One sign of panic, seen regularly in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, comes from people who spend a lot of time viewing their Stats logs.
No matter what time range you view, in Stats - "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", or "All time" - you can expect to see fluctuations - peaks and valleys - in pageview counts.
Time which you spend, working on the blog.
If you spend time working on your blog this week, and your work is successful, your readers may enjoy the blog more next week. Conversely, if your work is unsuccessful, they may enjoy it less.
Referer spam - attacks and defenses.
As Google deals with the constant waves of referer spam, you'll see a drop in counts across all time ranges. And as new referer spam campaigns come online, you'll see the counts rise.
Reader audience daily activity.
Unless your blog is completely homogenous across all world wide cultures, you'll have one or two predominant audiences. Your audiences will eat, sleep, and go to work - and all real life activity will affect their viewing of your blog.
Reader audience social sharing.
From time to time, believe it or not, you will write a good article, which many people will want to read. They will forward it to their friends, who will read it and forward it to their friends.
This is traffic that you want to encourage - it is not hacking, or other malicious activity. Use your visitor logs, identify popular articles - and write more similar content.
Understand your reader audience, and their needs.
It's good to watch the counts, understand your audience, and be prepared to take action if you see a significant rise or fall - but don't obsess over the details.
Remember that your readers will appreciate content, so keep publishing to the blog. And, learn to understand the trends. To avoid confusion, use more than one visitor log / meter.
And now, get back to work on your blog.
My pageview counts are always going up and down. Why is Stats so flaky?It's good to monitor your reader activity - sometimes this will warn you of a major problem in the Internet, or with Blogger. But keep a proper perspective.
No matter what time range you view, in Stats - "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", or "All time" - you can expect to see fluctuations - peaks and valleys - in pageview counts.
- Time which you spend, working on the blog.
- Referer spam - attacks and defenses.
- Reader audience daily activity.
- Reader audience social sharing.
Time which you spend, working on the blog.
If you spend time working on your blog this week, and your work is successful, your readers may enjoy the blog more next week. Conversely, if your work is unsuccessful, they may enjoy it less.
Referer spam - attacks and defenses.
As Google deals with the constant waves of referer spam, you'll see a drop in counts across all time ranges. And as new referer spam campaigns come online, you'll see the counts rise.
Reader audience daily activity.
Unless your blog is completely homogenous across all world wide cultures, you'll have one or two predominant audiences. Your audiences will eat, sleep, and go to work - and all real life activity will affect their viewing of your blog.
Reader audience social sharing.
From time to time, believe it or not, you will write a good article, which many people will want to read. They will forward it to their friends, who will read it and forward it to their friends.
This is traffic that you want to encourage - it is not hacking, or other malicious activity. Use your visitor logs, identify popular articles - and write more similar content.
Understand your reader audience, and their needs.
It's good to watch the counts, understand your audience, and be prepared to take action if you see a significant rise or fall - but don't obsess over the details.
Remember that your readers will appreciate content, so keep publishing to the blog. And, learn to understand the trends. To avoid confusion, use more than one visitor log / meter.
And now, get back to work on your blog.
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