Tips: Blog Stats
Posted on | July 14, 2008 | 10 Comments |
Before I get to that, let me give you the details on this card… this was leftover paper from the digital paper that I used for my bookmark a few post back. I used my Making Memories foam stamp, ribbon, and my own handwriting for the “you.” Super simple.
Now for geek info… if you didn’t come in directly to this post, click on the read more or whatever that link is below for the complete entry. This post is longer than usual but I want to be somewhat thorough even though I will try to keep it simple. If you want to know about blog stats though, keep reading.
On my backend, I have three stats applications that are linked up to this site. Am I number hungry? No. I actually just use my WordPress one on a daily basis but if I want details on how my blog is doing then I’ll go to Google Analytics and AWStats (which is freely available to me through my hosting company). Why so many? Well, here’s the basic scoop:
WordPress is a basic stats app. All it does it give me two days worth of referrers, top posts/pages, top clicks, top keyword search, last ten incoming links, and a running graph like my example here that calculate total views. This stats is a part of WP and when I log in I see it on WP’s control panel aka the dashboard. It’s convenient and for everyday stuff, it’s super nice for a brief overview.
But, what you’ll find is that WP stats plug-in lacks details and if you’re all about details or just curious where everybody’s from and want to improve your site in many different ways, you want to go up to the next (free) level.
Google Analytics is free to all and it’s super easy to install too. All you have to do is grab the script (I click on edit and then Check Status on the top right to get to the script, it might be different for new accounts, I can’t remember) and install it in the footer of your blog/site. Why the footer? GA doesn’t care where the script is, header, footer, body as long as it can access it and it’s on the pages you want GA to work on. But, based on experience and other web folks’ experiences, the footer is best because if GA is slow for any reason, your page will still load. Only the footer portion (and who reads the footer anyways, right, ha!) will be the one lagging. So this way, your readers will still be able to quickly load your page and browse through whether or not GA is slow or down at that time.
For those using WordPress, the hosted version (since you have no access to your template codes unless you upgrade), go to your widget and select a text widget. Paste this script in that text area and you’re good to go. Where is this footer? In Blogger, go to Layout –> Edit HTML –>> insert code before </body>. The rest of you… if you’ve installed something on your own web server you got to know where your footer is {::SMILES}.
If you don’t know what GA is, why don’t you watch this video first:
So, what do you think? Nice huh?
But still, why use GA instead of just be happy with WP’s? Besides all the details, WP only calculates the total post/page views and not the actual visitors. What’s the difference? First there are two types of visitors: visitors and (absolute) unique visitors. For example, I visit your site two this month and during the two visits I looked at 10 different blog posts (also assume that in the last 30 days I haven’t deleted my cookies). So, GA would calculate me as a (one) unique visitor but since I visited twice, it’ll also add my two visits to the “Visits” and my 10 to the “Pagview” tally. Now if you look at my samples stats again, it’ll make more sense. Since January, I’ve had a little over 14,500 visitors and some of you have visited more than once which adds up to 23,800 and some. From the 23,800 visits, almost 40,500 posts/pages were viewed. GA gave me a 1.70 average and an average time one spends on my site EACH visit. What’s this bounce rate? It’s high! Well, since it’s a blog, most people would pop into a post and leave. That’s what a bounce is, if one visits ones page and bounces of it soon after without visiting any other post/page. The good news, I have 60% of new visits. Not bad for a six month old blog {::SMILES}.
The other very neat thing about Google Analytics is the map overlay under the Visitors menu in the control panel. Try it out and see where your visitors are coming from. I have people visiting from itty bitty places in Africa or the Middle East. It’s amazing! I can’t imagine what bigger blogs/sites map is like. Under Content, you will also find a Site Overlay menu. Try it out and you can see where people are clicking on the most. Now, I must say Crazy Egg’s service is nicer for this. Besides a few other basic stats and more graphical interface stuff, this is what I go to GA for.
The rest, this is where AWStats come in. AWStats is a web raw counter. It counts everything unless you set it up not to. Now, since this service is hooked up to my hosting company, I have no control on what it spits out so again, just like GA, I don’t use all the info. Here’s what I do use:
The unique and visitor count.
Why? Didn’t Google Analytics just did that for me?
Well, here’s the scoop, GA uses a JavaScript and cookies. Some people do turn these two off on their browser. But I don’t do it because of that since the 10% who do turn them off are power users (not very likely to regular a stampin/scrappin site). I use AWStats because I have it and because it uses IPs to count visitors where GA uses cookies. Of course both have pros and cons for example a dial-up person can be counted as unique twice by AWStats if during the month the ISP gave them two different IP address for the computer. Or, I can delete my cookies today and I’ll be a new unique person per GA. So no one application is going to be 100% accurate but if I use two and average them out, I’ll have a good idea of my visitor trends.
Also, you’ll notice that I have a higher count (much higher in Pageview) in AWStats than Google Analytics. Keep in mind that AWS tracks EVERYTHING where GA tracks pages and not everything in that page. So if I have five images in one page, I’ll have six views in AWS instead of one in GA. So I don’t even look at this, I just look at the unique and the visitor on this portion. AWS also gives me robots aka bots stats that crawls through my site and through this I can see when a search engine has come in, checked out my site, and added it to their list so that people can Google or Yahoo me (it’s quite impressive!). AWS also counts the people who came in (direct link to file) to just download my pdf or freebies and my videos that I have installed on my server (not on YouTube/Revver), and more which GA doesn’t do.
The rest… I look at both, for example the keywords, even though I do like GA look better. But, I’m not trying to get up in the search engine ladder and so I’m ok with the keywords that I came up with. If you are trying to get up in rank though, keywords, tags, and such is important for search engines.
Do you need all the above? No. Like I said, I just have them and so I just pick and choose what I believe is the best information. I don’t look at Google Analytics/AWStats often, maybe once a month when I remember. But, if you have choose one, I’ll definitely go for GA. It’s free and it is nice looking.
As a closing… this is also why I don’t have blog giveaways based on my visitors because I have no clue which counter to go by. Naturally it’ll be AWStats since it was automatically installed since this blog was installed but I haven’t really blogged here until mid-November but my Google counter wasn’t installed until mid-December and my WordPress until mid-January. I can’t though go by WP since it’s a page view and not visitor.
Alright, my longest post ever. We’ll see if anybody actually reads it.
Thanks for posting all of the information. I have wordpress. What was it that I amsupposed to copy and paste for the stats. I am so computer challenged!
Add a CommentSorry, I made an error. Can’t do in hosted WP, only installed.
Add a CommentYes, I’ve read all LOL
Add a CommentThanks for the information. Normally I just read your post through my Google Reader. Does that give you a pageview count also?
Yup! If you right click on a post that comes in your web reader like Google or Yahoo reader, you can see the GA script. It can be on the bottom or the top but it’s there somewhere.
Add a CommentThank you so much ! i actually read to the end cos I rarely come across this sorta posting ! very helpful – thanks you so much again !
Add a CommentI read it! But I’m a geek like that! *wink* Thanks for the info. I’m off to check out GA. I dabbled with it a bit and also use CrazyEgg, but I’m too cheap to bump from the “free” status. lol
Add a CommentMe too… me cheap. Don’t need it, just looks cool :)
Add a CommentI read it – was awed by all the graphics and had to read it again to figure it out.. I went onto GA – but then it said that I needed a code to start “tracking”… and that’s where I decided that I have no real computer skillz and I heard the Raspberry Truffles Sorbet calling me from the fridge…. so here I am typing in between spoonfuls of yumminess…..
Add a Commentps – love the card – the background of the card is awesome! and i LOVE your handwriting!
No, you don’t need computer skills… how-to in the next post.
Add a CommentNice info. I like all of the details. I’ve been using StatCounter (free). I check it every now and then. But why not try GA since its free too. Thanks for doing the homework for us.
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