Questions About Stats

What does the graph show?

The graph shows page views each day. For example, if a visitor starts at an article, then views the home page and three pages of your January archives, that visit counts as 5 views.

How do I know who is visiting or how long they stayed?

We do not track those details. If you need to know more than our stats pages provide, you can probably find a stats service that lets you put a counter image in your sidebar.

I only see one week of history. Can I look farther into the past?

With a little ingenuity you can do that and more. We’re slowly rolling out updates to the user interface but the stats page can be modified by manipulating the url. Hint: try &enddate=05-12-31

Why doesn’t the number of referrers add up to the number of views?

Sometimes we discard the referrer information, for example when the viewer came from a search engine and we’ve added the search terms to your stats.

Can I download this feature as a plugin for my own WordPress blog?

Yes, WordPress.com Stats are available for your own installed WordPress blog. Download here.

Are spiders or robots counted?

Not normally. These visitors don’t run the javascript code that causes our stats program to count a visitor. Probably all of the views on your graph represent human visitors.

What about ALF?

He’s the reason it says “Probably” above.

How do you know what search terms were used?

Visitors arriving from a search engine usually bring the search terms with them as part of the query string, such as http://www.google.com/search?q=the+best+way+to+make+tea.

Why wasn’t a visit from a search engine counted as a search?

We maintain a long list of search engines but new ones are being created faster than we can add them to the list. If you see a search engine show up in your referrers list, please use the feedback form so we can add it to the list.

Can I have a hit counter on my blog?

Sorry, our stats system doesn’t support that yet. Some folks have added image-only hit counters to their sidebars with the new Widgets. You can certainly do that.

Any more questions?