Let’s talk blog post analysis shall we? I’ve been there poured my heart into a post only to watch it flop like a dead fish while some silly GIF-fest goes viral.

Check our top articles on How to Use Excel to Run a Blog Content Analysis

It’s enough to make you question everything right? But don’t despair my friend! We can use the mighty Excel spreadsheet to wrangle those blog stats and make some sense of it all.

This ain’t rocket science but it does require a little elbow grease (and maybe some coffee).

How to Use Excel to Run a Blog Content Analysis

Table of Contents

Harnessing the Power of Excel for Blog Content Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

This isn’t about just looking at numbers; it’s about understanding why those numbers are what they are. Think of it as a detective story where the clues are hidden in your blog’s performance data. We’re gonna unravel this mystery together.

Step 1: Gathering Your Data – The Foundation of Our Investigation

First things first we need the raw material.

This means exporting all your relevant blog post data.

Depending on your blogging platform (WordPress HubSpot Squarespace etc.) the process varies slightly but you’re generally looking to grab things like:

Post Views: How many eyeballs actually saw your masterpiece?
URL: The unique web address for each post. This is crucial for matching data later on.
Author: Knowing who wrote what helps you assess individual performance.
Publish Date: When did you unleash this piece of digital brilliance (or less-than-brilliant content)?
Leads Generated: How many potential customers did this post snag? This usually requires linking your blog analytics to your CRM or lead generation software.

Some platforms like HubSpot make exporting this information pretty straightforward.

Others may require a bit more digging.

Remember that time I spent three hours trying to figure out how to export data from that obscure platform? Yeah don’t be me.

Step 2: Cleaning Up Your Data – Making it Excel-Friendly

Raw data is rarely pretty.

It’s often messy and inconsistent.

Before you can start crunching numbers you’ll need to clean this data up.

This is where the detective work begins!

URL Harmonization: Matching the Clues

You might find that your URL data looks slightly different across different exported files. One might start with “http://yourblog.com” while another just shows the post-specific part of the URL. Excel won’t automatically recognize these as the same URL. So use the “Find and Replace” function to standardize your URLs. Remember to replace all instances of the shorter URL with the full URL to avoid mismatches. This is super important for accurate analysis!

Date Formatting: Keeping Time Straight

Dates and times can be incredibly messy; one spreadsheet might include the time while another only has the date.

Excel might not recognize these as the same date unless they are formatted identically.

If you have date-time stamps use the “Text to Columns” feature to split the date and time into separate columns.

Then format your date columns consistently using Excel’s date formatting options.

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Failing to do so can lead to inaccurate monthly summaries later on.

I learned this the hard way! It was a whole thing.

Step 3: Combining Data – Putting the Pieces Together

Now we’re getting somewhere! Once your data is clean it’s time to merge those individual spreadsheets into one magnificent data-rich spreadsheet.

The VLOOKUP Magic: Connecting Views and Leads

The VLOOKUP function is our secret weapon here.

This function allows you to look up information from one table and pull it into another based on a common identifier (in our case the URL). It might seem a little intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it it’s a real time saver.

Use the “Formula Builder” to help you if the syntax confuses you— it’s like having a tiny Excel guru guiding you through the process.

It’s much less scary than it sounds.

Pro-Tip: Error Handling

Excel can throw errors sometimes (like the dreaded #N/A). This usually happens if the VLOOKUP can’t find a matching URL. Use the IFERROR function to catch these errors and replace them with a more user-friendly message or a zero so your analysis remains smooth.

Step 4: Analysis Time – Uncovering the Insights

Finally we get to the fun part! Let’s use Excel’s powerful analytical tools to get some real answers!

Pivot Tables: The Powerhouse of Analysis

Pivot tables are Excel’s unsung heroes.

They’re incredibly versatile and allow you to summarize and group your data in numerous ways.

Monthly Lead Generation: Create a pivot table to summarize lead generation by month. This helps you see monthly trends and identify peak performance periods.
Author Performance: Add the “Author” field to your pivot table to compare individual author performance. This helps you identify your top performers (and maybe some areas for improvement).
Keyword Analysis: Create a pivot table based on keywords to understand which topics and keywords drive the most leads or engagement. This can be invaluable when planning future content.

Level up your blog game! 🚀 Want to stop guessing and actually understand what’s working (and what’s totally flopping)? This guide shows you how to use Excel to analyze your blog like a pro. Check out this awesome guide to blog analysis with Excel! Spreadsheet sorcery awaits! ✨
Time-Based Analysis (beyond monthly): You can even group your data by week quarter or even specific date ranges depending on your needs and how granular you want to get in your analysis.

Conditional Formatting: Visualizing the Data

Don’t underestimate the power of visual cues.

Use conditional formatting to highlight top-performing posts or months.

A quick glance can reveal patterns that might be harder to spot in a sea of numbers.

It’s like adding a colorful spotlight to your data.

SUMIF Function: Targeted Analysis

Use the SUMIF function for more specific questions such as:

“How many leads did posts containing the keyword ‘Marketing’ generate?”
“What is the average number of views for posts written by John?”

It’s all about asking targeted questions and letting Excel do the heavy lifting.

Step 5: Actionable Insights – Putting the Data to Work

So you’ve done all this work now what? The goal is to use your findings to inform your future content strategy.

Remember this isn’t just about celebrating wins it’s also about identifying areas for improvement.

Here are some examples of actionable insights you can gather:

Identify High-Performing Topics: What themes resonate most strongly with your audience? Double down on those!
Recognize Underperforming Content: Why are some posts underperforming? Is it the topic the title the writing quality or something else?
Improve Content Quality: Are there recurring patterns in high-performing posts? Can you replicate those patterns to boost your future content’s success?
Optimize for SEO: Analyze keywords to help you optimize future posts for search engines.
Refine Content Promotion: Which channels are driving the most traffic and leads? Prioritize those channels in your future promotion efforts.
Evaluate Author Performance: Do some authors consistently outperform others? Leverage their expertise. Maybe it’s time for some additional coaching or training for some underperforming authors.

Remember this isn’t a one-time thing.

Regularly analyze your blog post performance to stay ahead of the game.

This detailed process allows for thorough analysis of blog performance in order to glean valuable insights for the future.

By using Excel as your trusty sidekick you can transform blog data from a confusing mess into a powerful tool that helps you reach more people and achieve your goals.

So fire up that spreadsheet and get analyzing! You got this!