There’s no great point in obsessing over your traffic numbers, but it is nice to be able to see cause and effect about what drives people to your site… and how much any action drives. Unfortunately, this can be a challenge when data sources disagree.
Last week, Bonnie Adamson and I co-hosted our first #kidlitchat. I posted the transcript here, shortened the URL via bit.ly, then posted it on Twitter. The first day up, per bit.ly, there were 53 clicks on the link. That same day, my Google Analytics counted 38 visits to the transcript page. That’s a 40% discrepancy – rather sizable, even with this small amount of clicks.
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to have my 11 Types of Followers on Twitter post get very popular on Twitter (taking off after a very kind RT by Kim Sherrell).
Once again, the bit.ly to Analytics discrepancy was large, with bit.ly reporting more clicks than I tracked as traffic. And this time, it’s even harder to figure out exactly what traffic truly came here and read, as there were many other non bit.ly links floating around on Twitter and elsewhere pointing back to my post. Indeed, this can be confrustewilderating.
So, which number is right?
Well, over at Dooley Online, there’s a good post on the same discrepancy issue with some thoughts on the why’s and which numbers mean what. To me, though, the “right” number isn’t what’s important. Rather, the important thing is to be aware of the differences so that when you are analyzing what works and what doesn’t, you’re comparing apples to apples.
There are many other URL shorteners that count clicks, and there are other stat tracking services besides Analytics, so if the exact traffic counts matter to you, study up to see what gives you the best results.
I think it’s important to know what drives traffic for you. Early on, I think that’s even more important than knowing how much traffic you get. So if you happen to be doing experiments and studies (or are just curious!), keep in mind that you’ve got different metrics to study. In other words, 53 doesn’t equal 38… but you can still get good data from either number.
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Exacterating!
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So am I crazy not to worry about traffic patterns at all? Is there anyone else in the “it will take care of itself (over time)” school of thought?
Terry – you’re not at all crazy. To me, it’s not about patterns or total amount of traffic, but instead about knowing what efforts I take yield results or not.
Traffic will take care of itself to some extent over time. But to me it’s worth the effort to try experiments or to do simple things like writing stronger headlines to garner more visits from people looking for what I offer. And if I found out that sending out links on Twitter didn’t get me any traffic… or if I found that doing it at certain times makes a difference… I find that valuable.
Since I blog to be visible, I’m always thinking to some extent how to increase that visibility. That might not be your goal, and certainly you reach many already, so whatever you’re doing is working. I happen to be geeky and LOVE this stuff, so it’s fun for me to see what does what. Kinda like teaching a child to read, though, there isn’t just one method that works for everyone!
Thanks Greg! I’m sure some of my hesitation is my lifelong allergy to math and numbers. It’s not gender, its just me.
You raise a good point, though about understanding how the waves ebb and flow. I noticed this morning after the roundup went up that I had a boost in followers … That tells me I definitely need to spend some time with stronger headlines, particular if I’m going to use them to feed Twitter and Facebook.
I suspect that there are some automated services out there that are scraping links from twitter – they are triggering the bit.ly counter but when they land on your site don’t download/execute the javascript for Google Analytics and so they’re not getting tracked in there.
Matt – I believe you’re right. I’ve read quotes from the bit.ly folks that say similar things. Other shorteners seem to come up with stats that match analytics more closely… though it remains unclear which is the true number of visitors. In the end, I think the count itself doesn’t matter as much as knowing that you need to compare apples to apples.
Yeah i also notice that with me …i did a url short with google and no clicks were counted…
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