An email group I belong to has recently been discussing each other's blogs, trying to improve them. One of the things that comes up often in the discussions is the need to track traffic on our sites.
I'm going to come right out and say that I think the practice of displaying the number of hits directly on your site is passé. I know that people will disagree with me on this, but here's my reasoning: if your blog is popular, people can tell. You'll get a lot of comments, the blog will rank highly in Google for various keywords, you'll get a lot of Diggs, or whatever. And while you might think a certain number of hits is impressive, your audience will probably have a different opinion.
However, I think that it's vitally important to track the traffic on your website for your own purposes. How are you going to know which tactics work to increase traffic, and which don't? And luckily there are simple tools that let you do just that.
By far my favorite is Google Analytics. Anyone with a Google account can go to the Analytics site, sign in, and download the code for the tool. (I don't know if Google accounts are still invite only, but if you need an invite, let me know). Blogger layouts and Weebly layouts (and I'm sure others) have html modules that you can put anywhere on the page - plunk your code in there, and you're set! Later, you can sign in to Analytics and take a look at your stats. Analytics displays breakdowns of the information into various formats, including snazzy graphs and charts. In addition, you can get different chunks of code for different sites you own, and view all the statistics in one place.
I also have a Site Meter widget on my blog, way down at the bottom. I admit that if you click on it, you can see my statistics. However, in order to do so you'd have to know what Site Meter is, and you'd probably have a good reason for wanting to know my stats (i.e., to find out whether I'd be a good host for a blog book tour). The information is available, but only to people who need it. Site Meter is another good site for checking your own statistics, not quite as suited to my purposes as Analytics, but it does a decent job and I can check it easily from my blog anytime.
Another statistic tracker I've come across is StatCounter. I haven't used this one personally, but I've tried to click on StatCounter widgets on other people's sites and been taken to a page that requires a log in to see the statistics. I suggest that if you're going to offer a tracker as a widget on your site, make sure people can click on it to see the info without having to log in. If you don't want to use Site Meter or Analytics, StatCounter might work for you.
These are just the trackers I've had experience with. Let me know if you've had good/bad experiences with others!
In conclusion: if you're interested in increasing your traffic for fun or profit, don't delay in installing some sort of statistic tracker. But don't let just anyone see this information, unless you have a good reason.
6 comments:
I've been meaning to look into Google Analytics -- you've encouraged me to move it to the top of my list.
One reason I especially like StatCounter is the reason you give it a negative. It gives good stats, both visual and mathematical, and no one else can easily click on it and see my stats. Yet, if an author is visiting to see if s/he would want to stop by Straight From Hel on a book tour, they can see that I do track my stats and, therefore, could supply them the stats for the period of their visit.
And I definitely would not have thought a year or so ago that I would ever be discussing stats and virtual blog tours and things like StatCounter and Google Analytics!
I use Google Analytics. I don't see the sense of people seeing how many hits I have.
For a while, I had a stat counter on my website which was offered through my web hosting at Yahoo, but the weird thing was every time I made changes to my website, the number of hits would change on my counter. It was far from accurate, so I removed it.
Google Analytics is great, except that sometimes I wish I could see the stats right away, but have to wait a day for the results.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com
I use google analyzer and sitemeter and I do allow the page hits number to show. I don't consider it ostentatious, and when I look up other blogs for consideration in a blog book tour, I want to know how much traffic it gets. The number of comments is a good barometer, I agree, but that could be a small group of regulars. On sitemeter you can see reports of how many from where, how long people stay on the page on avg, and traffic predictions.
Boog post! I saved the permalink.
Good stuff, Emma. Thanks.
Thanks for the comments!
Helen, I hadn't even thought about that. You're right though, it's easy enough for people to ask if they're curious.
Morgan, there is a way to see the day's stats if you click on the date-range box in the upper right corner. You can also see longer date-ranges this way. Although that's why I use Site Meter as well, because it's easier!
Marvin, if you think that your numbers aren't ostentatious, you should see mine! ;) And just so everyone knows, Marvin's opinion is a good one to listen to: his blog has been nominated for the Brilliant Blog Appreciation Awards.
http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/2008/09/bbaw-awards-2008-voting-booth.html
Thanks DK!
Another statistic I use is the referrals category .... where am I getting my traffic? My hits have more than doubled, and that's a direct effect of commenting daily over at Twitter and giving links to the blogs I want action on. So that's enormously useful information. Good post. Don't forget Part 2 at http://www.jungleredwriters.com tomorrow where I'll talk a bit about stats, too. They ARE important.
Dani
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