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Measuring blog traffic for visitor loyalty

Measuring blog traffic for visitor loyalty may be the single most important step in discovering the true success of your blog.

While many bloggers follow traffic numbers to determine how many readers visit their site daily, Google Analytics also provides a means for determining how many of the readers are return visitors and have visited your blog repeatedly for information.

Measuring visitor loyalty on your blog can help you:

• determine how much of your traffic is due to one time or two time visitors and how much is due to visitors who may have returned 50 or even 100 times to your blog
• give a better picture of the community your blog is building by showing how many faithful readers now return regularly to your site
• help you measure the overall success of your blog by helping you determine the difference between a slowly increasing following and the normal peaks and valleys of day to day visits

Watch this video from Google on how new customized tools can help you learn more about visitors to your site:

Professional blogging with Google Analytics

An important tool for professional blogging sites is Google Anaytics.

If you haven't yet created a free Google Analytics account for your blog or other Web site, you may be missing out on a valuable opportunity to learn more about your visitors.

screenshot google analytics, originally uploaded by svensonsan.

To create your free account, simply:

• Visit the Google Analytics site and click the "sign up now" button. (You'll need to sign up for a Google account first, if you haven't got one.)
• Enter a current e-mail address, create a pass word, approve the Google terms of service and continue.
• A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you provided. Confirm your e-mail and you will be taken directly to your new Google account.

Now it's time to sign up for the Analytics service:

• First, click on the Analytics button on your main Google Accounts site to take you to the Google Analytics sign up
• Then, hit the "sign up" button and travel to the new account signup section where you will be asked for your URL (the address of your blog), your account name and the country and time zone where you reside.
• Fill in additional identification information for your new Analytics account, approve the Analytics terms of service agreement, and paste the Analytics tracking code into your blog or Web site (You'll want to use the code on every page of your Web site and for blogs consult the instructions for your blog platform about the best place for the code.)

For more on what the Analytics tool can do for you, watch this video from Google: