Since 2011 I used web traffic analytics websites to track the traffic on this site. Blogger has a built in traffic monitor that doesn't filter out bots that inflate the web traffic estimates. I also use Google Analytics and Statcounter. Google Adsense also measures web traffic to determine ad revenue. I thought I would take a look at how these web traffic apps correspond to each other.
I recorded the web traffic from each site from January 19 to February 17. Google Analytics records the number of unique users and the number of page views from each day. The correlation coefficients for the web traffic estimates are listed in the table above. The google analytics estimates of the users and page views were most highly correlated with each other at 0.886 (on a scale from -1 to +1). Google Adsense estimates were most highly correlated with Google Analytics page views . Blogger's built in traffic counter measures page views and is most correlated with Adsense. Statcounter is a site not affiliated with Google and not surprisingly is not strongly correlated with any of their traffic estimates with Google Analytics pageviews being strongest at 0.101.
The above graph shows how Statcounter (in black) compares to Google Analytics and Adsense. There was no similar spike in traffic on that day. There were spikes in traffic on both statcounter and google analytics on other days for page views. The top five most visited pages are displayed for each site below. No pages appeared in all three sites. Some pages appear in two out of the three sites such as Best Nonfiction Poll Update and The Civil War i
I don't which of these sites are right. I'm not sure which is the gold standard. There is certainly some noise in the signal. Because Google owns Blogger and a host of other analytics products it's good to have an outside site to validate the numbers. Google determines ad revenue so Adsense has the final say.
**Related Posts**
Blogger
|
Google Analytics (users)
|
Google Analytics
(page views)
|
Google Adsense
|
Statcounter
|
|
Blogger
|
1
|
||||
Google Analytics (users)
|
0.089
|
1
|
|||
Google Analytics (pageviews)
|
0.285
|
0.886
|
1
|
||
Google Adsense
|
0.328
|
0.611
|
0.632
|
1
|
|
Statcounter
|
0.014
|
0.094
|
0.101
|
0.014
|
1
|
I recorded the web traffic from each site from January 19 to February 17. Google Analytics records the number of unique users and the number of page views from each day. The correlation coefficients for the web traffic estimates are listed in the table above. The google analytics estimates of the users and page views were most highly correlated with each other at 0.886 (on a scale from -1 to +1). Google Adsense estimates were most highly correlated with Google Analytics page views . Blogger's built in traffic counter measures page views and is most correlated with Adsense. Statcounter is a site not affiliated with Google and not surprisingly is not strongly correlated with any of their traffic estimates with Google Analytics pageviews being strongest at 0.101.
You can see this lack of correspondence with the above chart. On Feb 5 there was a spike in activity on Statcounter that was not seen on Blogger. You can see the high amount of bot traffic on blogger (blue line).
Google Analytics
Page Views
|
Blogger
|
Statcounter (only last 12 days)
|
The Civil War in a
Larger International Historical Context
|
|
|
Vote for the Best
Nonfiction Book of All Time
|
||
Best Nonfiction Poll
Update
|
|
|
A Look at My
Blogosphere
|
|
|
Does playing in the NFL
help a head coach? Not in the Playoffs.
|
|
I don't which of these sites are right. I'm not sure which is the gold standard. There is certainly some noise in the signal. Because Google owns Blogger and a host of other analytics products it's good to have an outside site to validate the numbers. Google determines ad revenue so Adsense has the final say.
