Trying to understand Stats

[Rick Olsen]

I've got statcounter.com on my site. My IP is blocked so that it doesn't count my visits. For Visitor Length it says:

Less than 5 secs: 34.2%
From 5 secs to 30 secs: 2.6%
From 30 secs to 5 mins: 15.8%
From 5 mins to 20 mins: 7.9%
From 20 mins to an hour: 7.9%
Longer than an hour: 31.6%

Less than 5 seconds is quite high, but longer than an hour is almost the same. Are these stats accurate? I can't imagine why anyone would stay on my site for over an hour.

[lindastacy]

If my husband has been to your site he could really screw up your stats.... he sometimes leaves a site open in his browser for an entire day because he forgot to close it before he went to work. :eek:

Is there a "drill down" for visitor length? If so that should give you more information about who they are and where they go on your site.

[constance]

I've been learning about stats for awhile now and most experienced people say they are not accurate down to the number. Instead, it's better to understand the stats as trends over time. So you look at them from the big picture view. Are the bounce rates decreasing? Are the number of unique visitors increasing? You might get more accurate results, though, by using Google Analytics. It's really easy to copy and paste the code into your web page or wordpress template (place the code in your footer.php file).

Also, Avinash Kaushik has a great analytics blog and book and has some compelling ideas for how we should measure our blogs. He says they should be measured differently than web sites. Here is his post: Tips for Measuring Success of Your Blog (http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/05/tips-for-measuring-success-of-your-blog.html). (The only criteria that might be a little outdated is his mention of Technorati.) Anyway, this blog is a great source of info on Analytics.

[David Jackson]

Less than 5 seconds is quite high, but longer than an hour is almost the same. Are these stats accurate? I can't imagine why anyone would stay on my site for over an hour.

Rick, for the most part, I've found the stats software that comes standard with cPanel (AWstats) to be pretty accurate. That being said, you should never rely on a single stats program, when it comes to analyzing your stats. You should always use two different stats programs. That way you can cross reference the two programs for accuracy.

Also, when reading your stats, you always want to look for trends. Don't take monthly stat totals as gospel. Look at an average of 3-4 months.

If you still see the same trends, after a few months, chances are your stats are pretty accurate.

David Jackson

[Rick Olsen]

Thanks everyone,

I've got google analytics too, but I think it counts my visits. Awstats and Webilizer make no sense to me at all. I don't know what they mean.

Google Analytics and Statcounter both say my visits have gone up over 300%. I hope this is a good sign.

[constance]

You can filter yourself out of Google Analytics. Scroll down below the dashboard (before opening a report) and on the right is the Filter Manager. That's where you add your IP address. You can find out your IP address by going to http://myipaddress.com.

The big problem I haven't figured out how to overcome is that your IP address changes unless you pay more to your ISP for a static address. So every so often I check to see if mine is still being filtered. It's a pain. I wonder if anyone knows a way around this? Actually, it might only change when you reboot your router ... not sure. Good luck!

[wade_watson]

One sure way to filter yourself out is to do what I do: install the NoScript addon (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722) for Firefox. It blocks all javascript unless I authorize it for a particular source. Thus Google Analytics never counts me no matter what site I visit. Of course, I guess we're lucky not everybody uses it.

Wade

[jkgourmet]

would have much preferred to see that bit of information on the closed forum, wade! :) :)

[TraciKnoppe]

Linda - I've done the same thing! I land on a site, start reading, get pulled away or distracted and forget to close the browser window. LOL

[Lynn Terry]

I use AWstats through my HostGator cpanel. I'm considering switching to Google Analytics, but just haven't done it yet. Looking back at those same stats for ClickNewz during the month of November, I have:

http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/media/statsnov09.jpg


Since I have not blocked my own IP, I imagine a lot of those 0-30s visits are me, grabbing links or checking things or whatever.

The most important things I analyze in my stats are:

- Number of unique visitors
- Keyword phrases used to find my site in the major search engines
- Referring URLs (sources of traffic from other sites linking to mine)
- Top pages visited
- Trends, such as days/times for highest traffic

I look for things that I can repeat to increase my traffic. Certain incoming links that bring a lot of traffic, means do more of the same (if it was a guest post, or a feature somewhere). Certain hot topics that get more views than other posts - I consider other topics that would do the same.

[Rick Olsen]

David suggested AWStats too. I think I'm beginning to understand them.

For November it says I had 89 unique visitors. For December it says I've had 104 unique visitors and the bandwidth doubled. Not much, but it's a start.

[Lynn Terry]

That's quite an increase considering we're not even halfway through the month ;)

I say keep doing whatever you're doing to increase your traffic that way!

[billdotd]

I was listening to the Marketing Over Coffee podcast (highly recommended! http://www.marketingovercoffee.com/ ) and they mentioned that the Google Analytics script is pretty slow. Keeping in mind that "slow" is a relative term, does anyone have any ideas about speed comparisons between GA and AWstats?

[constance]

I've found a difference in my stats between AW and Google ... which is disturbing but par for the course. I've found Google Analytics data seemed more reliable (but I can't remember why I decided that =). So Lynn, your traffic might actually be higher.

Bill, As to slowness, that's why people recommend putting the code in your footer.php file (before the body tag) rather than in the header.php file. Then the page makes a call to the server later in the game. I don't think I've noticed it slowing things down ... but I don't notice nanoseconds anyway.

[Rick Olsen]

Lynn - I can't figure out how to block my IP from AWStats. Is there a trick to it?

[David Jackson]

I've found a difference in my stats between AW and Google ... which is disturbing but par for the course. I've found Google Analytics data seemed more reliable (but I can't remember why I decided that =).

If you make a statement like that, you have to back it up with facts and figures, like Lynn just did wih her post. Okay, you prefer GA. That's pretty obvious.

You said that you found GA to be more reliable than AW. What's your proof? You just can't say that you can't remember.

David Jackson

[David Jackson]

Lynn - I can't figure out how to block my IP from AWStats. Is there a trick to it?

Rick, just go into cPanel, and scroll down to the "Security" panel, then click on "IP Deny Manager." From there, just enter your IP.

David Jackson

[Rick Olsen]

Thanks a lot, David. I'd never have figured it out. When I check my IP it's different from yesterday. How do I know which is right?

[David Jackson]

Thanks a lot, David. I'd never have figured it out.

You're quite welcome, my friend.

David Jackson