Difference between views and visitors
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I like that the number of visitors to the blog has been added to the stats page, but I am curious as to what the difference between the two are? What is the definition of a view and a visitor? I guess I preseumed they were the same thing however, so far today I have had 85 views, but only 42 visitors.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Suppose I am a visitor to your blog and I click into three pages on your blog thereby creating 3 page views. That answers your question. There have been 42 visitors who viewed 85 pages on your blog.
Here’s more to consider. Did you know that likes and shares are misleading when you are talking about page view stats? Your followers and anyone with a WordPress.com blog who is logged into WordPress.com can “like” and “share” your posts in several locations such as the Reader without ever clicking into your blog and creating a page view stat. See here for what I do to compel readers to read posts on my site > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/07/09/wordpress-followers-likes-and-stats
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I like the new difference. I often few many individual posts on the same blog and this clarifies things better for me.
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WordPress.com stats are page view stats and always have been page view stats. The only difference is the fact that the numbers of visitors creating the page views are now being reported.
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Thanks, tt. And WP. I’ve always wondered if, and hoped that, my visitors were viewing more than one post. Apparently a lot of them are. I always hope visitors will explore my blog a bit after reading the post that first attracted them.
It would be interesting to know which post(s) a visitor goes to after reading the first one, so we could tell if s/he is following internal links to related posts.
BTW, how long does a visitor have to stay on a post/blog to be counted as a discrete visit? And could WP report the length (elapsed time) of the visits (like on StatCounter), so we’d know if the visitor is actually staying to read something?
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windwhistle: That’s a good suggestion about letting you see your visitors’ path while on your site.
A visitor is counted when we see a user or browser for the first time in a given period (day, week, month). While there’s no threshold for time on site, visitors must pass spam checks to be counted (the same with views).
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I’m wondering what is considered more importatnt, or better. The number of visitors, or the amount of page views. For instance a blog may get a modest number of visitors, but if those visitors spend a lot of time on the blog and view alot of different posts then I would presume that it would be considered a interesting and good quality blog nonetheless, correct?
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My first impression is that visitor numbers are quite depressing, but then it’s evident that many visitors are exploring the site and not just clicking once and going away.
I would like regular followers to click and like – I always do this rather than just hitting the button on the reader.
An interesting addition – thanks for the enriched information.
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@wintri: Both metrics are important, in my opinion. But, every site is different. It’s never a bad thing to increase your readership, but engagement is a driving factor as well :)
Check out our announcement post which touches on the subject:
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/unique-visitors/@timethief – thanks :) figuring out the storage is the fun part!
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I would like regular followers to click and like – I always do this rather than just hitting the button on the reader.
Likes stats are useful if and only if people clicking them are truly indicating appreciation for the content in the post. If people simply click “like” to signify to the blogger that they clicked in and read the post then the click has no value in terms of response to content.
Also note that there are like button spammers who click only for the purpose of self promotion expecting you will click back and follow them from the gravatar profile page to their site.
Be aware that likes and shares are misleading when you are talking about page view stats. Your followers and anyone with a WordPress.com blog who is logged into WordPress.com can “like” and “share” your posts in several locations such as the Reader without ever clicking into your blog and creating a page view stat. See here for what I do to compel readers to read posts on my site > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/07/09/wordpress-followers-likes-and-stats
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@jblz I guess I’m wishing for all the stats available via StatCounter. Would love to see not only a visitor’s path through my site but also time spent on each page, or on the blog. Time gives us a good idea if the post is actually being read.
(Don’t mind me; I’m just a stat nut. I very much appreciate every single stat WP gives me. Thanks!)
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