How Should You Measure Your Blog’s Success?

You likely spend a lot of time on the front end of your blogging process. Developing topics for new blogs, researching background material, finding good images and—of course—writing great blogs all require a lot of attention from you. But, how much energy do you give to any particular blog article once you post it? Do you know how each post performs? Do you know how to accurately measure that performance? Do you care?

Certainly the answer to that last question is yes but before you jump in and respond quickly with a “yes” to the prior questions, let’s take a look at some of the criteria by which you can measure the effectiveness and reach of your blog and the work of your content writers.

What is the Purpose of Your Blog?

A blog can educate and it can even entertain to some degree but a really should blog should actually stimulate engagement and help you to create a community. Your website as a more static tool can take the brunt of the educational aspect of things while your blog can and should be more interactive. When you embrace the power of the blog like this and understand its unique ability to help you promote your brand and develop loyalty to that brand, you can really put your blog to work for you.

What are the Measuring Sticks of a Good Blog?

Below are screen captures of two of my blogs that were posted on Search Engine Journal. You might initially be really wowed by the number of shares and while I have to admit I was pretty happy with that myself, it is the number of comments that really deserve attention.

I can easily find blogs on Search Engine Journal or other sites that have garnered many more comments that these but it is even easier to find blogs all over the place with no comments at all. Some people may be quick to ask what that matters so long as the posts are getting shared. Let’s chat about that for a bit.

Levels of Engagement

First things first, I am not suggesting that shares do not matter at all because they do. However, the amount of effort put forth by a reader to comment is greater than that required to simply share a post. That effort translates into the amount you have been able to actively engage that person and, given that the point of blogging is to create engagement, this is a time when more definitely is better.

Here is another important point to consider. In order to comment on your post, a person really has to have actually read it. In order to share your post, however, a person may only have scanned it or read the introductory portion at best. When you receive a comment, you know that your content did something and meant something to someone else. Bingo!

Focus on the Conversation

Now, don’t get down on yourself because you don’t have many comments on your blogs. This is actually the norm and you are far from alone. I myself along with countless other content writers have many uncommented-on blogs. It happens. Stay focused on providing quality information that resonates with your audience, utilizing the results of previous blogs as guidance for topics and tone of voice. This is the path to garnering those much-wanted comments.