Monday 25 July 2011

Statisics that deceive to flatter

Statistics never lie (well nearly never!)
July 2011

The Capt Ahab Blogsite has become too sprawling and now even I cant find my posts any more! It was never supposed to be this way, but it seems to have grown like topsy.

My solution has to been to create pages with links to the initial posts on each subject, be they lost canals or trip reports stretching back over the years. These initial pages then carry links to subsequent posts (well, they will when I get round to setting them all up).

The end result is an easy to navigate structure which is flexible and simple to update.

So, having spent four hours tinkering with the blog, flicking from page to page, I noticed my UKWRS ranking clicking up and up. By the time I finished I referred back to the rankings and noted that I had  bubbled up to No3 in the Blogsites - being above Heth for the very first (and probably last) time.

Granny Buttons and Epiphany are way out ahead so I'm happy to claim the bronze medal position, if only for a few hours (Sunday morning 11.30am)!

On a more serious note - I hope the links help you access all the material on the blog.



Blog Sites
RankSite DetailsHits
(7 days)
Clicks
(7 days)
1Granny Buttons
Andrew Denny's opinions and pictures

4076

15
2nb Epiphany
An everyday story of boating folk. Continuously cruising, we tell you how we `find it`. Canals and rivers, backwaters and tourist hotspots - anywhere we can get our 57 foot narrowboat!. Includes an index of our journeys by waterway

1856

23
3Captain Ahab's Watery Tales
A photographic record of nb Wand'ring Bark's travels and other watery themes which capture my imagination!

1371

34
4Takey Tezey
Heth tells it like it is in this amusing boaty blog

1361

32
5NB Siskin
The ups and downs of constructing NB Siskin from scratch

1258

23

4 comments:

Nb Duxllandyn said...

Its puzzling that blogs that post so infrequently remain persistently high in the viewing figures. Perhaps there are reasons other than their topicality for their high hit rate? Do these statistics take into account those who receive postings via RSS feeds. I read a lot of blogs but seldom visit the actual webpages, preferring to let RSS collect the posts for me.

Andy Tidy said...

Duxllandyn
The RSS feeds dont count at all unless you visit the post itself.
The secret of the high flying blogs who post infrequently (you will be thinking of Granny Buttons no doubt) is the vast back catalogue of general interest posts which continue to be identified by searches. Take a look at the topics being commented on on GB and you will see what I mean. If I am honest, the bulk of my hits are due to image searches finding my photos. The actual daily readership for new posts is often quite modest. Another trigger for ranking climbs are the number of further page views, which all add up.

Nb Duxllandyn said...

Ah - you saw through my thinly veiled attempt not to name the great GB! I agree that search engines are largely responsible for the high number of hits on certain blogs - its a pity about the RSS feeds not counting for anything - some of the most avid blog readers are RSS driven.

Mike
Nb Duxllandyn

Anonymous said...

Hellooooo Captain A,

You deserve to be up there chuck
:-)

Personally I just like my readership numbers to stay about the same, (or higher lol). I'm not bothered about the rankings too much, except to give the old abacus a workout lol

Heth