Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Check out Google Analytics and Nonprofit Leadership 601

A few months ago I decided to try out google analytics and I added this tracking tool to my blog and website. Wow! I can't believe all the data - much more than just the number of visitors - that I can get about the traffic to my blog and website. I am fascinated that people from all over the world from Africa to Vietnam have visited my blog. You can see if people came via search engines, were referred from other sites or came directly. If they came from search engines you can see the keywords they searched on.

I have found the differences in the traffic on my blog and on my website also very informative. People who visit my website have had a much lower percentage via searching and the searches have had relatively little variation. But people have visited my blog on a very wide range of keyword searches. Its true that I blog on varied topics but I think it is useful to know this information.

Another surprise to me was that many people (1/3) visit my blog via referral from other sites. A fair percentage of traffic is from people clicking on my link at nonprofit blog exchange and other individual blogs.

I noticed that a popular referring site was Nonprofit Leadership 601 so I decided to check it out. What a great blog! This is Heather Carpenter's blog. She is an experienced nonprofit manager who is studying for a Ph.D - 600 level courses - hence the 601. Heather's blog is full of useful and interesting posts and she has a sidebar list of blogs she likes - and there is mine on her list.

Thanks Heather - for the compliment and for generating traffic to my blog.
So in summary -

1. Check out adding google analytics to your blog or website. It is free and will provide rich, useful information about your site.

2. Check out Heather Carpenter's blog for nonprofits - one of the best I've seen.

Non Profit Leadership 601


Marion Conway Consulting

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