The Wardman Wire

A couple of weeks ago I did some detailed analysis comparing the different statistical systems I use on the Wardman Wire. To repeat a brief section:

1. I did some comparatives on 4 of the 5 stats systems I have in place, as described below (server log files, two Wordpress statistical plugins, and the Gostats web-based statistical system).
2. I measured “Unique Users”, “Visits” and “Page Impressions” (defined below).
3. The figures are taken, as I have mentioned, on reasonably large data sets of up to 9,000 to 18,000 unique visitors (depending which set of figures you believe) over the first 6 months of the life of the Wardman Wire.
4. The figures varied by the following factors (i.e., between the highest figure and the lowest).
   - Page Impressions: x14
   - User sessions: x6
   - Unique visitors: x2
5. The one caveat I will add is that the x14 and x8 are more likely to be x5 and x3 as my Gostats code is right at the bottom of the right hand sidebar, and so is often missed if visitors leave the page before the whole things has loaded.

I have made these changes to the blog to mitigate these points:

• Moved the Gostats code from the bottom of the page to the very top - which is why you now see the button at the top left.
• Reduced the number of postings on the front page.
• Reduced the number of items displayed in the “sidebar newsfeeds” from 4 to 2.

I will leave these changes in place for a month and see how it affects the comparative statistics.

I would welcome any comments that you may have.

[tags]blog statistics, number crunching, gostats[/tags]