March 9, 2008
Tags: accessiblity, blogging, design, stats, web 2.0, wordpress, www.
Categories: Blogging Advice, Opinion.
Question of the Month: How do you measure your site’s success? (i.e. doing what you want it to do)
Having owned a site from the world of Geocities back in 1996, and many frequent hiatuses, the world of Web 2.0 is, for the most part, still quite alien to me. I don’t fully understand the sleuth of social bookmarking sites or the function of Google pageranks (other than the fact that it drives traffic). I have slowly transformed my site to work according to certain Web 2.0 standards such as code validation, ensuring that they are 508 compliant - a standard to assure those with disabilities, particularly the blind, can access my site like everybody else.
Regardless of Web 2.0 standards, I measure Nanyate’s success by delving deep into my Statcounter. While most people only look at their unique visitor count, pageviews, and referrals, I find that miscellaneous statistical information can provide key information for blogger-designers like me (and, I presume, most of you too!). For example:
-
Visitor Length - Reflection of your content and design quality
For me, this is by far the most important number because how long your visitors stay on your site reflects on the quality of your blog content and to a lesser extent, how aesthetically and functionally pleasing your site is. By aesthetics, I don’t mean designing the site with the caliber of NDesign Studio, but just one that I can view without getting a migraine from flashy ads and horrendously tiny text.
My visitor length averages at approximately 4 minutes. Since my blog is a niche blog, mainly appreciated by women and personal blogger-designers, having 50% of my visitors stay on my blog for more than 30 seconds is considered pretty good. I don’t quite understand the 20% of visitors that stay on my site for an hour. But I’m grateful. You must really love my site - more than I do!
-
Returning Visits and Feed Subscribers - Barometer of content quality
Having returning visitors is a sign that your blog is producing original content, and generating interests among others. Unlike visitor length, the percentage is not as important as the actual count. Out of 200 visitors, I have around 50 returning visits and an average of 30 feed subscribers (including comment feed). It means my blog could do better to target more people and expand its niche. But for an almost 4-month old blog, I think it’s not too bad.
-
Browser - Accessible coding for all
There are so many designers out their fighting about whether to design for Firefox or IE. A simple look at your statistics can show who you should cater for. For me, out of 500 people, 350 Firefox, 100 use IE and 50 uses Safari. The answer? If you want returning visits or make it into design galleries, design for all of them.
-
System Stats - Accessible design for the masses
Like the browser problem, many people condemn designers for leaving 800×600 resolutions behind. But here is the hard cold facts from my Statcounter: 300 visits from 1280×1024 resolution, 100 visits from 1024×768, 10 from 1152×864 and a measly 5 from 800×600. Do you mean I should jeopardize the ease for 400+ people who have bigger resolutions for the 5 who have 800×600? Of course, I can design sites that have expandable divs, but I don’t think it’s worth the trouble as I’m unwilling to forgo the ‘personal’ part of my personal blog for minor increase in accessibility. (But of course, you may beg to differ.) Besides, with the advent of feeds, they can ignore my inaccessible design for my content, if they wish so.
I’m not sure how you guys analyze your statistics but I hope I have enlightened a few people. And like I said, I’m not Web 2.0 savvy, so…
…do share your views on how you analyze statistics!
FYI, I am using the free version of Statcounter that can only view the latest 500 visitors’ in-depth stats, which can skew my analysis. Also, I blocked my IP, so statistics provided here do not include my own visits to prevent any further distortions.
P.S. A major update, Wordpress 2.5 is planned to be released tomorrow, so be sure to standby for the annoying yellow reminder. I guess not. Regardless, I’m psyched! Can’t wait. The Dashboard looks amazing and is AJAXed out!
Hehe, 2.5 is coming out tomorrow? Hehe, I think I may wait a little while to update it, just in case any plugins or anything breaks. LOL.
Anyways, you don’t use Cpanel for your stats? LOL, just wondering. Hmm… I don’t really look at my stats much, except for the number of hits/visitors per day, and the referrals. =P
I think your domain’s doing pretty good for it being new and all. =)
Respond to this comment
My host doesn’t run CPanel. It runs on H-SPHERE. I do have AWstats on but because they can’t filter my visits out, all the data is skewed, rendering it useless for my analysis.
I actually use four different statistic counters: Reinvigorate, Sitemeter, Statcounter and AWstats. Each has its pros and cons, but Statcounter has emerged as my favorite in terms of analyzing the success of my site.
Respond to this comment
“But for a 4-month old blog, I think it’s not too bad.”
That’s a huge understatement. My blog is about 5 years old, but I only have 16 RSS subscribers and even less who care enough to leave comments.
Web 2.0 is over-rated in my opinion by the way..
Respond to this comment
I still don’t really know what Web 2.0 is, so I can’t say if it’s over or underrated but I have a feeling a lot of people don’t really understand it either. A lot people (not you Michael) think of it as a design style, I’m sorry but Web 2.0 is far more than that. There are underlying principles - some of which I agree with, and others which I don’t.
Despite Nanyate?! being 4 months old, I’ve been on the Internet for 13 years and owned a public site for about 7 years or so. Quite a few of my frequent visitors are those that I have met from my previous sites, including you. I wouldn’t be surprised if a portion of subscribers are visitors from my old sites too.
Respond to this comment
oh no does that mean i have to update it again… every time i do it via fantastico or something something bad happens…..
lol… i’m probably one of the 1 hr-ers..
Respond to this comment
You should try the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin. It automatically upgrades Wordpress for you. Not sure if it will be able to handle such a major update. But I will try.
Respond to this comment
I know lately, I have just been looking at my stats attempt to track this silly guy who wont leave me alone. I talked to my mother about it and she told me if I really cared about progressing my site into something cool and unique, I would focus on the other visitors. I know my site trackers tell me how many times each unique visitor has come back to my site, how long they have stayed there, and I honestly have to say it’s dwindling.
I am at the top of the list, then next in line are some cool people from Canada. I cannot identify them by name, it just stick a Canadian flag by the IP Address. I should focus on some original content. Especially my gallery or the resources section. Laziness has limited my ability to be creative.
Respond to this comment
Web 2.0, in my opinion, is about sites with AJAX capabilities that can interconnect with social networking sites which enables you to interact with others.
Respond to this comment
I thought I use a lot of visitor tracking plugins until I read your posts
haha! Well currently I’m using sitemeter, wordpress.com stats, wp-stats (its another stats plugin) and google analytics! I actually find Google analytics very convenient and easily understood, but it depends so much on flash that if your browser doesn’t support it, you can’t view your site statistics.
My host uses cPanel and so I have Awstats, but I’ve never looked at it even once! I access my cPanel only to backup my database, heh
I feel so ashamed that my blog isn’t blind-friendly! I shall start working on it. And it’s not printer-friendly either! I’m yet to write a stylesheet for the print media. But I guess nobody really wants to print my blog, haha!
Respond to this comment
heh you really put in a lot of effort into your site… unlike me… good effort anyways!
Respond to this comment
Woah…
Yeah. Just to make myself happy.
I don’t really use SiteMeter, although I have it on my site. I mostly just use Extreme Tracking because although it may have less features, it shows that I have more visitors…
I never really look at those stats, even when I’m on SiteMeter… I guess it’s because I don’t know where to find them xD
But I guess those “facts” about your site does make it a whole lot more interesting… =)
Respond to this comment
he he, I had a geocities site too
they had crazy long addresses that were like street names 
I had angelfire before that though. Some of my geocities sites are still there, angelfire deleted everything though 
I don’t care so much about my blog’s success. I just do it for me and to make friends. I don’t expect people to find it crazy interesting or anything, lol. I’m a pretty bad writer and my life isn’t that interesting.
With that said, I love looking at my google analytics though (which I highly recommend btw). My favorite is the search terms people use to find my site. Some are so random! Like “retainer pic -fee -lawyer -attorney” lol.
As for coding for 800×600, I couldn’t agree more. It bothered me, maybe five years ago when 50% of my visitors still used 800×600, but now only 3.86% do. My main blog still looks good in 800×600+, but I think any new designs I make, like for the new site I’m working on, will be done for 1024×768+. If you have a huge resolution like 1680×1050 which, wow 4.27% of my visitors have, then even the expanding divs are just gonna stretch too much. Though with my 1280×768 res, usually my browser doesn’t take up the whole screen, because I know most people code for 1024×768.
anyway, good blog. I like reading about what others think of their stats
and 2.5 is coming out??? but, but, I just upgraded and installed a new blog X( Guess I should install instant upgrade for that. *sigh*
Respond to this comment
My blog isn’t print friendly either. I don’t think anyone would want to print out information about my daily musings though. Hahahaha. But maybe I should make a print CSS and be done with it. LOL.
Your blog is blind-friendly. You passed validation but you have a warning, which can be easily changed. Your search input form is lacking an alt tag. That’s all.
I actually used to use Google Analytics but since I got invited to become a beta tester at Reinvigorate, I switched over since Reinvigorate allows me to track with a program on my computer. Somehow I feel that these analytics programs (analytics and reinvigorate) don’t really suit my use, as the information they generate are always more e-commerce based.
Respond to this comment
That’s some interesting and good statistics still for a personal blog right?? Where did you get the statistics?
Wow, I can’t believe 2.5 is coming!! I haven’t even fully explored 2.0 yet.
Respond to this comment
I used statcounter.com
2.5 is too cool, you can click on the wordpress 2.5 link above and visit the dashboard. So pretty! 
Respond to this comment
great post. man, If I had visitors staying over an hour on my blog, I’d freak out! a bit scary and stalker-ish, no?
or maybe they were viewing your site and then went off to eat their lunch and left your site on screen until they came back?
Respond to this comment
Thanks for pointing that out! I’m going to fix it rightaway. I was thinking too, about who will be so free to spend time printing out and reading my daily ramblings. I think I’ll make my print layout greyscaled
to suit those with noncolor printers, if there’s any.
Yea same for Google analytics. There’s this Goal Conversion function which have no idea what does it do and how it works, but I guess it analyses your adsense stuff.
Do you have a link to the blind-friendly validation machine? Thanks a lot in advance
Respond to this comment
Yups, it’s at Cynthia Says. For future reference, I always leave a link at my footer which says 508 compliant - it leads to the same site.
Respond to this comment
I hope that’s the case. But 20% or 30 unique visitors is an overwhelming majority who leaves my site on and go have lunch, don’t you think?
Hahahaha!
I don’t mind as long as they don’t send me creepy emails, which I’ve never received. I mean, this is just a small price to pay for a public personal log.
Respond to this comment
Nice post. I use the statistics that my host provides. They are really good and let me know everything that I want to know. Though, I usually just take a quick look on the unique visitors and site referrals.
When it comes to designing & coding a layout I hate IE! Haha, I simply hate it, but I still try to get it to work too. Like you, I don’t really care for the 800×600 resolution anymore.
Respond to this comment
I am using statcounter too for my new blog. But i still not used to it’s menu and ability.
My old blog use sitemeter, sometimes i am thinking to back on sitemeter as it is easier to use.
Respond to this comment
This is the most visited webpage on my server ever since registered the domain. Although I love Monty Python and would welcome any fan to my site, I fear that that page is used/viewed mostly to fourteen year olds whom I have no wish to cater to.
But what statistics are you using? StatCounter? How is that? I have the Webalizer, which is very very generous regarding stats/visitors, and Google analytics, which is very accurate but invests heavily on goals and google-related stats.. Good thing with Analytics is that you can add your own IP to a filter to remove your own visits:)
Respond to this comment
With my blog, I don’t remember the last time I checked my stats. I think at some point it was taking away from me actually improving them.
With my other sites, I use Analytics and tend to look at similar stuff to what you lined out here. good post!
Respond to this comment
I’m a statfreak. LOL. I use Statcounter and Sitemeter primarily. But I also have Reinvigorate and AWstats as my backup. Reinvigorate is very similar to Google Analytics - just that you can view your stats real time on your desktop, instead of visiting the site.
Statcounter, Sitemeter and Reinvigorate also block my IP so I don’t skew any of the data too!
Respond to this comment
Geocities was so fun!! I used to madly refresh the page to wait for a good spot and a good number. HAHAHAHAHA. It was a fun while it lasted. Probably wouldn’t work today.
My angelfire site is still available, so is one of my later geocities site.
My most outrageous search engine referral is “cute japan condom” HAHAHAHA!!! I’m sure he didn’t find what he was looking for.
Looks like 2.5 got delayed. Good for you.
You can check out the next functions on the link I provided. One of the developers uploaded the alpha version for public display.
Respond to this comment
Thanks for the link Ivy, your tops
oh, and I just realised that although I passed the validation, I got off with a warning which says that my images have alt tags that are way too short! I guess wordpress doesn’t care about inserting descriptions into image alts. Gee!
Anyway I’ve taken a look at the WP2.5 admin interface! Very cool and clean, but I’m not very used to it - I love the old ones! It’s actually quite a timeless layout
Respond to this comment
I agree with your mum! You should focus on other visitors instead of worrying about the stalker (unless your home address is somehow findable from your site).
It’s like that for new sites. You have to put consistent effort to maintain site visitors until you’ve somewhat established yourself.
All the best.
Respond to this comment
Nanyate?!: The Hidden Gems of Blog Statistics…
An interesting post about how to measure your site success by delving deeper into your site stats….
Respond to this comment