Using Data to Make Decisions in Your Blogging Business with Ally Anderson

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If looking at the data on the backend of your blog overwhelms you, you’re not alone. But using data to make decisions in your blogging business is crucial – and on this episode of the Ultimate Blog Podcast, Ally Anderson is breaking down the basics you need to know.

Meet Ally Anderson

Ally is a data-backed marketing strategist who helps business owners put their time, energy, and money in the right places when it comes to their marketing. After a decade in digital marketing, she’s watched countless business owners throw marketing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks— simply because they don’t know how to track their results. She shows them how to make sense of their marketing data in simple, practical ways, so they can invest in what works and stop wasting resources on what doesn’t.

Why Bloggers Should Care About Data

You don’t want to throw marketing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks. But that’s what you end up doing if you make decisions in your blogging business without using data. 

Data is the secret weapon that helps you stop guessing and start strategizing. According to Ally, data shows you:

• Where people are finding your blog
• How they’re interacting with your content
• Whether they’re doing the things you want them to do – like signing up for your email list or reading a full post

And when you know what’s working, you can do more of that – and less of the stuff that’s eating up your time without moving the needle.

What Data Should Bloggers Track?

If you’re the type of person who gets overwhelmed or uninterested when you hear “Google Analytics,” hear Ally out: you don’t need to track everything. In fact, trying to track too much is one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make. Instead, simplify.

Ally recommends starting with a few key metrics that reflect your content strategy. Think about the steps you want someone to take from discovering you to becoming a loyal reader (or email subscriber, or product buyer). Then figure out how to measure those steps.

Here’s a basic example to get started:

• Where they found you: If you’re focusing on SEO, use Google Search Console to see how many people saw your post in search results and clicked through to your blog
• How many people visited your blog: Use Google Analytics to track pageviews for individual posts and overall traffic
• What they did on your blog: Did they scroll down the page? Did they click on any links? Did they sign up for your newsletter?

These actions tell you whether your content is engaging and effective – or if readers are bouncing before they ever get to the good stuff.

Using Data When You’re Not Analytical

If this all feels a little intimidating, don’t worry – Ally gets it. Her approach is all about making data doable. She believes that even if you’re not a “numbers person,” you can learn what you need to know to make smart decisions in your blogging business.

Here’s a quick guide to where you can find the most useful data:

• Google Search Console: Shows how your blog is performing in search results
• Google Analytics: Tells you how many people are visiting your site, what they’re looking at, and how long they’re staying
• Email platform metrics: If you’re collecting email addresses, check open rates and click-through rates to see what’s resonating

Make Decisions with Confidence

Using data doesn’t have to mean diving into the deep end of analytics. It just means paying attention to what’s working and letting go of what’s not. Ally’s advice is to pick three to five metrics that matter to you and check in on them regularly, like monthly. That’s it!

How to Make Decisions with Granular Data

Once you’ve reviewed your data and have a good idea of what’s happening on your blog, the next step is asking, “Now what?” What can you change tomorrow that could lead to better results?

Ally encourages looking at a few specific areas:

Traffic Sources

Which channels are actually driving traffic to your blog? Is it SEO? Social media? Affiliate links? Guest podcasting? Not all traffic is created equal – some sources might bring more engaged readers, while others lead to high bounce rates. Knowing this can help you focus your energy where it counts.

Content Structure and Format

What types of blog posts perform best? Do long-form deep dives get the most engagement? Analyzing this can guide your future content strategy.

Content Pillars

Do some content topics consistently perform better than others? Understanding what your audience wants more of (and what they skip) helps refine your message and maximize results.

Beyond Blog Posts: Analyze All Your Content

Whether it’s blog posts, freebies, popups, email lists, podcast guest spots, or social media, your content is going far beyond the written word. Tracking how these various efforts perform gives you the power to decide if your content and strategies are actually working. 

For example, we tested different podcast interviews by assigning a specific freebie link to each one. Some episodes brought in a wave of email subscribers – others, not so much. That insight helped us see where our time and energy was best spent.

And in the same way, if you’re feeling burnt out from doing all the things, it might be time to scale back – not by cutting corners, but by cutting what’s not working.

Ally explains it best: when you review the data, you might discover that 80% of your results are coming from just one or two strategies. Instead of adding YouTube or another social platform to your overflowing to-do list, you could double down on what’s already producing results – or improve the performance of what’s already working.

In this episode, we covered: 

• Why bloggers should care about data
• What data bloggers should track
• How to utilize data without getting overwhelmed (even when you’re not an analytical person)
• How data can help you choose the best strategies and content for your blogging business

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Check out Ally’s website and freebies, and follow her on Instagram
• Get a free gift from Ally
• Get our Beginner Blogger Tips Playlist on Spotify
• Join The Ultimate Blog Roadmap
• Check out last week’s episode on the neuroscience of storytelling with Susan Lovett!

We hope you loved this episode with Ally Anderson on using data to make decisions in your blogging business! Please leave us a comment and let us know your biggest takeaway from this episode!