Not all blog owners realise the difference between the main page, and the individual posts pages, in their blog.
Some blog owners would like to display all posts in the main page, so their readers don't have to spend time clicking links to the archive pages, or to the individual post pages.
The differences between the main page, and the individual post pages, doesn't become an issue, for some blog owners, until they try to reconcile the individual numbers in Stats.
Some blogs, even with post page URLs enabled, will get some traffic from people accessing the main page, archive retrievals, or label searches.
Search engines and readers will always spend some time on the main page.
Both the search engines, and the readers, will spend at least some time on the main page, before following a link to an individual post page.
Some readers will only read individual posts when search links lead them, spuriously, to the main page. This might be when they are looking for a specific post that was on the main page yesterday, and was archived today because a new post was just recently published.
This post is now part of an archive page, it is no longer on the main page.
Because of this post being published, my earlier post Who, Me? I Don't Spam was just archived, from main page view in this blog.
Until today, people could read that post, and the search engines could index its contents, from main page view. Now, all activity against that post will be from date archive retrievals, label archive retrievals, and the individual URL.
Pageview activity for that individual post URL will slowly increase, relative to main page pageview activity for the post - because it is not part of the main page, and there is now no main page post activity.
Pageview counts in the major Stats sections show combined blog activity.
The pageview counts enumerated by Audience (the 10 most popular browsers, countries, and operating systems), and by Traffic Sources (the 10 most popular referring sites, and the 10 most popular referring URLs) will each list counts combined.
Pageview counts in the Stats pages / posts section show only pages and posts.
The counts enumerated by Posts / Pages will include only the top 10 most popular individual posts / pages (with pageview counts for all audience, and traffic sources combined) - and will never include counts for archive retrievals, label searches, or main page views.
If you need statistics for more than 10 posts, or different statistics, you'll need a third party visitor log / meter.
Many blogs, not using Jump Break, will see most activity on the main page.
Since a major amount of pageviews, for many blogs, will be against the main page, adding the counts for the 10 most popular individual posts, and trying to balance that total against the totals for browsers, countries, operating systems, or traffic sources, is an activity guaranteed to produce confusion.
If this is a real problem for you - and if you don't think that your readers will mind being forced to view each post in the individual post page - try using Jump Break consistently.
Some blog owners would like to display all posts in the main page, so their readers don't have to spend time clicking links to the archive pages, or to the individual post pages.
The differences between the main page, and the individual post pages, doesn't become an issue, for some blog owners, until they try to reconcile the individual numbers in Stats.
My Stats doesn't count my pageviews correctly!We have seen a few problem reports about Stats - and some of the reports seem to come from people who don't realise that the Posts section of Stats provides pageview counts for the 10 most popular individual posts - and not for the main (home) page, archive retrievals or label searches.
Some blogs, even with post page URLs enabled, will get some traffic from people accessing the main page, archive retrievals, or label searches.
Search engines and readers will always spend some time on the main page.
Both the search engines, and the readers, will spend at least some time on the main page, before following a link to an individual post page.
Some readers will only read individual posts when search links lead them, spuriously, to the main page. This might be when they are looking for a specific post that was on the main page yesterday, and was archived today because a new post was just recently published.
This post is now part of an archive page, it is no longer on the main page.
Because of this post being published, my earlier post Who, Me? I Don't Spam was just archived, from main page view in this blog.
Until today, people could read that post, and the search engines could index its contents, from main page view. Now, all activity against that post will be from date archive retrievals, label archive retrievals, and the individual URL.
Pageview activity for that individual post URL will slowly increase, relative to main page pageview activity for the post - because it is not part of the main page, and there is now no main page post activity.
Pageview counts in the major Stats sections show combined blog activity.
The pageview counts enumerated by Audience (the 10 most popular browsers, countries, and operating systems), and by Traffic Sources (the 10 most popular referring sites, and the 10 most popular referring URLs) will each list counts combined.
- Main page views
- Individual dynamic pages ("posts")
- Individual static pages ("pages")
- Archive retrievals
- Label searches
Pageview counts in the Stats pages / posts section show only pages and posts.
The counts enumerated by Posts / Pages will include only the top 10 most popular individual posts / pages (with pageview counts for all audience, and traffic sources combined) - and will never include counts for archive retrievals, label searches, or main page views.
If you need statistics for more than 10 posts, or different statistics, you'll need a third party visitor log / meter.
Many blogs, not using Jump Break, will see most activity on the main page.
Since a major amount of pageviews, for many blogs, will be against the main page, adding the counts for the 10 most popular individual posts, and trying to balance that total against the totals for browsers, countries, operating systems, or traffic sources, is an activity guaranteed to produce confusion.
If this is a real problem for you - and if you don't think that your readers will mind being forced to view each post in the individual post page - try using Jump Break consistently.
Comments