Archive for category Statistics

Google AdSense Does NOT Appear on Kindle Fire

Posted by mcgelligot in Miscellaneous, Statistics on January 25, 2012

I just got a Kindle Fire. I decided that I should take a look at my own websites just to see how they looked on the 7 inch screen. The sites appeared okay, but much to my wondering eyes did NOT appear… well there was no miniature sleigh or eight tiny reindeer, but neither were there any Adsense ads.

What to do? What to do? I could write an application that would change it to a different ad, maybe Chitika, when a Kindle browser shows up. In fact, I probably will do that for one or two of my sites, but so far Kindle web traffic is not high enough to worry about it too much. I have not seen too much traffic thus far from the fire, but it is sure to grow the way the item has been selling. On the other hand it seems to be a device more in tune with selling books, mags, music, and movies. The internet side will probably grow slowly. No doubt the situation can change as well.

In any case, I find Amazon’s approach interesting and also disturbing. Blocking ads on my websites is like stealing content from me. It is amazing how the big boys never play by the rules. The only way I can continue to create content is to get paid for doing so. Meanwhile I am sure the boys at Amazon think they are only tweaking Google.

It’s just one more development to react to.

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Page views vs Visitors

Posted by mcgelligot in Statistics on December 8, 2010

I was looking over my quantcast stats for InDepthInfo earlier today. I am happy to report that the three year trend shows strong increases in the number of visitors over that time period. Hip, hip….just a second before we get to that “hurrah”. There is also something disturbing going on. The number of actual page views is barely increasing - only about ten percent. What does this mean?

Well, it is pretty obvious, more people are visiting the site, but fewer are staying to look at more than one page. Three years ago the average was nearly 5 pages per visitor. Now it is less than three.

I think this has happened because of the changing nature of the internet and an ever increasing reliance on search to find the exact answer to a question. People are taking less time to browse around to get in-depth information on a subject. Instead, they are looking for the precise answer to their question and then are moving on to the next question. I can’t blame people for this. I do the same thing myself.

The very format of the site was originally designed to be sticky, in that the information is laid out in folios where total comprehension of a subject can be achieved by reading through 4-10 pages. I still like this layout as it goes in line with my philosophy of how information should be accessed. Crosslinking to other pages onsite is also an important component.

Of course, InDepthInfo is not the only website that has seen these trends. Sites that do not emphasize the social aspects of the internet tend to have this problem. Even so, I believe that the return rate of readers will increase as the depth of the information becomes deeper and the brand of the website becomes more established. One thing is certain, the trend of fewer pages per visitor has leveled off and is not likely to worsen as the lowest it can get is one for one.

So is there a reason to cheer. Well, yes. We are still here and we are still growing. Hurrah!

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Increasing Stats

Posted by mcgelligot in Search Engines, Statistics on October 7, 2010

I saw a bit of a jump in my page views over the last couple of days. I am only doing the same old stuff so I can only attribute the increase to a new algorithm in one of the search engines.

I did some research trying to figure out what I had been doing right. What I found was pretty much increases across several folios at InDepthInfo. This means that it was unlikely something I did in the short term.

However, it could also mean that Google is strengthening the part of their algorithm that relies on Brand. I am not sure how much of a brand InDepthInfo really is. But it does have a certain amount of authority with regard to in-links and traffic. It also positions pretty well with quantcast and Alexa.

I can see how Google could use some of these factors to establish a website’s relevance. So maybe it is an algorithm change. Or maybe this is in line with my theory of critical mass.

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