Site Usage Statistics

[Koroush Ghazi]

As mentioned on the front page, I've been looking at Google Analytics data for TweakGuides. The data below is only for the past couple of weeks (sample size of around 250,000 people in that time), since that's when I started using it, but even with our recent Digg-inspired traffic hump, I can vouch that the data is quite representative of our readership, since I've cross-checked it with my server stats package AWStats. Having worked in the Australian Bureau of Statistics myself for several years, I'm also well aware of the statistical biases which may be present, but again I still feel that this is a good snapshot of general readership stats.

Before getting into the stats themselves, just a note for those of you who are unaware of how this all works, servers collect usage data each time you connect to them (with or without Google Analytics). No personal data is able to be collected, it's not 'spyware' or anything like that. It's literally just the basic type of data I'm providing below, and all webmasters around the Net can gather this sort of data. It's extremely valuable in gauging the popularity of a site, it's incredibly useful for knowing what type of readers you have, and thus how best to configure your site to meet their needs, etc.

Browser and Platform (OS) Used:


Not surprisingly almost every result shows 'Windows XP' as the platform used, except the small bright yellow slice showing Firefox on Win2K. It's surprising to see the sheer number of Firefox users here, especially when you add up all the different versions of Firefox (even some Firefox 2.0 users you can see). No doubt because of the Firefox Tweak Guide and the tweaking/experimenting nature of our audience, Firefox is overrepresented at TweakGuides compared to the rest of the web. Another surprise though is the low number of Opera 9 users (3 - 4%), and the large number of IE6 users who haven't yet switched to IE7. Of course 10% of the data is not clear, but the graph below shows us more detail about platform in particular.

Platform:


Just to make it even clearer, given I write guides for Windows it's not surprising that almost 97% of our audience are using a Windows-based OS. But interestingly there is a 1.75% Mac and 1.3% Linux user base.

Desktop Resolution Used:


I was personally surprised by just how many people are using 1280x1024 now. Only a year or two ago, 1024x768 was the resolution of choice, and 800x600 still had a big presence. Things have changed it seems, no doubt at least partly due to the higher incidence of LCD screens with higher native resolutions, and also because of people buying larger screen monitors. 800x600 is now almost totally gone it appears. I think TweakGuide's current layout looks good in both 1024x768 and 1280x1024, but of course it's a compromise as I can't cater solely to one or the other - as reinforced by these stats.

Connection Speed:


Interesting to see that there is still a reasonable chunk of dialup users (almost 10%), and remember the 'uknown' chunk is also reasonably significant and I have no idea how it splits across the other fields. But given TweakGuides has a very light (size-wise) layout, I feel it caters to all users without taking long to load up.

Geographic Location:


This is a tricky one as there's a large chunk (20%) of unidentifiable data (other countries too small to show up individually), but clearly most of our readers (as logic would dictate) are from the english speaking countries: US, UK, Canada and Australia. I'm surprised though at the fact that we have only 4.6% Australian readers even though the site is based in Australia. This is one of the reasons why I find it hard to get local sponsorship, as local sponsors have approached me, but I have told them honestly that we don't have a big Australian audience.

Language:


To refine the image a bit, when viewed by language it becomes perfectly clear that - again logically - we have a predominantly english-speaking audience. Yet that still leaves up to 20% of our audience who are non-native English speakers as witnessed by the default language they've set in Windows. The highest proportion appear to be German and Dutch speakers (3% and 2.6% respectively).


I can't provide detailed data on how many pages and visitors the site gets daily and by precise content, because this sort of data is not something that should be shared - it is data that competing websites can use against each other, so you won't find it broadcast much around the web. Just like going to a business and asking them for detailed turnover data by day or month, or market share stats for example.

I can tell you that in aggregrate, using AWStats, for the month of August 2006 (i.e. just the last 26 days), we've had 160GB of data transfer, 12 million hits, 2.2 million pages and 635,000 visitors so far. And this has actually been a slower month than usual, even with the Digg spike, probably due to a lack of any new guides. Our peak was in April when the Oblivion Tweak Guide came out and we topped 4 million pages, close to 1 million visitors and 300GB of transfer.

The above is pretty much the only data I'd like to share for the moment, and is more than most sites share with their readers, but I figured some of you may be interested in seeing such a snapshot

[conga]

Wow thats alot of bandwidth used. I use Mint (site down) to see stats on my site. But of course its not as detailed as AWStats, im just a sucker for eye candy. I havent tried Google Analytics, but im signing up right now.

[Syne]

Hehe, nice to see that I fit in at least one minority with my 1152x864 resolution. Weird, as it's not easy to remember: 1024/1280x768/1024 rolls off the tongue, but I'll forever be referring to 1152x864 as "the one after 1024x768". I'd be viewing it higher, but this PC uses a SyncMaster 17GLs (at least 4 years old), and 1280x1024 can get quite trying on the eyes at 15". Needless to say, but that's one of the next areas of upgrade for my rigs.

[Phantom]

It´s nice to see some great stats, in fact, i´m one of those people that is from a non native english speaking country. I´m from central america and been reading this site for about six months, TGTC is my bible for computers.

Cheers to everyone....

[deltd]

Thanks for sharing - enjoyed being able to see all that info.

I'll have to take a look at Google Analytics myself

[spectre]

Thanks for showing the data.

I agree with you about the popularity of the 1280x1024 resolution arising out LCD sales although I wasn't really surprised by that pie chart. What was surprising to me was the low percentage of australian representation in the sample - indeed, with 50.8% of the site's visitors from North America (U.S.A. + Canada), I almost wonder if you could get a U.S. sponsor (should you want to go down that track).

[Koroush Ghazi]

Hopefully once more sponsors request the traffic stats then yes, I may get a US-based sponsor.

We also get a lot of new visitors to the site (I believe the split is almost 50/50 for new vs. returning visitors), so I'll be keeping a regular eye on these stats to see how they evolve. The best thing about them is that they're far more accurate than any online polls or other methods of gathering data about readers.

[Wraith556]

I'll claim to be one of those Windows 2000 users. So far I have no compelling reason to upgrade.

But the stats and analysis do make interesting reading.

[Koroush Ghazi]

I should also mention that just because you may be in the 'minority' based on these stats, doesn't mean I'll be totally ignoring your needs. Part of the trick of running a site is to cater to all types of readers, not just those in the majority. That's why I sometimes report Boot Camp (Mac) updates on the front page, or important Linux news for example.

But obviously due to my personal interests and capabilities, this site will always focus on XP (and then Vista) tweaking, and cover the types of games I personally would play and the utilities I would use. Not much I can do about that, I have to write about what interests me

[Calego]

I'm surprised at the resolution graph too. I'm the only person I know that uses 1280x1024, and I've had to strongarm my parents and one of my friends into upgrading from 800x600 (on a 1280x1024 LCD screen, no less).

Not many people using widescreen monitors yet, either. Kind of odd that computers are lagging behind televisions in that way.