses for your newsletter (You have been, right?) You should then check to see how well you are engaging. Each management tool is a bit different, but they all offer great analytics. MailChimp is an easy one to get started with. See how many people sign up for, open and click on your newsletters. It'll give you an idea of how engaging your content is. And if they are sharing them, you know you're on the right track.

Measurement 101

So there you have it. You've got the basics to get started measuring your success. Next week, we'll look at how to make a story out of those numbers. Stay tuned.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

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