Blogger Tinkers with Google Analytics

BlogLeader, as the resident SEO expert at Blogger Brigade, monitored web traffic coming into four selected blogs of the group. Using two traffic exchange sites, EasyHits4U and Incentria, and multiple search engines, he observed the quality of traffic measured by Google analytics.

According to BlogLeader, very high bounce rates signified low-quality traffic while low bounce rates signified higher quality traffic. And it seems, for the small sample tested, EasyHits4U cannot be relied upon to increase the readership of the blog. With EasyHits4U, the blog might as well be coated with teflon because apparently, no visitor stays long enough to look around. On the other hand, Incentria seems better than EasyHits4U because of a much lower bounce rate.

But according to MarketEngineer, the dismal performance of traffic exchange sites is more about the stopping power of a webpage than a flaw in the idea of traffic exchange. He suggests that Blogger Brigade examines the structure of the network of webpages and to use special-purpose landing pages. He said that landing pages that are targeted to attract a specific type of prospect are the most effective. In response, BlogLeader said that he has commissioned BlogMechanic to design landing pages for the Benevolent Blogger template, but he will be relying on MarketEngineer's expertise to convert web traffic into sales.

Going back to the data from Google analytics, BlogLeader further revealed that forums where members have profile pages (e.g., myLot) and are allowed to post links to their blogs are a definite source of better quality traffic. But in all these, BlogLeader acknowledged that the search engines are probably the most important sources of web traffic and they rely on keywords and page ranks to work their magic.

In the next few days, BlogLeader revealed that he will be identifying key performance metrics and will be implementing a plan to reach certain objectives and milestones.