Counting my views in my blog stats
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When I open my own site it counts me visiting my site in my views. Why? My site is public and such I don’t understand why it’s counting me in my site stats
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Hi @sarahjlindop, if your site is public and you are logged in, it shouldn’t count your view. How can you tell it’s counting you?
Also, do you happen to have a browser that shows a preview of your site before you click on it? I have seen a case where someone’s preview was counted as a visit.
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I have this problem as well. I think I found a solution, but it really isn’t a good one:
When on my computer, I unchecked an option in the browser to block Cross-Tracking Cookies and that fixed it; however, when on my tablet using Firefox, I don’t want to turn off tracking protection completely (it’s either Standard, Strict or no protection—and no protection is the only one that would turn off the Cross-Tracking Cookies protection. This is why this isn’t a good solution.)
Is this truly the issue perhaps? If so, can WordPress do anything about that for users who don’t want their views counted, like perhaps the option not to count out own IP address so we can still block problematic tracking on other websites?
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Hmmm, if WordPress doesn’t know you’re logged in I can see how it would track you. Most people’s personal IP changes from time to time too unless they’re on a fixed network.
Does your browser allow you to make exceptions?
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@aevanswriting
When on my computer, I unchecked an option in the browser to block Cross-Tracking Cookies and that fixed it;
It sounds like you’re using Safari on your computer, correct?
when on my tablet using Firefox, I don’t want to turn off tracking protection completely (it’s either Standard, Strict or no protection—and no protection is the only one that would turn off the Cross-Tracking Cookies protection. This is why this isn’t a good solution.)
Is this on Android? The desktop version of Firefox allows you to set exceptions for specific websites. On my computer I have it set on Standard for tracking protection, and I wouldn’t be able to do my job if my browser couldn’t detect that I’m logged into WordPress.com at all times, so from my experience that setting doesn’t cause any problems with the type of cross-site tracking we use here. So if you have that set to Strict currently, perhaps try switching to Standard and see if that helps.
That said, this is the trade-off – in order to exclude your own views on the site, we need to be able to detect that you’re logged in. If your browser is blocking the ways we use to detect that (and currently cookies are still the only way), there’s nothing we can do. So if you completely max out the privacy options in your browser, features on some websites (not just WordPress.com) won’t work properly any more.
Tracking isn’t inherently bad, by the way, but it’s easy to abuse, and over the past couple of years there has been a strong shift to counter this potential abuse, even if it means reduced functionality on websites.
If so, can WordPress do anything about that for users who don’t want their views counted, like perhaps the option not to count out own IP address so we can still block problematic tracking on other websites?
Using an IP address isn’t practical. Most ISPs don’t assign static IPs any more, but when you connect to the web, you’re assigned an available IP from a range your ISP has available. So even if you add your current IP to a setting so that it’s excluded from stats, there’s no guarantee you’ll be on the same IP when you connect tomorrow.
The other side of this is that tomorrow someone else might be using the IP you had today, meaning if they now visit your site, their views won’t be counted either, even though they’re just a regular visitor to your site. For this same reason we don’t recommend using IP addresses to add people to the comment blocklist on your site.
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Hi @supernova, I will have a look at my site on an ingconito tab on my computer where I’m not logged in to check everything looks right and then when I look at my stats instead of saying no views/visitors it’ll say 1 and recruiting I’ve looked at and there is a box below referers that says author and it always comes up with me. Sometimes it even says it’s me when it’s been viewed by my family on devices I have never logged into word press on. So I can have 16 views by myself without even looking at my site?
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I will have a look at my site on an ingconito tab on my computer where I’m not logged in to check everything looks right and then when I look at my stats instead of saying no views/visitors it’ll say 1
If you check your site on an incognito tab, WordPress.com has no way of knowing that this was you – that’s why this will appear in your stats.
Sometimes it even says it’s me when it’s been viewed by my family on devices I have never logged into word press on
I’m not sure what exactly are you referring to here as our stats will not show who are your visitors. Are you looking at the referrer?
The referrers section lists other blogs, web sites, and search engines that link to your site. A view is associated with a referrer if a visitor lands on a URL on your site after clicking a link on the referrer’s site. So, if someone checked a link from your site, you will see your URL there. -
I think I worded myself poorly it’s showing in my stats but as I’ve viewed it. It says author has viewed once when it should be showing as just 1 visitor it says 1 visit by author
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An Author stat doesn’t mean the post author has viewed it. It means there has been that many views of posts by that author from visitors to the site.
In other words, every time someone views a post on the site that has you as the author, the author stat will increase.
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Since I’m also having the issue, I will mention that mine can be confirmed as tracking my own visits. I know this because it shows a visitor to a page that is password-protected that no one else knows about yet when I had previewed it after editing. This happens while I am logged in.
Unfortunately it does seem to be a browser issue (and is probably especially an issue with browsers protecting us more and more from tracking cookies and such.)
Probably nothing can be done to fix that without turning off the protection, I assume?
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Probably nothing can be done to fix that without turning off the protection, I assume?
Can you confirm which browser do you use?
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@aevanswriting, on Firefox, you should be able to add an exception for WordPress.com. Try the steps outlined in this article.
@sarahjlindop from what you wrote above, it doesn’t seem like there’s an issue with the stats on your site. -
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But it says author has viewed and then there is 1 visitor in my overall stats. This doesn’t seem right
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Oh, do you mean the Author count in the stats? That’s not your visits. :)
It’s intended for multi-author sites and just shows how many times posts _by_ a specific author have been viewed.
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