How Google Analytics Shows Me Who Visits My Blog (and Why It’s Important)

I’m not obsessed about visitor metrics to ariwriter.com, but considering more people read a page than add a comment, I’m always curious who you are, what you look at, and where you come from.
I use a free application called Google Analytics that provides me javascript code to track data. If I was a Fortune 100 […]

I’m not obsessed about visitor metrics to ariwriter.com, but considering more people read a page than add a comment, I’m always curious who you are, what you look at, and where you come from.

I use a free application called Google Analytics that provides me javascript code to track data. If I was a Fortune 100 firm, I may opt to spend more money for a robust solution but for my purposes, Google Analytics is sufficient. Among other metrics, I can drill-down into aggregate data about you.

For instance, I can see your web browser, operating system, computer monitor resolutions, connection speed, keywords used per search engine, top landing and exit pages, etc.

Key statistics looking back over past three months:

• 11,430 visitors
• 20,391 page views
• 1.44 average time per page view
• 1:09 average time on site
• 75.4% bounce rate
• 80.4% new visits

Notes on the above:

1. This data is only representative of people who click incoming links from other blogs, websites, or social networks. This data also includes people like my mother who have my blog bookmarked in her browser and visits it on a x frequency basis.
2. None of the above data is representative of subscribers to my RSS or email feeds, who view my articles in feed readers and inboxes. I use separate number crunchers to see their statistics. Nor does the data include my own visits.
3. When I migrated from Blogger to WordPress in early October, I forgot to add my tracking code. You can see the resulting zero spike.
4. If you visit one page and click a link to view another internal page, that’s considered two page views.
5. Average time per page is important. If you spend a significant amount of time on one page vs another page, I equate time into value as I want my blog to be productive for you. Thus, if you spend more time on one page, I’ll try to create similar value-added pages in the future.
6. Bounce rates are indicative of a known Google Analytics inaccuracy. If this article of mine is your first time on my blog, you are a ‘bounce,’ but once you click into another internal page, your bounce becomes a ‘visit.’ Make sense?
7. New visits are also important, for they help indicate referral links, how loyal you are to visit again, and how recently you visited.

Top 5 breakdown of traffic sources you came from:

Top 10 breakdown of 22 browsers you use:

Top 10 breakdown of 59 languages you speak:

Top 10 breakdown of 11 search engines used to find me:

In summary:

The above provides a small snippet of data about who you are and why you read this sentence.

I know more of my search engine visitors come from Google, so I try to optimize my pages more for Google rank than other engines. By the same token, I also try to get higher rank in other search engines to increase, say, Yahoo visitors.

After the English language, I know my blog is internationally-friendly to Western European browsers, so I try to link to more French or German blogs, knowing their owners would see my blog as a referrer and come over to say hi.

I saw a large spike in traffic about Sarah Palin, as I was an early blogger about her online presence when she was initially announced to be the all-time clueless vice presidential candidate.

In these and other areas, I can tailor future content according to what these aggregate metrics tell me about you and your visits. For instance, I’ll hazard a guess this post will see another large spike of traffic.

What about you?

Do you run analytical software to determine your blog or website hits? Have you created content according to those results?

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