the five most popular posts
I enjoy math. I like spreadsheets and equations and black + white answers. A frequent question from friends and colleagues is "How many people read your blog?" When I answer, they often wonder how I know.
After this blog was up and running for a couple of months, I installed an invisible (because, I'll be honest, the visible ones are a bit tacky, in my opinion...) stat counter. Above is the visitor count for the past six months. Another feature I enjoy is the keyword analysis. Here's a random sampling from the past couple of searches...how do you get events on pearl, and wooden aisle runners. I've never blogged about either of those topics in particular, but Google brings them here anyway.
Besides keywords, the stat counter tells me what posts are the most popular. In addition to the Link Love page (which is always number one) and our Portfolio page, the top five posts that get the most traffic are listed below. I noticed they were all written about a year or so ago, which tells me I need to get on my game again and start spending more time writing articles, well, instead of sharing cold, hard facts with you about my archives.
1. Birdcage veils, February 2008
2. Non-floral centerpieces, January 2008
3. Fabulous carnations, December 2007
4. Winter wonderland wedding, January 2008
5. An amazing tented reception, December 2007
Do you keep track of your statistics? If so, what are you learning from your stats? Are your readers local or worldwide? What are your most popular posts? Do people continue returning to read more? How long do they stay on your page? This is all info a counter can tell you.
[side note :: From what I understand, a stat counter cannot track people who read your blog from an RSS feed such as Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. These stats are merely the people who actually visit your URL.]
7 lovely comment(s):
Thank you so much for sharing this...I am still learing a lot about blogging so this was really helpful. I was always curious if the number of visitors on my dashboard was correct or not. I added a stat counter to my page so we'll see how it works. Thanks again.
have you tried google analytics? i might be mistaken, but i think that it tracks RSS/google reader visits too! and it's free!
This is an area that I was just discussing with my assistant yesterday...how ironic. I have stat counter connected to my site and blog but I was wondering how to draw more traffic to both. I'm a numbers junkie and I love seeing the results in black in white. It takes a lot of extra time to keep a blog updated with interesting and pertinent information and the stat counter is evidence that it's worth it. I love sharing our event photos and details with our followers but I WANT MORE! :) Any suggestions?
Aletha, I'm convinced your the blog guru and I'll trade you coffee, lunch or a few cosmos for some free advice. :)
Thank you for wonderful blog. I appreciate it!
Jenn
Jessica - I've tried Google Analytics, however I liked Stat Counter much better. Not sure why, but I think it's because it was easier for me to navigate and I can get more info from it. Or at least info that I care about. I didn't explore it completely, so maybe I should give it a better try!
Jenn - you know I have a whole slew of suggestions. And I'm up for lunch any ole' day to discuss.
I was just going to suggest google analytics as well. I had a bit of an issue getting used to it at first since it's pretty overwhelming all the info you can pull from it. But I'm in love with it now that I've been playing around with it for a bit.
If you want some help trying it out again I'd love to give you a hand.
I know you were kidding around about this post not being interesting but it certainly is. You see, I'm always shocked of what my top hitting posts are too. Typically they are the ones with inspiration boards, actually. But there are also some weird ones to be the main interest -- I think it all has to do with the keywords in them. Still, it's fascinating!
They do track google reader and other reader apps, not just the url. Google analytics (which used to be Urchin Analytics and was around $300 a month before Google bought it) will give you much much much more information and is better for setting strategy for the future, but statcounter is easier to read and good for an overview snapshot.
Post a Comment