I cannot believe it was a year and a few days ago that I came up with the idea to write a blog about my views and interests in the field of technical communication. My first post, Post-STC 2011 Summit, started the journey in which I subsequently discussed QR Codes, Google+, Facebook, MySpace, Professional Usernames, TechWhirl, and many more topics.
To give you an idea of what has been going on behind the scenes, I will share with you some of the numbers from WordPress and Google Analytics since I began this blog and website. Enjoy the data!
- 3 theme changes and minor theme updates
- 44 entries (including this post)
- 8 comments
- 1501 blocked comments (junk)
- 1 website hosting company change and meltdown
The Raw Statistics
(Includes everything, including my own visits)
- 1621 Visits
- 956 Unique Visitors
- 4671 Page Views
- 58.42% Bounce Rate (single-page visits or visits that resulted in leaving the landing page)
- 58.67% New Visits
Top Five States With Most Visitors
(excluding New Mexico)
- Texas
- California
- Illinois
- New York
- Massachusetts
Top Nine U.S. Cities With Most Visitors
(excluding Albuquerque, NM)
- Chicago, IL
- Austin, TX
- Minneapolis, MN
- Espanola, NM
- Santa Fe, NM
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Springfield, MO
- Dallas, TX
Top Five Countries With Longest Average Visit Duration
(excluding the United States)
- New Zealand (9:08 min)
- Antigua and Barbuda (2:00 min)
- Latvia (1:32 min)
- Singapore (1:25 min)
- India (1:08 min)
This is a small sampling of the data I collected. There is much more insight, such as types of internet browser, versions of operating system, type of internet service provider used to visit the site, etc.
Basically, when I looked at the data, I saw that I had the most readers from the United States and several from around the world. Visitors came in all forms, using Windows XP, Vista, or 7 or Mac OS X; Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer; and iPhones, iPads, or Android tablets. Of visitors viewing the site, about 31% used a 1280 x 800 screen resolution, 11% used a 1680 x 1050 resolution, 9% used 1366 x 768 resolution, and the remaining used a mix of other screen resolutions.
These sorts of data can be very useful when deciding how to design websites for specific audiences and what kind of browsers and devices I should consider when building sites. I am a data geek, so it is really neat to look into the numbers and capture a glimpse of who my audience is.
I analyzed more of the data, and I have some goals that I want to accomplish in the next year:
- Increase Average Visit Duration
- Reduce Bounce Rate
- Increase Returning Visitors
- Increase Website Referrals
- Reduce Site Drop Offs
- Increase Post Comments
Think it can be done? Anything is possible. I will share more blog entries on my social networks in hopes colleagues will read them. Also, I will research more Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques so visitors can find my site easily using Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
I really look forward to comparing this year’s data to next year’s and see the differences.