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Learn about your blog readers from your web site stats

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Crye-Leike, Realtors

Have you ever wondered how much to write for consumers (localism) and for professionals (active rain)? I've read the benefits of localizing content. I've heard the rumblings because consumers rarely leave comments. There is value in writing both, but I learned something new today. I learned more about links that people click on in my blogs. I like cold hard facts. So here ya go....  

pie chartI checked out my web site referring sites traffic reports.  I did a search by keywords, first for 'activerain', then for 'localism'. I wanted to first see traffic sent from both places and then do a comparison.  

Comparing Referral Traffic - Active Rain vs. Localism

 

ActiveRain.com

Localism.com

Pages per visit

12.78 

25.48

Time on site

05:57 (min:sec)

11:39 (min:sec)

New Visits

33.95%

61.30%

Bounce Rate

30.06%

20.87%

What did I learn? People finding my web site because they read my blogs on localism -- are ultimately finding my site more interesting, than people visiting my site from Active Rain. This makes sense to me because my web site has more tools for consumers. Still pretty cool though - that even industry folks (traffic from active rain) are spending time on the site as well.

If your service/public web site is tailored towards services for realtors I would expect you would find these numbers flip-flopped - check it out - comment here.

Comparing Referral Traffic (by +/- %) to Main Site Averages

 

Pages per visit

Time on site

new visits

bounce rate

activerain.com

-46.52%

-48.26%)

47.28%

114.29%

localism.com

6.62%

1.39%

80.58%

48.75%

What did I learn? I found this even more interesting. This tells me that people who find my site through my localism posts are actually spending more time and veiwing more pages on my site than my average site visitor.  They are also sending me a lot of new visitors - versus traffic I get in other places.  

Links from my activerain posts are sending me 3X the traffic that my localism posts send. Makes sense because intuitively I think activerain has more traffic than localism.  However Localism is sending higher quality - more relevant traffic.  

If you are not familiar with web site stats - Here's a quick reference.

google analyticsI use google analytics for certain types of web site traffic reports. (If you are not familiar with google analytics it's free to use up to a certain threshold of traffic. More than that and you have to use ad words)

  • Referring Sites - Web sites that are sending you traffic.
  • Pages/Visit - The average number of pages viewed during a visit to your site.
  • Average Time on Site - The average duration of a visit to your site.
  • New Visits - The percentage of visits by people who had never visited your site before.
  • Bounce Rate - The percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page).

 

Food for Thought...

  • Why should you write localism posts? I think this is pretty excellent evidence. Write on.....
       
  • What do your stats show about the traffic you are sending to your sites by posting your blogs on active rain and localism?  
     
  • It would be interesting to see some recent traffic report updates from Active Rain staff as well - in regards to the growth of localism.

Comments (11)

Brian Rodgers
Brian Rodgers Companies, Realty Executives - Hutchinson, KS
Interesting Angie, I learned from this.
Jan 09, 2008 09:14 AM
Tara Colquitt
Tara Colquitt, The Credit Woman, LLC - Philadelphia, PA
Credit Counselor

I love charts and percentages! I will ask my business associate to incorporate statistics into our reports.

Thanks! 

 

Jan 09, 2008 09:35 AM
The Entire Team of Price & Company Professionals
Price & Company Realty - Myrtle Beach, SC
Thanks for the information.  I knew that by being on AR that I have reached many more people, but your statistics are really surprising.  I appreciate your sharing!
Jan 09, 2008 09:39 AM
Mike Mueller
Tech and Social Media Consultant - Walnut Creek, CA

Absolutely fantastic post! 

Numbers and graphs nail it!

If you are selling homes in an area you better be posting to localism!

 

 

Jan 09, 2008 10:14 AM
Konnie Mac McCarthy
MacNificent Properties, LLC - Cobb Island, MD
Broker/Owner - VA & MD "Time To Get A Move On!"
I love Google analytics.....I am still figuring it all out.....
Jan 09, 2008 12:05 PM
Vincent Coccia
Construction Services Integration - Paoli, PA
Thank you for the information.  What are the parameters for posting to Localizm.com and is there a cost or is it free? Thanks.
Jan 09, 2008 01:23 PM
Janie Coffey
First Coast Sotheby’s International Realty - Ponte Vedra, FL
Uniting Extraordinary Homes w/ Extraordinary Lives
great info Angie!! I love love love stats.  I use mybloglog also as I can see what people are searching for and how they land on my site.  If I haven't touched on that subject, I am sure to do so!!
Jan 09, 2008 11:23 PM
Angie Vandenbergh
Crye-Leike, Realtors - Memphis, TN
A Crye-Leike Blogger

Hi everyone - thanks for stopping by. If any of you find interesting stats like this for your web site, please let me know.

Vincent - It is free to post to localism.com... when you write a blog on active rain and you choose to include it in one of the 'consumers' categories it will display on your blog on active rain as well as on localism.com. Check out this post for some instructions - Where should I post, professionals, consumers or both?

Jan 10, 2008 01:28 AM
Bill Blair
Coldwell Banker Realty - Covington, GA
Covington Georgia Realtor Covington Living Homes

Angie.... Great post with fantastic information!  I learn something new every day, and look forward to applying what you've taught me.  Thanks!

 

Jan 10, 2008 02:46 AM
Peter Cannon
New Berlin, WI
NMLSR ID 400610
Cool Angie. Thanks for the tips.
Feb 28, 2008 07:21 AM
Tony Grego, 317-663-4173 #1 Trade Association for Alternative Inv
REISA - 317-663-4173 - Indianapolis, IN

Thanks for the post

You openned up some thoughts and ideas that I have been looking to get

Tony

Feb 29, 2008 02:33 PM