Since I'm a genealogist I'm also a pretty good stalker - you might say they go hand in hand. I started this blog with very pure intentions - it was basically going to be my journal that a few people might read. Now that I know people do read it I'm obsessed with knowing how many people read it, what they like, where they're from, etc., etc. This is compounded by the fact that very few people actually leave comments (I'm a lurker too, so I'm not pointing any fingers, but I would love to know who my "fans" are so please do feel free to leave comments!!). Well, you may be glad or mad to know this, but Google has basically perfected the art of tracking website usage, short of getting visitors' names and contact info. I'm just going to talk about some of the sweet things about Google Analytics. If you want to know how to get it to work for your website, go here (basic info about signing up) and here (installing the code in your blog).
There are SO MANY great things tracked in Google Analytics, but here are some of the really great ones:
Hits on your website for any block of dates you choose (in other words, you can know how many people visited in June vs. July, or just last week, or just yesterday, or for all time, etc.). This flexibility in time tracking is applicable to everything else I'll mention here.
Hits on each individual page of your website, how much time was spent on each page, how people arrived at each page, and where they went from there. This isn't as applicable for blogs, but is huge for a business website.
How many people were new vs. returning visitors, and if returning visitors, how often they visit.
Hit trending by day of the week. In other words, you can know things like whether people visit your site more often at the first of the week or on the weekends.
Which keywords directed someone to your site if it was found through a search engine. If someone arrived at your site through a link, you can know which site they came from.
How many visitors came to your site by country, state, and city. This is a HUGE one! If you have a business, you now know how many people are visiting your site down to the city - meaning you know exactly where your most successful places to market are. Amazing!
What percentage of visitors are using Explorer, Firefox, etc., as well as whether they use Windows or Mac, what their screen resolutions are set at, whether they have java, etc.
You won't get as much data about people who subscribe to your blog, unfortunately. Through feedburner you can track how many subscribers you have, what posts they view, and if they clicked on any links in your post.
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