You wrote your blog post, shared it with your social media followers and everyone else you could think of and now you are checking your stats every couple minutes to see how many people are coming to your site.

You do that too right? I know I can’t be the only one. As a blogger, we get super excited to see our numbers go up but do you know what those numbers really mean. I am going to break down what the different numbers mean when it comes to your blogging statistics.

WHAT YOUR BLOGGING NUMBERS MEAN

I use the Wix platform for my blog so my analytics come from Visitor Analytics. They have a free version of their analytics platform. I upgraded mine so that it is the middle tier option. I will break down what the different options have and what they mean. There is 1 more tier that I can go up to when I need it.

MONTHLY TRAFFIC: I went from 100.000 to 250.000 monthly visits. This means that once I hit either number, the monthly tracking automatically stops. The top tier offers 500.000 monthly visits.

VISITOR RECORDINGS: This allows you to play anonymous videos of your visitors to see what they are doing on your website. I have never used this feature. I went from 15 recordings to 25 recordings. The top tier offers 50 recordings.

DASHBOARD CARDS: A quick and easy way to look at your website’s overall performance. Each tier gets full access to this option.

TRAFFIC CHARTS: This allows you to see which day and hour your traffic spikes. Each tier gets full access to this option.

LATEST VISITORS OVERVIEW: This gives you insight into the real-time visits that your site is getting. Each tier gets the unlimited option.

VISITOR GEOLOCATIONS: This provides you with an approximate of where your website viewers are located. It is available on all of the tiers.

PAGE VISITS: This breaks down the visits by pages. This will help you to see which page is your most visited. It is available on all of the tiers.

LANDING PAGES: This helps you to see which page your readers first land on when they get to your website. It is available on all of the tiers.

CONVERSIONS: With this, you are able to set goals with what you consider important to the success of your site. I have never used this option. It is available on all of the tiers.

REFERRING SITES: This allows you to see where your readers are being referred from. So are they coming from Google, Pinterest, or Facebook? It is available on all of the tiers.

VISITOR OPERATING SYSTEMS: This shows you the operating systems that your readers are using to visit your site. It is available on all of the tiers.

VISITOR DEVICES: This breaks your visitors down by mobile, desktop, or tablet users. It is available on all of the tiers.

BROWSERS USAGE: This shows you what browsers your visitors are using to visit your site. It is available on all of the tiers.

VISITOR SCREEN RESOLUTION: Shows you the screen resolution of your visitors so that you can optimize your site. It is available on all of the tiers.

MOBILE ACCESS: This allows you to get access to your blogging stats on your mobile device. It is available on all of the tiers.

HEATMAPS: This reveals the parts of your website that your visitors interact with more. I went from 1 heatmap to 15 when I upgraded. The top tier allows 25 heatmaps.

FUNNELS: This keeps track of your conversions and shows you where you begin to lose your readers. I went from 1 funnel to 8 funnels when I upgraded. The top tier offers 16 funnels.

Now let’s break down the numbers that you see when you go to check your website stats. The first of the month, I write down these numbers so that I can keep track of my blog growth. I check them daily but I don’t write them down daily. I keep track of the numbers under the last 4 weeks and the last 7 days.

I check my numbers through my phone. I added the Visitor Analytics to my homepage on my phone so now I can check it without having to go to my computer.

THE 3 BLOGGING NUMBERS I KEEP TRACK OF

VISITORS: This is the total number of website visitors that you have in the selected period (today, last 7 days, last 4 weeks). This will count a visitor who comes back separately but it will tell you if they are a returning visitor. That means that they have been to your website before.

UNIQUE VISITORS: This is a visitor that has never been to your site before in the selected time period (today, last 7 days, last 4 weeks). If your visitor comes 2 times in the same period, it will be counted once as a unique visitor and once as a returning visitor.

PAGE VISITS: This is the number of pages that have been viewed in that specific time period that you are looking at. If a 1 visitor looks at 5 pages, that will give you 5-page visits. The more page visits you have, the longer that your visitors are staying on your site. And that is what you want.

I hope this breakdown helped you to understand your blogging numbers a bit more. Again, this breakdown if for Visitor Analytics that I use on my Wix website.

If you are ready to join me for a 5-day challenge to narrow down your niche, join me for 5 days to narrowing down your blogging niche. It starts today and is just a short live video on my Facebook page, Samantha Laycock Blogging. I look forward to seeing you there.