Sometimes despite using the same dates and parameters, you can get considerable different analytics statistics for your content across different platforms. However, contrary to popular opinion, the success of your content isn’t all about the metrics.
Yesterday I was talking to the editor of a young insurance news and analysis website who was trying to make sense of his website analytics. They have seen great growth in their readership figures over the past year, but as the readership figures have grown, so has the difference in the numbers provided by the analytics platforms he uses.
Google Analytics had 24,300 unique visitors to their website last month, whereas the WordPress statometer had a more modest 15,027. There was also considerable differences when it came to referring sources. Google had 90 of these visitors coming from LinkedIn, whereas WordPress put this at 554.
It’s quite the percentage difference and it had him confused and frustrated.
So what are the takeaways here?
In my experience it can become very easy to become obsessed with extremely specific targets you set yourself for your content. However, unless you spend a considerable amount of time and money on your web metrics, it is best not to get too bogged down and obsessive on the detailed figures.
In this situation I generally take the overall headline figures from two or three platforms and then take an average. Then I move on.
So long as the overall metrics trends are the same across the platforms then it is generally enough detail to help inform your content decisions.
In an ideal world we would all build our websites with detailed and accurate tracking in mind. The reality is this is often not the case and sometimes you just have to make the best of what you have to work with.
For this precise reason I usually encourage clients who don’t have the budget for detailed metrics analysis to have key performance indicators that look beyond just the end metrics figures. Look at trends, look at how particular pieces of content are performing against others on the same website, and garner feedback from your clients about what they have (and haven’t) found useful.
Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not all about the figures. What your target audience chose to do having read your content, and how it influences their opinions about your brand, is what it is all about.
Brandon Consulting Services Ltd 