Happy 2016! We’re starting off the year with a blog traffic report and I’m excited to see where this here blog goes in the new year. Without further ado, let’s try to answer the important question: Did my blog traffic increase in December?
Traffic Report
Current Stats (January 1)
Unique Pageviews: 4,444 ( +17% from the start, -1.3% from November)
Bounce Rate: 85.58% ( +2.8% from the start, +3% from November)
Sessions: 3,377 ( +20.1% from the start, +6% from November)
Users: 2,960 ( +53.8% from the start, +13% from November)
Bloglovin: 1566 (+16.3% from the start, +0.6% from November)
Email Subscribers: 85 (started with 0, +13% from November)
Social Media
Facebook: 770 (+28% from the start, +3% from November)
Twitter: 1998 (+29% from the start, +4.7% from November)
Instagram: 1000 (+249% from the start, +2.8% from November)
Google+: 154 (+83% from the start, +13.2% from November)
Pinterest: 1901 (+208% from the start, +2.7% from November)
Tumblr: 3451 (+.99% from November)
Top Posts
- Blog Post Ideas for 2016
- Take Better Notes on Your Readings
- 40 Blog Post Ideas
- The 5 Books That Changed My Life
- 40 Blog Post Ideas for Lifestyle Bloggers
- How To Cheer Up a Friend Who’s Feeling Down
- Christmas Recap + Smashbox Palette Giveaway
- November Blog Traffic Report
- What To Wear on Christmas Eve
- Gift Guide: Gifts That Benefit Charities
Traffic Analysis
What I Did:
- How I Promote My Blog Posts – I need to do an updated version because I’ve started promoting more often!
- Quit Your Job To Blog course (I don’t share the things I learn from this course because that’s not fair to Helene)
- Added a plugin to check for broken links
- Changed writing category name to Writing & Blogging
- Fewer posts this month due to finals (14 posts in November, 10 in December)
- Blog post ideas post (those are always popular)
- Scheduled promotions through the holiday so blog traffic wouldn’t drop off
- Gift guides
What Worked:
- How I promote my blog posts and adding more promotions to my day
- Things I did from Quit Your Job To Blog
- Blog post ideas post – Blog Post Ideas for 2016 (a post for every week of the new year) was VERY popular! Woohoo!
- Scheduled promotions through my mini-vacation over Christmas worked wonderfully; I was able to enjoy the holiday and not worry about my views
I Haven’t Seen Results From:
- Changing the name of the writing category – At least now people know that my blogging posts are under there, right?
- Broken link checker
Previous Goals:
- 1,000 Instagram followers – YES! I did it! Thank you to my sister and her boyfriend for texting their friends and family and telling them to follow me because I was 5 followers away from 1k and wanted to start off the new year with 1k.
- 2,000 Twitter followers – So. freaking. close. Hopefully next month?
- 5,000 monthly pageviews – Mm not quite, but I’m getting there!
- Decrease bounce rate – This didn’t change, but a got a lot of blog traffic this month from Pinterest and StumbleUpon, so I’m not surprised.
Plans and Goals:
- 5,000 monthly pageviews
- 2,000 Twitter followers
- Decrease bounce rate
- Maintain social media followers
What are you doing for your blog in 2016 to improve blog traffic?
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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.
Congratulations on growing your Blog.. it’s hard work but fun…. happy new year!
Lily
http://www.lilyseymour.com
Thank you so much! Happy new year to you, as well!
Hi Kate, first of all, my daughter is a ‘Kate’, which I must say is THE GREATEST female name. So strong, classic and feminine. But more importantly, the day she was born 19 years ago, my mom started calling her ‘Kate the Great’. All her gifts, cards and notes from her grandparents are addressed to ‘Kate the Great’. So, of course, I have to follow you!!!
I am a blogger too and am finding your posts about growing your blog so informative and helpful. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
Best wishes for a happy new year!
Lynn
Ha! That is a great reason for you to follow! I’m so glad that my posts helped you and I hope they continue to.
Great job on growing your blog! To see positive growth is always a great thing. Keep pushing forward because it seems that your strategies are working!
oxo, Lesh
http://livinglesh.com
Thank you so much! I have had even more success this month, so I’m looking forward to sharing that at the beginning of February.
I have been reading along for some time and have yet to comment, but I just want you to know how much I appreciate these posts, and the rest of your blog! Keep it up 🙂
PS: I’m a cooking, lifestyle, and travel blogger covering anything and everything that gives me inspiration in day to day life!
The Pastiche
Thank you so much! I love hearing from readers, and I’m so glad to have your support. Good luck with your blog!
Excellent progress!!!
I’ve decided to stop worrying about my bounce rate, even though I know that’s usually a good marker of engaged readers. Why?
I get a ton of search engine traffic mainly to two posts, although one is only wildly popular April-August. People find what they need out of those two posts. Other metrics have indicated a good percentage of readers on those posts read the entire thing (and the posts are two of my longest). I’ve helped them with what they need if they read those posts, so it’s okay if they don’t stick around to read other content.
Thank you! I actually really helped my bounce rate in a way I’ll be sharing in next month’s. It turns out that my bounce rate was so low because my Google Analytics wasn’t counting anyway who scrolled down to keep reading posts. So I feel a lot better now! But like you, I get a lot of readers from SEO, as well as Pinterest, and often those readers are only interested in one specific topic. It is what it is! I’m happy to have anyone.