I used to have one of those maps on my blog, the kind that show where commenters came from. But I quickly realized it was pretty inaccurate so I got 'Statcounter'...you can see the widget for it in my side bar. Other people have google analytics, which I'm sure is pretty similar.
What have I found out from this useful tool?
- I get four to fifty-five hits a day. But when you go into the page where it breaks it down, you can see that some peoples' computers continually reload the page, and it counts each reload as a separate hit...so its not really that many people coming around. Plus, certain people recheck it five times a day.
- Wednesdays are the busiest day, and Sundays the slowest. I figure its because the majority of my readers are church-goin' folk, and they probably are busy on Sundays..and bored on Wednesdays.
- Most of my random hits are from people looking for "Baby Drawings" in a google search engine. I get a bunch of these everyday. I finally tried the search myself to see why people kept coming here. Turns out, a post I did called "Baby Drawings" is about seventh down on the page of results, and if you search through pictures, most of the pics from that post are on the first and second page of results too.
- The other high searches that lead people to my site: Fractal images and a Greek Orthodox Icon painting, which were incidentally in the same post about a year ago. Also, I once did a post featuring a hydrangea, and I've had a lot of people viewing that lately. Oh, and there is of course the usual search for "Trees", "Leaves", "trees and leaves", etc.
- Besides the 15 or so people who comment occasionally, I also have about six regular lurkers who come at least once a week, and I have no idea who they are. Hi Reston, VA, how are you today?
- I've also found that the Statcounter isn't completely accurate in saying where people are from either. For instance, Someone whom I know is in Utah, it always lists them as New York. Whats that all about? (I know its them from the timing of their visits and the comments on my posts, as well as the archives they choose to look at.) Same for a person in Silver Lake, WA- always says New York.
- Some IP addresses give way too much info. Like, some say the name of the apartment building it came from, others will list a university or library. Those located in dorms often have the person's last name or even their student number, depending on how the school set up their computers. Yikes! Kind of scary.
13 comments:
You are right. I went to my "stat counter" and it showed some peoples' A numbers. That's pretty scary. I saw that ours was listed with the dorm thing. How strange. I wonder what it will look like when we move. Hmmmmmmmmm...guess I'll have to wait and see. :)
I have contemplated doing one of these posts. I find that my statcounter is SO interesting. And I frequently get people from out of the country. I even had someone from Israel the other day!
That's pretty cool, I didn't even know you could do that until a few weeks ago. I'll have to try. :)
denelle- yes, you're one of the folks I was thinking of..I think its the people who've been in the dorms longest that have their names attached; the school must've gotten smarter about the way they set things up.
cardine- yeah, our email conversation a while back made me want to do it.
alycia- do, its quite interesting.
Stats are soooo random on the web. Depending on the time of day I visit your site, it could say that I'm from Utah or from Nevada because my IP address would change.
Some people log into ISPs that have bouncing addresses so they could show up as being from a location that is completely not where they truly are.
I ignore stats.
jill- the jumping address would make sense of some of the stats...
but the majority of the people who I notice are pretty stationary, and I know exactly who they are. They're the ones I really care about. Plus I like seeing the searches the unknown people did. Today I saw a new thing.."A hidden server" that my computer couldn't read. Interesting.
I'm always giving my mom a hard time because she's so technologically challenged. After reading this post, I feel someone should be calling me that name. Yikes.
It is freaky what information computers can glean from one another. I have to be really careful and watchful of what my daughter is doing on the computer. I don't even want to think about what it will be like when she's a teenager and she thinks YouTube and FaceBook are the greatest things ever. Double Yikes.
LOL! I've wondered the same thing before and my husband said sometimes internet providers put people through locations other than their actual one. Stats are fun, though, huh? :)
i didn't know you could do that. i came to your site earlier and got the stats counter, it's interesting how many people come, and people you don't know. thanks for the info
p.s how do you find out where they came from?
andrea- you click on the little icon of the bar graph. Then on the left it has different things you can look at. I always choose 'visitor paths' and it shows the address they came from,and the pages they looked at on your blog (if it was more than the main page). If it was a google search, the first part of it will say 'google' something or other, and in the address it will say what they were looking for. You can even click on it and see what results they got from their search.
missy- hey, two or three years ago I didn't even know what a blog was...and I'm still shocked at how much more young people know about html than I do!
heidi- yes, and now I understand more on movies when they talk about routing and servers and such, because I've seen it!
Hmmm... I'll have to add one of those to my site. Not that I think I get that many hits. Maybe I'm wrong and just have a bunch of lurkers though. Guess I'll find out.
I've found I get other types of information on Feedburner than on Statcounter for some reason. I use both and I get a really interesting picture on people.
yikes, that's a scary amount of info. i just have gostats. it gives country of origin and that's it.
btw, love your new blog design. nice!
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