Spring is officially here. Ukraine went to DST last night and I have changed all the clocks for another season. Temperatures finally climbed above 10C. Thursday the ground was covered (again) with snow and Friday it was dry enough that Tanya started cleaning her garden. Some crocuses are blooming. Yesterday Lucky and I walked the old 5 km route we did last summer. The one km of muddy dirt road was dry enough not to stick to our feet. Today was 15C and I wore a t-shirt and shirt, no jacket. Lucky is now full time back in the dog yard and sleeps on a blanket inside a room in the outbuilding. The sun is shining and the wind is warm if you are in the sun. It has been a long winter.
Here are some questions related to statistics for people who read my blog and also blog. Some of you have hundreds of followers judging from the numbers of comments and so you should. Quality begets readership. But do you find that some of your posts get hundreds of views, some even long after they have been posted? If so, why?
The topics of my posts are all over the map. I have to write a blog post today? What shall I blog about. . . Oooh a squirrel!! The Blogger dashboard provides a number of statistics. If in the first week after posting there are a half dozen comments and 50 to 100 hits, I am all happy. And actually if I eyeball my posts that is pretty much how it is, some hit 200, and a few a bit higher. What I cannot understand is why some posts keep getting hits long after they have been posted.
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| Blog views over a 12 month period |
Blogger provides stats including charts for 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and all time. An analysis of the top 5 posts by views or hits explains some of it. Some is just random, I expect. I sorted by all time views of 1700 posts going back to 2008. Then clicked on a few of the top ones and Blogger charts when they were viewed. These charts explain a few anomalies but certainly not all.
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| The number one post with over 14,000 views, mostly in the first few years |
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| This one gets viewed at Christmas time. Makes sense. |
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| Got all its views at one time, two years after posting. Why? |
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| More views in the last 5 years than the first 5. |
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| One of my earliest posts but only popular in the last couple of years |
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| A surge in views in 2015 and 2016, posted years earlier |
I can find out what countries are viewing my posts but not where in those countries. For example, I used to be able to check if I wrote a post about Russia, the numbers of hits from Moscow would rise. Sometimes I would be less than complimentary about Putin just to annoy their monitors.
My next challenge is to track views to cities. Any suggestions are very welcome
Enjoy your Spring. We are moving into autumn and the arboreal fireworks are starting to blaze.
ReplyDeleteBlog statistics baffle me. Some posts continue to get high 'hit' rates years after they were posted. And some countries seem to often read my blog and rarely comment. Country is as far as I have ever seen the statistics extend.
EC, I am so glad to hear someone else has posts that are suddenly popular for no good reason. If I can figure out how to get more details than just country, I will post about it
DeleteDo you suppose Algorithms are what targets certain Posts by Words used in the Content or Topic?
DeleteI'm sure you are right. Google's algorithms move certain items higher on the list based on searches for words. But it is still strange how some posts suddenly get large numbers of views for no apparent reason
DeleteI don't bother tracking stats. Most of its bots anyway, from what I hear.
ReplyDeleteYou may well be right. I am curious about these things
DeleteOf course now those six posts are going to get a bunch of hits as we all look to see what they were about! 😉
ReplyDeleteCool. Now if I can track where these views are coming from by city or region I will be quite happy. I like to know stuff like that. No good reason, just because.
DeleteI'm in BC - in case you are wondering - I'm Irene Ahner's younger sister. I think we were at the U of S at the same time. I would have commented previously but for some reason Google wasn't letting me.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Could well have been. I met so many pretty girls there I can't remember them all. Glad to have you comment. The more the better.
DeleteReminds me I need to write to Irene. I'll tell her we've connected
DeleteI know that there are such things as blog statistics but I never look at what they say mainly because it doesn't make any difference to me. And if nobody reads my blog I don't really care. I've been really lax in posting anything interesting during this pandemic, mainly because I haven't been anywhere interesting or done anything interesting. I sound like a very uninteresting person right now, don't I?
ReplyDeleteNot uninteresting, just normal. My email correspondence reads mostly "Nothing new this week. Opened doors for cats, walked dog when not raining". I look at the stats because I like playing with numbers to understand how things work. I write for several reasons. Remembering the Farm is written for my children. Some posts are about something I was curious about and did research on. Some is just fun. I'm glad when people read and comment but I am not obsessed with high numbers for their own sake.
DeleteI always found the Stats section fascinating once The Grandson showed me it was even there tracking statistics of my Blog! I find it interesting that you can get a lot of views but not necessarily a lot of comments to a Post... and yet some Bloggers find their Readers comment a lot in comparison to views of a Post. In the heyday of Blogging we often discussed the whole Weird Land Of Blog Experience that varied so greatly from Blogger to Blogger. Some of the most excellent Blogs I have always enjoyed might never have had mass popularity, but they Wrote thoughtfully and covered great topics and some exhibited the most amazing Visuals that were a Joy to behold, their Photography was sublime... yet, not necessarily their Following. I've seen Blogs with one tiny ordinary looking image and a not so deep topic/story line in infrequent Posts that are madly popular and not understand the mass appeal at all. It's kinda like life I guess, very random really. As to why Old Posts get revisited... I attributed it to the "Popular Post" feature just being on the sidebar and not dropping off due to hits being regular on a Popular Post? Now I Purge my Blog Archives far more regularly, my Posts get viewed more before I dump them, perhaps folks sense an urgency to visit a Post before I send it to Post Limbo, or wherever it goes when I hit the Trashcan Button? *LOL* I am selfish in that I Blog mostly for my own enjoyment and relaxation, if people take the time to visit and participate, it's just a Bonus to what I'd still do even if nobody came ever.
ReplyDeleteDawn, how nice someone else is fascinated by the stats. Maybe random is the answer. I have never deleted my archives but would like to print "Remembering the Farm" as a pdf for my kids. I need to check out the Popular Posts gadget.
DeleteOddly enough, my top posts for all time contain the words "naked", "swinger", and "porn". Go figure.
ReplyDeleteBut at least my "Books" page gets the top billing overall. It's nice to know that it can still beat "We're All Free... And Naked". ;-) Happy Spring!
Trust you. At least your posts are funny so they get something good for their falling for click bait. Awesome that your Books page gets top billing. That is what it is all about. And I still don't understand why Netflix hasn't contacted you about a movie series. Disney not so much.
DeleteLOL! Yep, the Disney adaptation might be a little thin by the time they excised the R-rated content. And thank you for your vote of confidence. I'd be thrilled to hear from Netflix... if only!
DeleteStats are fascinating. Just recently mine visitors shot up into the thousands, stayed there for a few days, and have now returned to the normal about 200. I would love to know what those bots find so interesting.
ReplyDeleteYes, stats driven by bots are puzzling. They must find something. Would love to know what. I take it Finding Life Hard is your regular blog?
DeleteI get big hits if I have fuck and trump and fuck trump in the headline.
ReplyDeleteI bet you do. Like Diane Henders with here click bait words.
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