Other Monthly Reviews
Analytical Summary
In the last (April 2016) Monthly Review, the comment was made:
We can however hope that May will provide a more positive note and help restore confidence all around. With today (1 May) being my church’s album launch, a whole raft of new content is pending…
The statistics presented above all reflect that May was indeed a positive upturn across the board. Given the horrendous performance of April, the correction that is represented by May was to be expected. Indeed, if we ignore the statistics for April and compare May to March, the number of visitors shows we improved almost to a point of parity with January. May’s increase in visits grew twice as fast as March which will also set a challenging benchmark for June. The year-on-year increase is finally positive (20%) after seven consecutive months of negative comparisons – this is also a reflection that May was a low point during 2015. With the three-month-moving average back to above 500, the trend is restored to a positive 12% increase for the quarter.
The view count is the second highest for 2016, and a respectable one at that given the record set in January. In the end, the # of views fell a bit short of the 1000 milestone, but given there is an increase in readership and stickiness, as the Views/Visitor metric suggests, we will celebrate May as an overall great month of activity for XBOP. The final metric of Average Views/Day also indicates a growing dedication to XBOP – 32.8 views on average per day. Overall, May 2016 has been a solid month for XBOP.
A review of the detailed statistical report revealed a slight discrepancy in the calculation of the three-month-moving average % metric. This discrepancy treated the values in a similar comparison to the other percentage-based metrics. In reality, the formula for both three-month-moving average metrics should be aligned. This change is effective as of this Monthly Review and only has a minor change on the actual metric historical numbers.
Posting Activity
With 16 posts published over the month, including the previous April Monthly Review report, April’s activity has helped to break the previous drought in content release. With Sunday 1 May being the album launch of Higher Than I, the focus for the month was predominantly on each of the songs. Given the huge traffic spike that Clayton Church benefited from (at least four-fold), a partial spill-over to XBOP may have been part of the increased traffic here.
One of the interesting ways to observe is that a public search for the album title shows that my posts are being indexed by Google and are thus registering as #4 and #6 on the list of potential search results, as seen in the next image on the right. When you refine the search to “Higher Than I” + Clayton, the first two results bring up the two official YouTube videos.
The search result screenshot for this one is available below on the left. Other than the #3 result which appears to be a blog, the seven remaining slots all point to XBOP. This is a great testimony and case study of effective search engine optimisation – SEO! One of the interesting things about this phenomenon is that the most obvious search result – http://www.claytonchurch.org.au/album – is conspicuously absent. The reason for its absence is the difference between two websites and their respective approaches to search engine optimisation. Recent volunteering to help with my church website has allowed me to see first-hand the setting that drives these two outcomes. It is one of my recommendations that this setting be reversed using the insights documented here as the best evidence supporting the clear value and benefit of proper search engine optimisation.
If May was a busy month filled with events that prevented a more active commitment to blogging here at XBOP, then June will be an even bigger challenge given the busy social calendar. One small but key change that may start to also influence XBOP online visibility is the fact that Google+ has been added to the list of services which posts are publicised to via JetPack. When you view the screenshots, the Google+ instances are clearly distinguishable because they include the profile photo.
I reiterate my commitment to completing the entire series that has just commenced in reviewing the Family Christmas Cruise that took place in December 2015. The 2016 pipeline also includes the bible verse focus on My Identity in Christ plus a new writing serial which has emerged from the result of life group discussions – Exercising Faith. This latest idea is, briefly, going to reflect the weekly bible studies which have been commenced in my life-group. The first introductory article was really a throwback to the the theme and activities that we have been putting into practice since 2014 as a group. The material and studies that become the life group focus in the next six weeks appears to lend itself directly into the upcoming program that Clayton Church is launching in June as a prayer event – 40 Days of Community. Thus, these two main topics are likely to drive XBOP content from a personal journal effort, and the challenge will be to ensure one of my two or three weekly posts covers these topics.
Two upcoming trips and a major event are in the pipeline in terms of life external/separate to XBOP/online. With June being my birthday month, only time will determine just whether these plans will be turned into reality. Finally, my desire to grow XBOP in terms of showcasing external parties has taken a different course. Interestingly, I discovered another blogger within my very own life group – so this opportunity may be explored in greater detail in the future too.
Today is officially the first day of Winter. Stay warm and healthy everyone!
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