Stats and your blog

Okay, so posting about blog stats clearly stirred up a whole can of worms (and quite a lot of emails asking how to go about checking them). Now the internet is stuffed full with tutorials and tech websites discussing the merits of different site trackers, how to install them and how to interpret the information they give you. I thought I could just refer you to a some. But then I tried to sift through to find the best and quickly realized that they are not so relevant to us crafty and family bloggers. So here - a non-tech take on why you might want to keep an eye on your stats and how to do it. Just don't ask me too many tricky questions, okay?

 

What should I use?

You can get basic stats from Typepad, Blogger and Wordpress or you can install something like Sitemeter or Google Analytics on your blog (I have both). They are free and relatively straightforward to set up - to find out how to install them, Google is your friend - there are a bilion tutorials out there to talk you through the specifics for the platform you blog on.

Okay, I see stats. What should I check?

As a first thing, keep an eye on your visitor numbers. You'll get a feel for what is a normal amount of traffic for your blog. If you typically get 100 visitors per day, and one day you get 400, then you'll realize something has influenced your traffic and you can check what.

Where are readers coming from?

I don't mean geographically (although you can check where in the world your visitors are). Are they arriving as direct traffic (a bookmark or typing your url in), as a referral (usually a link from another blog) or via search engine. In my case the vast majority of visitors come direct or as a referral and that's the way I am comfortable with. It means that my visitors either know my blog already as regular readers, or they read the blog of someone who links to me and in my mind that makes them  likely to be friendly visitors. The search engine traffic I like to keep a closer eye on.

Search engine traffic

Google Analytics is great for this. It gives me a list of all the keywords that people have typed into their search box and ended up on my blog with. Predictably, domesticali is my most common search term, but origami wreath, haramaki and toffee apple bites have also shown up there this week. All of which are understandable and don't give me any cause for alarm. If some dodgy search terms begin to show up, you can think why and perhaps change the post which might be causing problems. 

What pages do they visit?

Typically with our sort of blog, people turn up on the home page or the most recent post. If you have a great tutorial, people might land on that page, because lots of other blogs link to it. Keeping an eye on your entry pages lets you know which of your posts are popular and linked to - unusual pages appearing here might need to be investigated.

A word about images

When I began blogging, Google Image Search didn't exist, but it's incredibly powerful now. I really don't know how best to keep track of my images on the web. But if you want to scare yourself witless and have a distinctive blog name, do a Google Image Search on it and see how your photos have travelled. On Flickr, you can choose to opt out of image searches and you can also block them on your blog, but I haven't. It's not been a big enough issue for me to warrant getting my head round the tech stuff, but feel free to investigate if it's important to you.

Speaking of Flickr, you have an inbuilt stat meter there too, under the 'You' tab where you can check visitors and search words too. Call your photos something enigmatic and watch out for anything that could give rise to unwanted attention (there are a LOT of strange folks searching Flickr, believe me and they are extraordinarily keen on feet).

I also recently discovered a site called TinEye - you can put in the url of one of the images on your blog and it will show you where else on the web it appears. It's in the early days of development, but I think it could turn out to be a very powerful tool. It's also good if you have an image and you want to know where it came from so you can attribute it correctly.

Stats are your friend - I certainly didn't post about them to give everyone an attack of the stranger dangers. But in the same way as you'd keep track of visitors to your home, it's good to know who's been to your blog.

Comments

[Katherine]

Hooray, thanks for posting this! It's well-written and clear, and much easier to follow than all that techie stuff one could google. Thanks again for putting this together for all of us.

[little pink room]

Ali, thanks for this. I know you emailed me similar advice a while back which I really appreciated and I've had sitemeter since then. It is interesting, I hate seeing the searches too (I"ve already mentioned my blog name problem)but it's good to know if there are any creeps lurking out there. I'll definitely check out Tin Eye. I'm glad to see that I'm not overly cautious and that other bloggers have the same concerns. Aoife x

[Mary]

You would be surprised at how little I check my stats ...but your last couple of posts have given me something of a jolt ..I am lazy/careless about my photos and shouldn't be..

[blackbird]

Nice tutorial!

...and nice feet too.

[Gina]

I'm just catching up with blogs Ali and feeling like I should be more on the ball about all this... I've never checked stats... didn't think I knew how. Perhaps I should?

[Adriana]

Thanks for this, Ali. Much nicer to hear it from you than Google. Happy halloween!

[periwinkle]

thank you x

[Cat]

Ali, what a brilliant post! Thank you. And well done for getting a rather lovely cheque.

[Tracy]

Thanks Ali, it is very nice of you to take the trouble. Tineye sounds very useful. I think you have to have a pro account with Flickr to check stats but from what you write it sounds as if might be worth upgrading if, like me, you don't.

[Sue]

Fab post Ali -amazingly useful. I've just installed Sitemeter although I already had Statcounter. I will investigate TinEye and Google Analytics.

Thanks a million
Sue x

[domesticali]

I think you're right Tracy - stats might only be on pro Flickr accounts.

[Chloe Patricia]

Hello Ali - First of all congrats on your first sale of your photo. Secondly thank you for taking time and trouble to write this post, it's great. Chloe Patricia

[Cass Ward]

Great post, thanks. I also love those shoes in the second photo. Can you tell me what they are?

[Dragonfly]

This is just great! After your other post, I signed up to Sitemeter but I think I must have done something wrong as it tells me I've had NO visitors! I know it's wrong as I've had comments on my blog! Am off to check out the Google one instead.

And then Flickr!

[Two Owls]

Thanks for this, I'm very much an 'ignorance is bliss' blogger when it comes to stats but will look into it now. Thanks again.

[Catherine]

Really interesting post. Congratulations too on your first picture sale.

[Alice C]

Thanks Ali - a really helpful post.

I would only add that if you are using Blogger and you wish to control access to your pictures you should ensure that the privacy settings for your Picasa account are adjusted. All pictures uploaded to Blogger are held at Picasa which is similar to Flickr and are open access unless you adjust your privacy settings. I choose to have my Picasa folders as private to restrict the distribution of my images and this has worked well for me but you would have to decide what you want according to the purpose of your blog.

[dottycookie]

Ah thank you! I have indeed just scared myself on Gogle images - but only because there appears to be another dottycookie who makes odd drawings and posts them on something called Deviant Art ... I may have to change my name!

[Sew Create It - Jane]

great advice...love the idea of the image search...That's a good one to check out!

[Modern Dilemma]

This is a great post Ali, thanks for doing this. I'm sure someone has told you this already but have you checked out Ideal Home's Complete Guide to Christmas 2010? They have your mini wreaths (don't think it's your photo though) and then a few pages of home-made bits using music sheets. I saw it and had to check the editorial list to see if you'd got a new job!

Well they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

MD xx

[Aybige-The Cat's Notebook]

Thank you for letting know about Tin Eye. Brilliant discovery for me. Cheers.