I don’t know how to feel about my website traffic this month. I think what’s so frustrating is just how much work I put into this blog, and sometimes my traffic doesn’t do what I think it should. Of course, part of this comes from comparing myself to other bloggers, and I really need to avoid doing that. But part of it comes from the fact that I’m already doing all the things that other people say you should for traffic and sometimes the increases or decreases don’t seem to have a rhyme or reason. Anyway, here’s what happened with my traffic this month, and I’d love to get your thoughts on what has really helped your traffic!
Website Traffic Report
Current Statistics
Unique Pageviews: 6133 (-13% from March, -52% from last year)
Bounce Rate: 53.87% (-5% from March, +532% from last year)
Sessions: 3371 (-16% from March, -51% from last year)
Users: 2891 (-18.2% from March, -43% from last year)
Bloglovin: 1739 (+0.2% from March, +3.3% from last year)
Email Subscribers: 253 (+0.7% from March, +72% from last year)
Social Media
Facebook: 932 (+0.5% from March, +13.1% from last year)
Twitter: 2876 (+0.5% from March, +17% from last year)
Instagram: 2224 (-2.1% from March, +76% from last year)
Google+: 207 (-2.9% from March, +18% from last year)
Pinterest: 4705 (+3.3% from March, +88% from last year)
Tumblr: 3731 (+0.6% from March, +5% from last year)
Top Posts
- Loving Someone with Chronic Pain
- Accepting Your Body with Chronic Illness
- A Weekend Trip to Boston
- Christmas Gift Ideas for Dad (Or Anyone)
- How To Talk about Your Chronic Illness + Free Printable
- How To Pack for a Summer Trip
- 40 Blog Post Ideas
- 30 Creative Writing Prompts
- 4 More Things a Millennial with Arthritis Wants You To Know
- 40 Blog Post Ideas for Lifestyle Bloggers
Top Sources of Traffic
- Pinterest – The work I spend on my Pinterest is worth it! I also make sure to have images optimized for Pinterest in every post, so it’s good to know that it’s worth the time.
- Google – I also try to have at least 1 (if not 2) posts a week that use a keyword, so it’s good to see that I’m getting traffic through my SEO work.
- Facebook – I’m fairly active in multiple Facebook groups, and I think this shows the success of that, as well as having an option to share to Facebook on every post.
- Bloglovin – Good to know that the people who follow me on Bloglovin are reading! If you’re not already following, you can click the button in the sidebar to follow.
Traffic Analysis
What I Did
- How I promote my posts
- Repurposed old content – As I said back in January, every month I’m focusing on one big traffic-inducing tactic, and repurposing old content was the one for April. This was especially helpful because of the end-of-the-semester workload made it harder for me to write posts. I didn’t just repost old content; I added to them to make them more well-rounded posts. This is definitely something I will keep doing because I have over 700 posts and many of them are shorter than they could be. Reworking them will help me during the busier times of my life.
- Changed the widget in my sidebar from recent posts to popular posts
- Did A/B testing with the mid-month newsletter – I tested what time was the best to send my newsletter out. This wasn’t so much about getting more traffic from the test as it was making sure that I’m sending it out at a time that’s best for my readers.
- Several days offline because of an ER trip
I Haven’t Seen Results From
- Changing recent posts to popular posts – This is the kind of thing that might help long-term but hasn’t made any significant differences in the short term. If it doesn’t help by the end of May, I will change it back.
What I Can Learn from this Month
- Repurposing content is incredibly helpful when you’re busy
- My traffic dips on holiday weekends (Easter) and if I don’t promote blog posts on social media.
Goals for April
- Increase pageviews – Boooooo
- Lower bounce rate – Success! Not but much, but it’s definitely lower
- 9-12 posts – Success! I published 10 posts this month, and I wouldn’t have managed that if it wasn’t for repurposing old content
Goals for May
- Increase pageviews
- Lower bounce rate
- 9-12 posts
Like this post? Check out:
All blog traffic reports, 7 Things I Did To Get More Blog Traffic in 2016, 5 Most Amazing Blog Post Ideas To Bring You Traffic for Years
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
I can definitely relate to your frustrations! It’s hard to figure out what works best to increase your traffic. Pinterest is my top referral just like you.
Jamie
Treats and Trends
Exactly! Especially since what works best can change over time.
I find myself having the same thoughts too! It’s great you’re holding yourself accountable on this public forum. I feel like I am spending SO much extra time and effort to gain only a couple hundred more in page views and uniques the last two months. Not sure if this is something that’s going on industry-wide, as you and I aren’t the only ones I’ve heard, talked to, read about that struggled with traffic last month, but it’s definitely a game that doesn’t work to our favor over night! Trying to stick with it even though I’m feeling like I’m failing!
I think it might be industry-wide because I’m hearing the same thing. Plus, a lot of people tend to lose page views in the warmer months, so that might be part of it. I’m just keeping on as much as possible because I’ve been before in the cycle of feel like failing -> page views start to increase for unknown reason -> feel on top of things -> views start to decrease for unknown reason. It’s frustrating for sure!