1. Definitions in the world of statistics.
Before we begin addressing any questions you might have about your website's statistics, we thought the best place to start was with some definitions. A lot of terms are thrown around and misused, but when you understand them, it really helps you translate the numbers into meaningful information.
Clover's "At-a-glance" Statistics:
These are the statistics available in every Clover website's dashboard. After signing in to your Greenhouse Dashboard, you can see "Your Site's Traffic". This feature allows you to see some basic statistics on your website for the last 3 months.
Google Analytics:
A free service that Google gives that will give you super in-depth information about your site's traffic. This service integrates with all Clover sites, and is perfect for those looking for detailed information about your site's visitors. It's completely separate from Clover's At-a-glance statistics. See www.google.com/analytics.
Visitors:
As a statistic, a "visitor" is counted one time for each real person that views a website. So when someone first gets to a website, that counts as one visitor. Even if that person views 10 pages, it still just counts as one visitor.
Visits:
A "visit" is one of the most valuable pieces of information when it comes to determining the reach of your website. A visit is counted each time a person comes to a site (regardless of how many pages they view, or if they've been there before). The key to understanding "visits" is differentiating it from "visitors". For example, if a person views a website every day, it counts as multiple visits, but only one visitor. This is usually the most relevant statistic, because it's a straightforward measure of how often people are viewing your website.
Page view:
A "page view", like it sounds, is counted every time someone views a page. So when a visitor comes to first gets to a website, that counts as one page view; and then when they go to "Services" and then "About Us", that's two more. People sometimes quote page views on their own sites because they're the highest numbers and they sound the most impressive.
Plays:
A "play" is counted every time a person begins watching or listening to a media item in your media player, or when an item is downloaded from your podcast in iTunes (or any other player). If you have a site where media is important, "plays" are a very valuable piece of information, because they show how engaged your audience is with your content.
Traffic:
"Traffic" is a generic term that can potentially refer to any of the above statistics. For example, if someone asked you what kind of traffic your website is getting, it would make sense to say that it gets 35 visits a day, or you could say that you have 400 media plays per month. Essentially, anything that relates to people viewing the content on your site is considered traffic.
2. Reading Your Site's Traffic. Reading Visits
Important things to remember:
Out of all the different possible information to track, we track "visits" (as defined above).
Your statistics are shown based on the timezone of the computer that you are currently using to view the dashboard. This is normally ideal, but it could give you slightly different numbers if for example, your visitors are based in Australia and you happen to be in America when you look at your dashboard.
Every single view of your website is counted in these numbers. We combine all the visits you receive from your Flash and HTML/mobile site to give you the most accurate numbers for visits to your site.
Reading Media Player Traffic
Important things to remember:
A "play" (defined above) does not require the visitor to watch or listen to the complete item. As soon as a media item is started, it's counted as a play. Also, when an item is downloaded from your podcast in iTunes, it's counted as a play.
Your online media player (mobile player included) as well as podcasting is combined in your over-all "plays" number. We've combined them to give you the most accurate measure of your media's exposure, no matter where your visitors are watching it.
3. Frequently asked questions about your At-a-glance Statistics:
Q:
Will Google Analytics show exactly the same number of visits as Clover's At-a-glance statistics?
A:
When we designed our statistics tool, we closely mirrored some of the tactics that Google uses to gather stats. But because there are so many factors involved, the numbers we report may be slightly different from the ones in Google Analytics. There are three main reasons for this:
1)
We track visits on your temporary site (on nowsprouting.com) and Google doesn't.
2)
If you have multiple web addresses, we track visits on all of them, but Google only tracks one.
3)
We filter out phantom visits from search engines a little bit differently from the way Google does.
Q:
I have multiple domains (website addresses) that all point to the same site. How does that work with stats?
A:
Clover's stats combine visits from all the web addresses you have. Google Analytics will only be able to track one of your web addresses.
Q:
I just purchased a website, and I haven't launched yet. Are statistics being tracked?
A:
Our At-a-glance statistics start the moment you get your site (even before it's launched). However, you won't be able to view them until you've gone through the launch process on your dashboard. If you have any questions about launching your website, check out this article.
If you have any other unanswered questions about your At-a-glance Statistics on your site, please email us at support@cloversites.com, or give us a call at 805-527-8900.
