I like data. Data is unbiased. It's just numbers. No opinions. No lies. No judgements.
Just numbers.
The pie chart below describes the traffic to my blog.
One section is First Time Visits....the people who click on the link to my blog then think to themselves Where am I? How did I get here? Where is the Back Button?
One section is folks who have checked back in 1-5 times. They liked that orange cake recipe and came back to print it.
One section is folks have been here 6-10 times. These are the folks who want to win that Saints shirt. Or like my hats.
One section is folks who have excellent taste and stop by here all the time. People like you.
I will leave you to ponder which section corresponds to which color.
According to Stat Counter "The best and most successful websites are the ones with a very high return frequency. If you have a low or non-existant return frequency you may want to change your website to encourage your visitors to come again and again."
Sorry Stat Counter. I don't want to change my website. My blog is my little corner of the world wide web. It's a reflection of me.
Who I am.
What I think.
What I want to share.
Apparently I've shared quite a bit about "bridal brunch menus". That, or a variation of it, is the number one, number 2 and number 3 keywords that bring people to my blog.
Interesting, right?
I would have expected the keyword to be "hat". I guess people are more concerned about what to serve at a bridal brunch than they are about hats, which is fine with me. I am happy to share the Southern traditions of entertaining that have been passed down to me from my mother and mother-in-law.
Then I decided to google "bridal brunch menu" and see where my blog post on this subject falls in the list.
It's number 4! Good for me! *click on it*
Oh NO! It's a post about my bridal brunch menu insecurities! GACK! Not the post where I show how it all turned out.
Darned data.
But data is only information. What a body does with the data is what counts.
I read a book in college called "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff. It describes how people take data and twist it to make it fit their theories, causes and statements (I am convinced this book is required reading for those entering politics). If you are looking for a good read on your next beach vacation, I'm sure your local library will have a copy. (Beware single girls: accountants, finance geeks, math majors and statisticians will try and chat you up.)
So, What To Do with this data......change the overall content of my blog? Nah. Write a better post about bridal brunch menus? Maybe. Add more pictures? Probably. Focus on Food? Never.
The best thing to do at this point? Ignore the data. Go on in bliss, feeling grateful and blessed for those folks who stop by on some regular basis, and welcome anyone who lands here....either on purpose or accidentally.
Y'all come back now, ya hear!?!
2 comments:
I pretty much ignore my data too. I do enjoy getting a laugh over the things that land people on my blog. With my minds eye, I can see them clicking the 'back' arrow as quickly as possible. :-)
On your bridal post that gets all the traffic, add a link to the post showing the end result...just a thought.
-FringeGirl
I don't understand the stats either.
The ones that really make no sense to me are when it says how many times they have visited as 0, but then you can clearly see they have been there every day! Or it says they have been there for 0 seconds, but you can tell by the page views that they have surfed around.
My stats don't tell me where someone has come from. That might be interesting.
It's hard being a tech wizard.
Oh well, whoever drops by, DROPS BY!
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