WordPress.com Forums » Topic: Site stats specifications

sgreifwonder on "Site stats specifications"

sgreifwonder — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:30:13 +0000

For further information: I just saw on a certain blog
Homepage 24 views
Post A 1 view
Post B 3 views

It could be that the 4 post visitors found their way around the homepage, and then the total count of 28 would be accurate. On the other hand, those 24 viewers didn't get beyond the homepage, they never clicked any posts or 'Read More' links...? See what I mean?

It's not an important matter, but I'm still curious so I'll send Staff a message anyway.

timethief on "Site stats specifications"

timethief — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:03:31 +0000

If you would care to take this up with Staff when they reactivate the support link on early Monday, September 12th (UTC) then here’s the link http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/ After you use the searchbox, under the search results, at the bottom of the page there will be a section that says “Have you found the answer to your question?” You can choose either “Yes I found the answer to my question.” or “No I didn’t find the answer to my question and I would like to contact support for help.” The no option will reveal the contact form.

sgreifwonder on "Site stats specifications"

sgreifwonder — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:01:47 +0000

Yes, the daily overview 'Top Posts Past Week' for instance makes little sense. I posted about that phenomenon before. It seems fixed to a certain title, putting that one on top, while I simply don't believe that particular and quite old post draws so many visitors, and every day, it makes no sense. If I remember well, I was explained that it's a typical Google effect.

The WordPress (?) counter divides Homepage and Separate Posts, and I think this way it counts TWICE most of the time. It registrates the arrival of a visitor on the homepage, and when the visitor selects from there a post via Categories or whatever, it counts ONCE MORE. So that makes the counter unreliable.

I'll try another one (I can haz two, can I?) and compare.

timethief on "Site stats specifications"

timethief — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:50:08 +0000

Here’s the bottom line

Sitemeter, Statcounter, wordpress stats and all the others will never agree. Each one of them decides how and what they will count as a hit. Some count page views and some count unique visitors. Therefore, use any of the stats counters only as a general guide to hits.

Understand that an application that is not running on the same servers your blog is on is going to be susceptible to wild fluctuations. This is because all hits have to be transferred over the internet to different servers, and there are literally thousands of things that can go wrong between the server your blog is on and the server at the stats place.

Also be aware of the possibility that the software or hardware at the stats place may be broken and not recording, or counting things as intended.

timethief on "Site stats specifications"

timethief — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:48:50 +0000

WordPress.com stats are "page view" stats and what's being counted is expressed in the support entry for stats. If you wish you can run free third party Non-Javascript visitor tracking programs as well. Scroll down to "visitor tracking" on this page. Read also: Blogging Metrics: Getting Quantified

sgreifwonder on "Site stats specifications"

sgreifwonder — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:44:23 +0000

Yes, there exists no general, single 'visit', and even if someone opens my homepage, or a specific post by way of the Google index, he/she could click away again immediately, and will nevertheless be taken up in the count.

But what is Stats counting, actually? It divides homepage hits/views/uniques, and individual post visits...

timethief on "Site stats specifications"

timethief — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:41:58 +0000

I agree that's it's either A or B.

I think this is a useful summary:
What is a hit? In web analytics, a hit is any request for a file from a web server. By request means a hit calculates page content delivered, all images to complete that page, and any additional files that need to be loaded to make the web page you are looking at, appear the way it does.

What is a page view? A page view is a request to load a single page of an internet site that results from a page request from a web surfer clicking on a link on another HTML page which is pointing to the page in question.

What is a unique visitor? A unique visitor is access from a single IP to a web server that generates page views and hits during a particular visit. When a visitor has cookies disabled, there is no way of establishing if they are a unique visitor or not.

airodyssey on "Site stats specifications"

airodyssey — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:32:18 +0000

Hi. My best guess is that it's either A or B. Basically whenever someone views your homepage, it's considered as a "visit".

sgreifwonder on "Site stats specifications"

sgreifwonder — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:00:39 +0000

Simply out of interest:
On a certain day one of my weblogs peaked at (LOL) 24 visitors. 16 of them are defined by specific post title. The remaining 8 are under 'Homepage'. Does that mean that
A: visitors arrive at the home page, and click away again, or
B: that they leave the homepage for opening an internal post?
If it''s possibility A, I'll know that I can discount the 'Home page' figures.