Hey Gang,
Just shot a video on how to find out where your traffic is coming from within G4A, as well as how to go to the specific platform you are getting your traffic from to find relevant keywords and ideas to write about.
It is a bit long, so I do apologize for talking about 20 minutes (I can get carried away sometimes, haha).
Here's the video:
(Experimental) Summary:
In this video, I walk through how I use Google Analytics, along with platform-specific insights, to identify where my website traffic is coming from and how I tailor my content strategy accordingly. First, I show how to navigate Google Analytics by going to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition. There, I examine broad sources like organic social, direct, organic search, and referral, noting which platforms drive the most visitors. For example, I discover that a significant portion of my traffic actually comes from Bing—not just Google—so I consider looking into Bing Webmaster Tools to optimize for that search engine.
Next, I explain how to break down each traffic source further by selecting session source/medium, which helps me see exactly which platforms (like Pinterest, Facebook, or DuckDuckGo) are sending visitors. This informs my decision on where to focus my efforts. If I notice that Pinterest is a top performer, I’ll keep creating idea- or inspiration-based content that resonates with Pinterest users. If search engines are driving traffic, I’ll look into what keywords I’m ranking for in Google Search Console or consider how to better optimize for Bing.
I also show how I use platform-specific analytics—such as Pinterest Trends or built-in Facebook Page and Group insights—to find out what topics my audience is most interested in. On Pinterest, for instance, I might learn that my audience is really into “raised garden beds,” so I’ll brainstorm related posts or visuals that align with those interests. On Facebook, I can sort published posts by reach or views to see which topics performed best and then develop similar content.
Throughout this process, I remind myself that each platform’s audience has different preferences. Pinterest users love inspirational, visually driven ideas (like “25 goat pen ideas”), whereas Google often rewards detailed how-to articles. On Facebook, I pay close attention to which posts get the most comments or engagement in my groups. If I see a popular discussion on donating clutter, for example, I might create an article on “10 Organizations to Donate Your Clutter To,” since it clearly resonates with my community.
Ultimately, my goal is to take the data—whether from Google Analytics, Pinterest, or Facebook—and use it to craft content that genuinely helps my audience and performs well on the platforms they frequent. Even if some keywords aren’t high-volume on Google, I still want to serve my specific audience’s needs, because that’s how I provide real value and keep them engaged.
great helpfull videos Andy, thanks, will check it out
Finally went through this for my English Africa site, where I restarted adding articles and promoting it on Facebook, where I have a new page growing with adds and Diane works on it to.
So obviously, most traffic comes from Facebook now (or 'direct'), and my intend was to have it join on Journey, while the page is growing nicely (almost 1000 followers in not even 2 weeks time)
Just like you, I'm surprised that Bing is actually also catching up a little, with mostly old articles, no clue why that happens all of a sudden lol.
So yes, I was already thinking about updating those articles with the ranking keywords on Bing and doing those as we speak, who knows how much traffic we'll get from Bing hahaha!
( Google still doesn't even index my posts, but don't care at this point any longer, especially not for my Africa site. I still have about 200 clicks per day to my miniature site though, heu? 🙂 )
Long story short, I have about a 100 clicks per day already from Facebook mostly, and I've read that if you already joined Journey or Mediavine with one site and got accepted, that a second, third site, etc, would be easily accepted as well, even though I'm far from the 10k minimum per month.
So yeah, I had a goal, still have it, and let's go monetize this one with the help of Facebook (again, ugh, lol)
Here comes the but: I'm still going to try on Journey, but now people are saying everywhere that they got thrown of of Mediavine/Journey because of to much 'listicle articles', made with AI on their sites. Now, that is exactly what I have been doing with all the new blog posts, they are mainly listicles. Did you hear about this? I still have a lot of older ones that were written by me or by a writer though, from before AI, so maybe they will be more indulgent with me, especially I hardly have 'listicles' on my miniature site and I got accepted easily there.
If not, back to monumetrics maybe? Untill one day I might get to Raptive traffic, I keep dreaming lol!
thanks!
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her Yup - I know all about Journey removing people from their ad platform. They removed me just last week! LOL. So I'm currently searching around to see where to go to. I think it was probably due to the number of recipe articles that I had.
I have two others still on Medavine/Journey, and they haven't removed them, so it's not per account, it's just per site. Journey also accepts any site with a minimum of 1K traffic. So if you're hitting that already, I would try and see what they say. Worst they say is no.
@andy oh my gosh, that s**ks! It's not getting easier for us niche sites owners, is it, ugh. Thanks for that info, I'll install their plugin soon. You're right, might as well give it a try. Let us know where you go to with that one site!
@andy I was watching a YouTube video earlier, where they were using this food website as an example of success, and it seems to be entirely recipe based! She also details her exact income, and where it's from, which is quite interesting. https://midwestfoodieblog.com/
@diane Nice find! That's pretty impressive, especially since the majority is from ad revenue. Really need to convince my wife to start her cooking blog, LOL.
@andy Bummer, haven't been accepted by Journey for my Africa niche, but not unexpected. I'll just head to adsense for a while, until I reach 10K and maybe join Monumetrics or Ezoic (although I really disliked Ezoïc when I used it before for my mini site, maybe they have improved?).
Also the problem is (they kind of implied that in their disapproval), that most of my traffic is now coming from South Africa. Logical for an Africa niche LOL.
Did you switch in the meantime to somewhere else?
@ohnoo_not_her Yeah, I switched back to Monumetric, since they accepted me (again). I probably won't get as much as I'm making from Journey, but at least it will be something. We're revamping the site - basically pairing down who exactly we're going to target, and then go from there. We'll see what happens.
@andy I see, that's what I'll probably try as well then once I reach 10K. Focusing on Facebook again at the moment. It's working, but a bit slower than I thought. Will have to step it up. In the meantime, got accepted by AdSense, it's not much, but it's a start indeed!
Leave a reply