The mysteries of WP Stats.

WP’s Blog stats are a bit of a mystery to me.

Not only is their basis for existence rather questionable, but other reporting areas are so incongruous that I might question the integrity of all the resulting stats. I have had days of many Likes, but no visitors! I have had Views from far more people than actually visited, and I have even had  3 visitors from 8 different countries! In addition to all these examples of creativity:

Number of Visitors doesn’t tell me too much really as they could have arrived here by accident, or by choice, and never to return.

Number of Comments are misleading as WP includes my responses so a Comment total of (e.g.) 32 could well be 16 of yours and 16 of mine!

Likes are not summarized and cannot be sorted by quantity so unless I scroll down currently 465 Posts, I have no idea where the most likes are!

Comment writers stats are a little more useful, but WP only reports on 8 writers, 1 of which is me. Not surprisingly, I have written the most Comments ….. duh! I would have confidently guessed that without the statistics!

However, the following data is interesting to me:

Top 5 Posts for Comments

  1. “The World is not ……!”
  2. Affection or Aggression
  3. You just never know!
  4. Decision… no decision!
  5. Happy Birthday Ray

Top 5 Posts for Views

  1. You just never know
  2. Daughters
  3. A 7:00am bark
  4. Ray’s play buddy?
  5. “The Old Man’s Lament”

Top 5 Most Talkative Followers

  1. Pensitivity101
  2. Erika Kind
  3. Tails Around the Ranch
  4. Kate Crimmins
  5. Joyroses13

Regardless of the questionable value of the stats, they do confirm that many of you are looking at the Posts, and some are clearly actually reading them! They confirm that I have some talkative Followers, for which I am very grateful. Writing and having no interactions with the readers seems to be against the reasons that most of us write. Of course, having said that, I could have drawn those same conclusions without the stats!

Thanks everybody for giving WP something to create stats from and, by the way, they are  useful if you wish to track activity levels. While the basis of the stats is questionable, they would appear to be at least consistent and I do track Likes, Comments, Views and Visitors on a monthly basis.

Thanks everybody for not only allowing a WP process to serve a purpose, but for reassuring me that my Posts are read; that they generate sufficient interest to respond, and that the “numbers” have been growing consistently since this Blog was launched in October 2014! 🙂

Hugs are sent out to everybody!

35 thoughts on “The mysteries of WP Stats.”

  4. I never understood how I could get so many random likes (I say random when they are from people who do not follow my blog) but then I downloaded the wordpress app for my phone for easier reading convenience when I don’t want to load up my computer… on the app, when I open “reader” you can scroll down and “like” everyone’s post without even reading or clicking on the posts to open them. I hate that WordPress has set it up this way because I believe that is where less views and more likes come from. It’s very frustrating not knowing if someone has just clicked a button or if they have really read and liked what you wrote. I am the first to admit, I don’t spend enough time keeping up with all of the blogs that I follow, BUT when I am reading, I don’t click “like” for the heck of it without reading someone elses post, which I suspect some people are doing.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hi Elizabeth – I suspect that a fair number of bloggers are simply appeasing “the system” for their own benefit. i.e. If I keep “liking” your Posts, then you’ll keep coming back to my blog. Given that there are a number of ads promoting an income from blogging, then selecting “Like” could become just a business decision. Fortunately, there seems to be a large number of bloggers who only want to express themselves, and with no “get rich quick” scheme on their agenda!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Your personal definitely are read and very much enjoyed. I tend to avoid checking my stats but maybe I should, so as to identify any glitches I’ve heard others as well complain about.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Hi Colin, your Number 1 chatterbox here!
    Stats are an enigma aren’t they. I still don’t know how many likes my posts are getting from the dashboard screen but discovered if I filter it down to a particular month (even the current one) they miraculously appear! Interesting figures you have there!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. My husband would not be surprised at all if he knew I made it on a Most Talkative list! Ha! I comment cause like you said I like the interaction between the blogger and the reader. I like getting to know my fellow bloggers.,If I didn’t want to comment on anyones or receive any comments, I may as well just stick to writing in my journal. But yes there are times when pushing the Like button is all I have time for. I have wondered the same things about the stats, especially the part about the views and visitors! I have had the same thing happen to me with the countries too 🙂 In the beginning I paid a lot of attention to the stats but as of lately, not as much. I figure if the numbers of my followers drop then I’ll see what I am doing wrong, but as long as they keep rising I must be doing something right 🙂 I do like viewing the list of most Popular posts tho.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Stats are frustrating! It is still a thrill to suddenly have a lot of views or likes, but generally speaking, they mean nothing.
    I agree – if someone takes the time to comment, that is worthwhile, cos I know how busy everyone is out there! – That is why there is also a Like button, for those manic days! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Be more careful with your titles as Daughters, Rays play buddy & Old man’s lament may be attracting dubious characters using search engines so giving ‘Top posts for views’ misleading stats! But keep the posts coming whatever you title or tag them I read each one.
    Regards Roy

    Liked by 1 person

    • He! He! He! I have consciously avoided deliberately using “attention grabbers” as they rather “cheapen” things and this is a free/no profit/no revenue/no financial interest site, but I guess I have done just that… albeit inadvertently! Nice hearing from you Roy. 🙂

      Like

  11. Hello Colin. My views on WP stats. are similar to yours. Sometimes I get likes the instant I post. I believe there is an app. or suchlike that allows the user to automatically like certain blog posts. Don’t know if that’s true.
    There also seems to be an increasing trend where some bloggers are disabling their like button to stop people liking a post without reading it. Kris nd of makes sense. Good interaction via comments does seem successful.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ah yes….. Followers. If I believe WP (which I don’t), I have never lost a Follower since 2014! While I am advised re new Followers, apparently nobody has ever “Unfollowed”. While I would love to believe that, it is beyond highly unlikely. I would suggest that “Unfollows” are simply not being reported!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Wow, I did not expect to be such a chatterbox… lol!
    Seriously, that is why I try to leave comments and not only click “like”. I want to make sure that people know I read it and it is also a sign of appreciation for their work. I am just sorry that I don’t have the time anymore to always leave a comment although I do read all I liked.
    Regarding the stats I noticed some things you mentioned. Haha.. 3 visitors of 8 different countries! I wondered at times how it is possible to have more likes than views…haha!

    Liked by 1 person

  14. I guess I’m just opinionated (and here I am again commenting…). I believe the stats are there to amuse us. When I first started (and had 2 readers) I would check them and try to figure out a better way to blog. The time that I get the most frequent readers is 8 a.m. Not surprisingly that’s the time I have my posts released. The best days are the days that I post (I don’t post everyday). Again not a surprise. Someone told me (and I don’t know if it’s true) that when someone comments you get 2 views. Whatever! My challenge is to write something that makes people want to comment. Commenting is work and when a reader takes the effort, it’s pretty special. As for me, I’m in love with Ray. Too bad he’s not a cat (don’t tell him I said that).

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