As I predicted, New Zealand Conservative worsened in the Tumeke blog rankings for August, even though our stats overall have been improving. September was our best result ever, and yet we will fall further.
Why?
This is because since August we supplied our actual StatCounter results. Until that point Tumeke extrapolated our visitor count based on Alexa rankings. The extrapolation method generally puts us in the top 20. Actual stats move us up to the 20-40 band. The problem is that Tumeke is using the extrapolation method for most blogs and actual stats for just a few, and I suspect the extrapolation formula is out of kilter for a range of blogs.
What makes it worse is that I've had to 'correct' the unique visitors counter and it will drop compared to last month's results, but (unfortunately) I think this number is accurate. In the name of truth - blog rankings be damned!
FWIW, my suggestion to Tumeke is to HALVE the Alexa stat estimates (which is probably closer to the truth based on our own stats) and encourage bloggers to email him their numbers with a Statcounter screen shot as evidence of concrete numbers. It would encourage bloggers to open up their stats and produce a more accurate ranking list.
Bracketed number indicates previous month.
A. Visitors for September 2008: 5,909 (7,127 - oops, error. Was 5238)
B. Pageloads for Sep 2008: 10,772 (10,066)
C. Average Daily Unique Visits: 197 (230)
D. Alexa World Ranking: 422,267 (588,662)
E. Alexa NZ Ranking: 812 (1011)
F. Technorati Authority: 56 (57)
G. Technorati Ranking: 121,856 (120,017)
H. Number of Posts in Sep: 68 (48)
I. Average Weekly Posts: 16 (11)
J. Average of Highest Weekly Comments: 32 (32)
TUMEKE SCORE (C)197 + (F)56 + (I)16 + (J)32 = 301 (330)
Ranking previous months: [23,15,22,21,19,18,16,22]
Scores Previous Months: [330,367,280,327,329,343,362,263]
I'm pleased to see our Alexa world and NZ ranking falling consistently over the last few months, but I'm not sure why as our actual stats trend is only slight improvement. Our Technorati ranking stays about the same. It would be interesting to see a blog ranking list based on some combination of the Alexa NZ score plus Technorati.
Here's our actual stats history over the last 6 months:
Related Link: Tumeke Blog Stats
Corrected weekly post average (17 down to 16) 11/Oct/08
Why?
This is because since August we supplied our actual StatCounter results. Until that point Tumeke extrapolated our visitor count based on Alexa rankings. The extrapolation method generally puts us in the top 20. Actual stats move us up to the 20-40 band. The problem is that Tumeke is using the extrapolation method for most blogs and actual stats for just a few, and I suspect the extrapolation formula is out of kilter for a range of blogs.
What makes it worse is that I've had to 'correct' the unique visitors counter and it will drop compared to last month's results, but (unfortunately) I think this number is accurate. In the name of truth - blog rankings be damned!
FWIW, my suggestion to Tumeke is to HALVE the Alexa stat estimates (which is probably closer to the truth based on our own stats) and encourage bloggers to email him their numbers with a Statcounter screen shot as evidence of concrete numbers. It would encourage bloggers to open up their stats and produce a more accurate ranking list.
Bracketed number indicates previous month.
A. Visitors for September 2008: 5,909 (7,127 - oops, error. Was 5238)
B. Pageloads for Sep 2008: 10,772 (10,066)
C. Average Daily Unique Visits: 197 (230)
D. Alexa World Ranking: 422,267 (588,662)
E. Alexa NZ Ranking: 812 (1011)
F. Technorati Authority: 56 (57)
G. Technorati Ranking: 121,856 (120,017)
H. Number of Posts in Sep: 68 (48)
I. Average Weekly Posts: 16 (11)
J. Average of Highest Weekly Comments: 32 (32)
TUMEKE SCORE (C)197 + (F)56 + (I)16 + (J)32 = 301 (330)
Ranking previous months: [23,15,22,21,19,18,16,22]
Scores Previous Months: [330,367,280,327,329,343,362,263]
I'm pleased to see our Alexa world and NZ ranking falling consistently over the last few months, but I'm not sure why as our actual stats trend is only slight improvement. Our Technorati ranking stays about the same. It would be interesting to see a blog ranking list based on some combination of the Alexa NZ score plus Technorati.
Here's our actual stats history over the last 6 months:
Related Link: Tumeke Blog StatsCorrected weekly post average (17 down to 16) 11/Oct/08
Alexa traffic re-estimation will be published shortly.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteEven worse though - what kind of dangerous precedent does this set when one wingey blog post changes something? That's revolutionary, that is.
So we should send our actual monthly uniques through then?
ReplyDeleteOur site meter only shows the past week (or else we have to pay). I check it a couple of times a week so I have a good idea of our uniques - is there a good freebie out there that will give us monthly stats for free?
Thanks
Madeleine
PS Any chance NZ Conservative might list MandM on their blogroll? (We list you... and some of your contributors comment from time to time)
Madeleine, I've added you to our blogroll. Now you just have to post more often! :P
ReplyDeleteMadeleine, we use stacounter, which has free monthly stats I believe.
ReplyDeleteWe subscribe to their paid version, and we get a bit more continuation on the stats (although even the free one should rollover your totals).
www.statcounter.com
We now have been using statcounter for a good 6 weeks, it is set to block our own visits, and yet I find that our uniques are higher than Alexa says they are?!?
ReplyDeleteAny idea why? Is it the Alexa toolbar thing?