How to track your website growth with my spreadsheet template
Updated: The 2019 version of the Website Growth Tracker is available! Get it here.
You know the saying "What gets measured gets managed?"
It has been the guiding mantra for my 2017 business and website goals since I wanted to seriously up my game this year.
I have so many big plans and ideas for 2017 and I knew that having a "bigger" website with a larger reach would help me achieve the kind of results I'm looking for. I knew that if I wanted to grow my website and guarantee that all my plans actually happened, I would need to get serious and stay on top of my site's data & statistics.
When it comes to growing a website, there are SO many factors that come into play. Obviously you have to look at the raw numbers of how many visits and page views your site is getting, but what about social media, product/service revenue, affiliate programs, media mentions and email list? I couldn't forget about those too!
All of these factors are major contributors to your website's growth so if you track it all in one place, you'll have a much better understanding of how your website is growing over time and if you're on track to meet your goals.
A while back I created the first version of these spreadsheets for my own personal use and expanded them over time to meet my growing needs. By setting up these spreadsheets, I was able to take information from a bunch of different places and platforms and collect it all in one central home. This has streamlined my tracking process and has made the experience of tracking my website's growth way more visual and encouraging.
Since I shared these templates with my online business friends and clients, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I figured if it was working well for us, you would find value in these website growth tracker spreadsheets too!
Watch my video to see how you can use my WEBSITE GROWTH TRACKER spreadsheets to track your own website and business growth for the rest of 2017!
Reminder: All numbers and statistics are shown for demo purposes only. They do not reflect my website or business, or those of my clients!
UPDATE: Get the 2019 version of the Website Growth Tracker spreadsheets HERE
Ready to track your website's growth?
Download the 2019 website growth tracker spreadsheets now!
Here's a quick rundown of what we cover in the video demo:
1. Log your website traffic
The first page of the spreadsheet looks at website traffic on a weekly and monthly basis. You will pull those numbers from your analytics platform (here's how to do it with Squarespace) and put them into the weekly and monthly fields. The % change in page views from previous week/month will automatically fill up.
The data will populate the timeline graphs on the right side of the page.
A look at the monthly website traffic overview section
2. Social media stats
Social media is a great way to drive traffic to your website which is why we track the number of followers on every platform regular intervals. There are fields for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest. If a particular platform doesn't apply to your website/business, simply ignore it or rename it.
We track these stats monthly, as well as the 1st and 15th of every month in the appropriate fields.
A look at the Facebook field on the social media stats page - data table and timeline graph
There's another table that shows the breakdown of audience size on each social media platform, which is a great way to see how your audience size changes if you put more effort into one platform over another. This graph automatically populates based on the data in the tables and is colour coded accordingly.
3. Track email list subscribers
Next up we look at the growth of your email list. We track these numbers monthly, as well as the 1st and 15th of every month (set a calendar reminder to stay on top of this!) so that you can see your numbers growing at different time intervals. You will input the data and the timeline graph will automatically populate, as will the % change section
A look the email list overview monthly table & timeline graph
4. Predict revenue from products or services
If you monetize your website through products or services, this section is how you'll see where the money is coming from and when it's coming in.
You will name each product/service section, input the price as well as how many you plan to sell during each quarter for an initial overview. Next up, you'll break that down further into detailed looks at Q3 (July, August, September) and Q4 (October, November, December). This allows you to predict any changes in revenue if you have a big promotion, launch, media coverage that results in sales, etc.
Product/service revenue overview
5. Keep track of media mentions
If your website or business gets any sort of media coverage, this is where you'll keep track of it. Whether it's a podcast interview, guest blog post, media feature, etc., you will log that as well as valuable information such as links and email list sign ups.
6. Log affiliate programs and predict payouts
If you use any sort of affiliate program, you can store all the program information here as well as predict how much you'll get paid out in every quarter. There's also a monthly breakdown for each program and a look at how much you'll make in commissions based on the number of sales you refer. Simply rename each affiliate program, adjust the price payout you'll receive and the number of commissions you plan to refer. The rest will autopopulate.
We also look at Q3 and Q4 breakdowns on a monthly basis for each affiliate program so that you can see how any big promotions affect your profits.
A look at the affiliate program predictions overiew section
Ready to track your website's growth?
UPDATE: Get the 2019 version of the Website Growth Tracker spreadsheets HERE.
What others are saying
Final Thoughts
I'd love to hear about the big plans you have for your website and how you plan to track your website's growth! Do you use a similar spreadsheet? Are there any key data points you focus on? Anything you haven't thought to include before?
I'd love to know so leave me a note in the comments! Also, if you have any questions about tracking your website's growth or these spreadsheets, leave a note down below and I'll be sure to answer it :)
"The website growth tracker is wonderful!!! I'm a new blogger with lower numbers so having something that is percentage of growth is very encouraging. Also, having those growth percentages is a great thing to use in pitches for brands to see how fast my influencer presence is growing so they can see that I'm a great fit for them to use.
Thank you for putting it together these templates! I actually started to build my own based on your sheets, columns, etc. but your sheets are so pretty, reasonably priced and are a timesaver so I just jumped and bought it!"
- April Brumm of Simple Classic Life