A look inside the Google Analytics data from 20 parenting blogs. Averages, trends, observations and more.

1. There is always a lot of
talk about numbers in the
blogosphere. But with
Visitors? Page views? only your own stats to
Impressions? Bounce look at, it is hard to know
rate? Referrers? how you are doing.
HELP!!! So, I asked parenting
bloggers to volunteer to
let me look under the
hood of their blogs (i.e.
into their Google
Analytics). From the
volunteers, I chose 20
blogs that range from big
to small, single author to
multi-author, frequent to
infrequent posts, and
cover a wide variety of
topics and techniques.
This document
summarizes the key
findings from my analysis.
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs
ge s ,
ges, ranques
Avera , techni
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Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

2. THE 20 BLOGS
Baby Rabies Making it up
http://babyrabies.com http://liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup/
Big City Belly The Minimalist Mom
http://bigcitybelly.com http://www.theminimalistmom.com
Brain Foggles A Mother in Israel
http://brainfoggles.com http://www.amotherinisrael.com/
Coffee with Julie PhD in Parenting
http://coffeewithjulie.ca http://phdinparenting.com
Cora’s Story Rookie Moms
http://www.corasstory.org http://www.rookiemoms.com
Dagmar Bleasdale So much shouting, so much laughter
http://www.dagmarbleasdale.com http://somuchshoutingsomuchlaughter.com/
Eco Child’s Play Strocel
http://ecochildsplay.com http://www.strocel.com
Feels Like Home Blog Support for Special Needs
http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com http://supportforspecialneeds.com/
Lil Kid Things Tales of a Ranting Ginger
http://www.lilkidthings.com http://www.talesofarantingginger.com/
A Little Bit of Momsense Untrained Housewife
http://bitofmomsense.com http://www.untrainedhousewife.com
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

3. Key Stats for the Blogs What is
n
parenti ormal for a
The study looked at the Google Analytics for the blogs for May 2011 ng
blogger blog?
A lot of
to April 2012, as well as their social media presence on key platforms. stats ar s wonder
e within i
normal the ran f their
This table provides an overview of some of the key metrics examined fo r a p a ge of
this dat re
a shows nting blog. As
for the blogs, noting the median and average number, as well as the range o ,t
f norma here is a wide
l.
low and high among the twenty blogs examined.
Low Median Average High
Average Visits/Month 1,668 8,466 19,515 91,490
Average Page Views/Month 2,805 12,951 30,784 155,137
Facebook Page “Likes”* 132 1,445 2,630 13,118
Twitter Followers 698 5,045 12,018 75,609
Months of Existence 15 49 52 107
Average Posts/Month** 9 17 25 75
Average Visit Duration 0:14 1:35 1:39 3:53
Pages / Visit 1.06 1.64 1.65 2.49
% New Visitors 36% 66% 68% 99%
* Two of the blogs in the study did not have facebook pages and were excluded from this item.
** Since the blog was created
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

4. Holiday-themed contest and
post series goes viral. Close to
50% of traffic from Facebook. Weekly Traffic
May 2011 to April 2012
Weekly traffic for most of the blogs
remained somewhat consistent, growing
Home-related how- slowly over the course of the year. Blogs
to post. Close to
75% of traffic from among the top 10 (in terms of traffic) were
StumbleUpon. more likely to have a viral event than blogs
in the bottom 10. Facebook, StumbleUpon
and Pinterest were the most likely sources
of big jumps.
Pinterest became
key sustained Direct traffic around
source of traffic. 20x usual number. No
clear explanation.
Advocacy-related
post. More than
50% from Facebook.
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

5. Where does the TRAFFIC come from?
Traffic sources are put into four categories: How
· Direct: People who came to the blog directly, Direct 20 referen -to or
i.e. by typing in the URL or using a bookmark. get mo ce blogs
re se
· Search: People who arrived via a search engine. traffic. arch
Search 35
· Campaign: Specific ad campaign codes the
blogger has set up to track and traffic from their
RSS feed if integrated with Feedburner. Campaign 4
· Referrers: Clicks from social media sites and
from other websites, including other blogs. Referrers 41
The blogs tended to be either search-heavy or
referrer-heavy, with social media presence, Google
Page Rank/SEO, and blog type being key
determinants. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Top Referrers
Facebook 23 Facebook Rules
Among referrers, Facebook is the most 1 “lik
consistent source of traffic for these blogs. Faceboe” of a
o
is worth k page
Twitter 12
13X as about
A Stumble Can Make Traffic Soar
blog vismany
StumbleUpon doesn’t provide consistent
traffic, but if a post is popular on
StumbleUpon 8
StumbleUpon it can mean a huge surge in one tw its as
it
traffic. followe ter
r.
Pinterest 3
Pinterest is Growing
Pins are the latest and probably fastest growing source of traffic.
LinkWithin 1
Other Blogs
Other blogs are a significant traffic source under “other referrers.”
Other Referrers 52
Legend:
· Orange Bar = Range Across All Blogs
· Number in Circle = Average
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

6. What Type of Posts Interest Readers?
There are some definite patterns in the most popular posts across the blogs examined. I looked at the
top 50 posts across the blogs in the study (they came from 9 of the 20 blogs) and noticed that some
types of posts were more popular than others. This list shows the breakdown by number of posts in
that category among the top 50.
Ideas posts usually included lists of ideas for milestones,
15 Ideas/Advice occasions, holidays, life events or handling parenting
problems. Often use numbers: e.g. “Top 10” or “25 Ways To.”
Step-by-step instructions and pictures for home
14 DIY Instructions decorating, items for babies and children, cooking and
baking, gifts, etc.
Posts providing opinions, usually backed up by
13 Research/Opinion research or critical thought, or summarizing
research on an issue relating to parenting.
Shopping guides or comparative reviews
4 Review/Shopping Guide of multiple products in the same category
were sometimes popular.
Posts that are intended to make parents laugh
2 Humour/Inspiration or inspire their approach to parenting.
2 Contest Fun contests, with a great prize can
reviewys
bring a lot of traffic. uct
e prodways rarel
Singl ive-a
and g a lot of traffic.
bring
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

7. The
perce blogs tha
All of the blogs that get a lot of search traffic have at tende ntage of t had the
least a few posts that are obviously in demand by from d to get search tra highest
online searchers and that bring continuous traffic to Posts the arch much m ffic also
writt i o
their blogs. en w ves on there value
giving ay in th ir blog
and g e past .
iving. kept
What do the most “findable” blogs do right?
Help people answer their questions
People go to Google with their questions. If you write about things that many people ask themselves,
it is likely to bring traffic your way. The DIY and ideas posts that are so popular often get most of their
traffic from search engines. People like to search for “How to…” or “What is…”. Matching the title of
your post with their question can help improve search results.
Use descriptive adjectives
Convince people to click on your post by adding descriptive adjectives that make it appealing or that
they may be searching for. “Best” or “healthy” or “easy” are clickable words.
Use lists
People like lists. Instead of writing a rambling post with thoughts on your trip to Florida, write about
the Top 5 Things To Do With Kids in Florida. Instead of a long-winded rant about how much you hate
shopping at a particular store, write 10 Things I Hate About ____.
Write about something unique
Find a topic you can write about that not many others have before. Unless your blog already has a
great search ranking, it is unlikely to end up in the top page of searches for a popular topic. But if you
write about something not many have, it may work. If you had trouble finding something online, that
may be a great topic to write about because others may be looking too.
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com

8. What Does All This Mean?
All these blogs are different
and what works for one
won’t necessarily work for
another. But if your goal is to
increase traffic, you should
probably consider:
· Writing ideas, DIY or
opinion/research posts on
interesting and sought-
after topics.
· Using titles and content
with keywords that people
would search for to
increase the findability of
your posts on search
engines (basic SEO).
· Creating a facebook page
and building the
community you have there
by engaging with your
readers.
· Making it easy for your
readers to share your
posts on a variety of social
networks, including
StumbleUpon and
Pinterest.
· Ensure you’re having fun
and let your voice and
passion shine through.
Looking Under the Hood of Parenting Blogs -- © PhD in Parenting Blog 2012 -- www.phdinparenting.com