Ep #129: Google Analytics for Food Bloggers

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If you’re looking to take your food blog pro, you’ll want to tune into today’s discussion with Thomas Bosilevac. We are talking about Google Analytics for Food Bloggers. Why is that important? Because you need good, accurate data in order to make the best decisions for your blog. Thomas has a lot of great information you’re going to want to hear! If you love the technical side of food blogging, be sure to check out my discussion with Casey Markee on SEO for Food Bloggers. You should also listen in as I talk with Amber Bracegirdle on SEO Hacks for Food Bloggers.

Thomas Bosilevac is on the Chopped Podcast talking about Google Analytics for Food Bloggers.

Have you heard the idea that you should manage by numbers? That if it’s not measured it isn’t managed? It’s a very popular notion in business, and in fact, in many areas.

You know me, I love a good tennis analogy. So, if you realize that every time you get a first serve in you win 90% of those points, you’d want to get more first serves in. Right? But if you’re not tracking either 1) how many first serves you’re getting in or 2) how many of those first serve points you’re winning, you will never know to add “get first serves in” to your match strategy.

Now, let’s overlay this strategy for food blogging. What if every time you wrote a roundup, you doubled your traffic. Well, that’s a good thing. But if you don’t dig a little bit into analytics, you won’t know that. Or, what if 90% of users who comes to your site on page B and then clicks over to Page C, subscribes to your newsletter. If increasing subscribers is a goal (and that’s the case for must people), then you would increase efforts to get people to click on that second page.

Google Analytics can be a black hole for a lot of us. In fact, today’s guest, Thomas Bosilevac states that around 90% of food bloggers are not optimizing their use of this awesome tool.

If you’re one of those 90%, don’t beat yourself up about it. Come to find out, Google Analytics isn’t exactly user friendly straight out of the box. Thomas suggests that Google Analytics is a lot like WordPress; it needs some plugins to make it work exactly the way you want it to.

Thomas talks about the ways he’s working with food bloggers to turn Google Analytics into a robust tool that can be used as part of a comprehensive business strategy.

A goal of the Chopped Podcast is to add to your toolbox to make you the best damn food blogger you can be. We believe today’s show on google analytics for food bloggers is part of the plan to make you the most successful at the impressive work you’re doing each and every day.

Featured Content – Google Analytics for Food Bloggers

Here are some of the highlights of my discussion with Thomas on Google Analytics for Food Bloggers. Here are some of the specifics:

  • How Thomas transitioned from a theater film major to google analytics
  • Why Thomas started his company
  • How food bloggers may not be getting accurate analytics
  • The bounce rate for a food blogger is different than for other sites
  • Time-on-site is an important metric for food bloggers to track
  • Thomas works with bloggers to help them get more accurate data
  • It’s important that the data you get from Google Analytics be more actionable
  • Accessibility is important too because sometimes folks don’t want to sit and stare and rows and rows of data
  • He describes how Google Analytics is a lot like WordPress, it needs to be customized for your needs to be really helpful
  • How you can use data to help fine-tune your work
  • We talk about the real-time feature on Google Analytics
  • What’s the difference between Sessions vs. Unique Visitors vs. Page Views?
  • We discuss the changes coming in ads, meaning viewable impressions

Show Notes

This episode on Google Analytics for Food Bloggers has the following references to resources you will find valuable:

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Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast. I hope you found it informative and helpful to the work you do every day. Make sure you don’t miss out on any of the Chopped Podcast episodes by heading on over to iTunes to subscribe to the Chopped Podcast. While you’re there, provide a review and rating is a great way to help other podcast listeners find it too! That’s it for today’s podcast. As always, thanks so much for joining in the discussion!

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Posted in Food Blog Resources, Food Blogging, Podcast