How to read stats?

  • I was using the stats from my hosting site, and was pretty content with the numbers as they grew. At a friend’s suggestion, I installed Google Analytics, and then, just because I could, I installed the WordPress stats. Wish I hadn’t.

    The Google numbers were only about 20%pf the hosting site numbers; WordPress is a little closer IF what they call ‘views’ correlates with the hosting site’s ‘visits’; otherwise, it’s down there with Google. Project Wonderful, the ad site, comes up with yet another number, somewhere inbetween.

    So how do I make any assessment? I’m not doing the website as a money making proposition, but I do want to increase readership. It’s discouraging to think that the ad money I’ve spent hasn’t gotten me much above what I started with.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • All stats programs show different numbers because they use different methods. Google Analytics does not include bot traffic, so it is more reflective of actual human visitors, but as far as I know, people with javascript disabled are not counted.

    Visits roughly show how many visitors you have. Pageviews show how many pages were looked at.

    Thread Starter munsford

    (@munsford)

    So the numbers are basically meaningless.

    Mundford, I look at my hosting’s stats via aw stats. I also use wordpress stats. I don’t like google analytic it is always much lower in comparison to the two others. I’ve always heard aw stats actually uses information from your server, so it’s traffic is more reliable… except it doesn’t filter out bot traffic.

    For me, it’s not so much about the numbers, as it is about how much I have grown over time. I compare this months stats to last months, and this months to last year… and see how my site visitors have grown over time.

    Use RSS and you can track how many poeple subscribe to your feed.. how many come back to read.. I prefer the email rss, so I know it goes right to their mailbox.

    Keep working hard, keep writing good posts and your traffic will grow and the stats will show your growth over time.

    Thread Starter munsford

    (@munsford)

    Thanks for that. The good news is that all the numbers on all the services are going up; it’s just a matter of how much.

    What is bot traffic?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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