The video has absolutely no connection with this post, but I'd just recently heard it for the first tim in about 16 years so I thought I would share with all of you on this bright cheerful Monday
The other day, I got to exploring the various components of the new dashboard. There were a couple of reasons as to why I did this: one, because I had too much time on my hands and two, it was trying me absolutely buggy that a particularly old post had so many F'n page views.
1,945 to be exact.
I repeat, one thousand nine hundred forty five page views to a two year old post that I eventually edited down to an explanation as to why it wasn't there anymore earlier this year.
So I got to exploring the statistical part of the dashboard that contains a wealth of information for those who are serious about blogging and know how to use. Fortunately, I ain't one of those individuals. I just wanted to have an answer to the question that is part of this post title.
Why?
Why would a post have over 1,900 page views and continue to average 85 page views a month even after I had edited the crap out of the post. So the first thing I looked at, or tried to look at, was the page views on the post part of the dashboard. It's that little envelope symbol next to a given post on your dashboard next to the number of comments for a given post. The reason I say "tried" is that the little icon wouldn't highlight for me, which was probably due to not having Google Analytics embedded in my blog.
Stymied, I went to search in the traffic source section of the stats page, but the only that stood out was a relatively new search engine that is in the same vein as Digg or Reddit. I checked out the link, but the about page wasn't too helpful beyond telling me it was a forum that was heavily moderated.
Again stymied, I wandered back to my blog and to the post to see if there were any back links connected to it, but nothing blatant stood out.
By this point, I was really getting annoyed about this particular post. Why? Well, besides it having so many page views, the fact that a two year old post from a part of my cyber life that I choose not to participate in anymore was sticking out like a sore thumb by being a constant reminder of that particular part of my life.
Because of those factors (a chapter in my life that is permanently closed, an old post that has way too many page views for the content it contained), I decided to do something that I've only done once this year and really none since 2009: nuke a previously published post.
There was one interesting side effect to the nuking of that post besides it vanishing from my top ten list: the new number one in my top ten list has almost as many page views (1,726) as the nuked post. However, I'm kind of loathe to nuke that one too, simply because it contains a link to a picture post on Shooting Suburbia and that post has about 100 page views itself. For the record, the all time second on the list is "All Points Bulletin" with 518 page views.
I did make a small visual change to the top four list though. If you take peek to your left, you'll see that the four links in question now have snippet previews. Pretty neat, don't you think?
I guess a good way to finish up this post is to ask all of you this: Have you spotted anything out of the ordinary with your blog, specifically the abnormal amount of hits that a particular post of yours has gotten?
Nope, I don't tend to study my stats though because I'd end paranoid and stop writing.
ReplyDeleteI did notice that while I was in the States a quite boring blog post of mine shot into the top ten and wondered why. I can only assume it's because I didn't post anything new for ages so people were hitting the last post that was on my blog instead.
I referred to the cartoon characters Tom & Jerry in a post awhile back and that one still gets page views - 2724 in all. Funny. :)
ReplyDeleteI find a seasonal correlation in the rise of certain hits. For instance, a Coffee-With interview post with women who make custom aprons gets lots more hits this time of year going into the cooking holidays. And my porch posts always get more hits of people searching out ways to decorate porches in the summer.
ReplyDeleteJoe: I normally don't even study my stats with this much attention to them exactly for those reasons that you mention. But I'd noticed earlier this year that this particular post had shot up to number one and I really was curious as to why a two year old post would become such a fave around the cyber world.
ReplyDeleteLynn: That is very funny indeed. :D
It's nice to know that mentioning a familiar cartoon icon brings people to your blog. I wish I knew the real reason why two of my posts had a combined 3,600+ page views. Maybe some day, eh?
Joanne: Glad to see you around and about again.
I agree about certain posts being seasonal faves bringing in the drive-by reader looking for new ideas. I've found that humor oriented posts that feature well known pop culture icons generate quite a few views as well, like the one that I did with Mattel's Barbie doll earlier this year. Still gets a few hits every couple of weeks or so.
Well irritatingly enough, this post never showed up on my RSS feed!
ReplyDeleteI'd have to go back and look at page views. I have no idea who these people are, and that makes me curious.
So I just went and looked. My highest # of page views was a happy b.day post for Mr. RK this year - 3,915. Maybe he was really bored that day ;)
ReplyDeleteR: It's odd that my feed goes kablooie every once and while but it's something that I'm used.
ReplyDeleteI think that 3,915 page views for b'day post to the mister is seriously out of whack. Makes me think that a weird search engine latched onto it and is driving people to it.
I've noticed my most googled post, including international hits is one titled "Vas Es Los?"
ReplyDeleteWhich translates "What is This?"
n is as post about mold growing on the walls of my backroon awhile back... Boy are those readers disappointed when they tune in!
So perhaps it's a google result of the words in the title-