The Blogmistress

Using WordPress for your website and blogging

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
    • WordPress Websites we’ve worked with
    • Privacy Policy and Cookies
  • Services
    • WordPress support – where to get some
    • WordPress Health Check
    • Websites with WordPress
    • WordPress Workshops and Training
  • Contact

Visitor Stats and Analytics for WordPress

March 31, 2010 by Babs 3 Comments

You may already, of course – know how many people are visiting your WordPress blog or website. But just in case…

It’s not wise to fret over erratic stats – we’ve all done it – enjoyed a day or several of good visitor numbers to then see a slump and start to wonder about our strategies… Instead it makes sense to consider that there may be factors affecting how busy your blog is, or isn’t.  On one blog with which I’m involved it can depend on the weather; when it’s horrid outside, our stats are higher – it’s a quite a social blog site so can be welcome on a cold, stormy day. With Blogmistress we blog less at the weekends, so of course the number of visitors dips for a couple of days – I prefer to see the steady upward trend on the weekly view (and thank you, by the way!).

So, which stats will suit you.

To be honest, I think for most people the WordPress.com stats plugin is more than adequate. You’ll need the API code that you used to configure your Akismet spam filter and enter that same code to configure the WordPress.com stats. Then these will show up on your Dashboard (you can choose different settings – mouse over the top of the box to see the configure link).

We have one client who has always enjoyed Statcounter and was not keen to lose it when we moved his online rug shop to WordPress – so for him we installed the Statcounter plugin – and he continues to monitor what’s going on with his shop. I can understand wanting to maintain the familiar, especially when getting used to such a different system as WordPress can be to a static website. Statcounter is so easy to work with and was a standard for all websites we worked with.

Now if you want to really get stuck in, there is a plug-in for the real time web analytics of Clicky – this is for those of you who really want to analyse, set goals and campaigns, and even watch live activity with the upgrade. One to consider if this can be useful for you.

And then of course there are the Google Analytics plugins – many available and you need to settle on the one that best suits you. We’ve used Google Analyticator often; that does what we want.

Have a look at the available stats plugins yourself if the above don’t meet your needs – just search for statistics or analytics in Plugins, Add New and away you go.

Have fun, but don’t get too hung up over what’s going on, or spend longer than you need to on analysis. As ever, if you’re unsure what will work best for you, give us a shout…

Babs

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, RT, WordPress Plugins Tagged With: analytics, stats, visitors

Recent blog posts

  • Caroline’s Corner How to make time for your blog when you have no time
  • When Count per Day stops working
  • The Blogmistress confesses, and what comes next…
  • How to update your WordPress to 4.6
  • Ways to thank WordPress plugin developers
  • Where did WordPress plugin “Count per Day” go?
  • Some Favourite, Recommended WordPress Plugins

RSS Babs on Internet marketing strategy stuff

  • After the WordCamp (#WCLDN 2018)
  • Accessible Venues and your website
  • Winning at Discovery
  • Talking at WordCamp Manchester 2017 #wcmcr
  • The use of “pretty” fonts

We recommend:

StudioPress Premium WordPress Themes

Find:

View on Facebook

An excellent post, and unicorns... ... See MoreSee Less

5 Data-Backed Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2019

blog.bufferapp.com

Breaking down 5 data-backed social media trends you need to know to make 2019 your most successful year yet with social media marketing.

3 weeks ago  ·  

View on Facebook
·Share

This is excellent. I'm not the only one that wants/needs to blog frequently, for various reasons, but just don't find/make the time. Yoast's Caroline gives us some sensible pointers. ... See MoreSee Less

Caroline's Corner: How to make time for your blog when you have no time • Yoast

yoast.com

Are you too busy to work on your blog? In this post, Caroline refutes common excuses and explains how to still make time for your blog.

6 months ago  ·  

View on Facebook
·Share

Babs is a keen supporter of WP & UP - take a look and join in. It's a wonderful initiative and there for all who work with WordPress. ... See MoreSee Less

7 months ago  ·  

View on Facebook
·Share

Archives

Tags

accessibility analytics books broken blog Broken Link Checker browser commenting compatibility cool stuff customer service dashboard Data ebook errors essential Facebook Google Gravatar guest posting hosting Housekeeping image images Internet Marketing JDI keywords links live chat online shopping plugin ping polls RSS security SEO social media stats tables text box Thesis Tools twitter upload usability visitors writing
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Almost All Categories

  • Accessibility
  • Blogging
  • Design
  • How to Use WordPress
  • Internet Marketing
  • RT
  • Studiopress Genesis theme
  • Updates
  • Using WordPress
  • What we're reading
  • WordPress Plugins

© 2019 · Barbara Saul · Built with the Modern Portfolio Theme* on the Genesis Framework