Google Webmaster Tools For Your Blog

Last week my blog stats provided a roller coaster ride I choose not to take.

Instead, I spent my time learning a great deal about my blog traffic. It appears my potential traffic is falling into a rabbit hole once Google Search sends it off to WordPress.

I was composing a mental letter to WordPress. I had done numerous edits. I was brought back to my senses when there was a bump in my blog traffic. My blogging world appeared to be reawakening.

Actually, the world of Uduzit began to revive at Midnight Sunday. It began to wake from a two week slumber where I had begun to feel it had fallen into a coma.

My recent traffic was literally non-existent some days. That is down from a recent high of 55 daily page views.

I can not have Google Analytics on my WordPress blog. I thought that meant I was cut off from all the Google Webmaster Tools. I was wrong.

To my amazement, all my blog keyword and Search page statistics were listed in my Google Account. It is a goldmine of information.

All you need is a Google Account to access your blog stats. I sign in with a Gmail address, and when I do, there are my blogs Google Webmaster Tools.

I see which keywords Google is using to rank my blog. I see where the people searching for those keywords are coming from. And I also see the percentages of how many of those people are clicking through to my blog.

I see that visitors who disappeared from my blog are still reaching Google. My page position is 7 or better for most of my keywords. My Google PR holds at 5.

All my Search Engine rankings are improving. Technorati moved my Authority up from 7 to 10 this week, and now ranks Uduzit at 608,266.

Uduzits’ Alexa rank moved up 25% this month. It is now 4,270,095 and moved from 4,974,124 at the beginning of June.

Note to WordPress: Nick, your email response that Uduzit is a little blog whose page rankings are falling does not seem to fit the facts. The facts are my visitors are disappearing once they leave Google.

Could they be arriving at WordPress and reaching one of the 7 pages on my blog that Google is now reporting with errors?

Hopefully, this situation is improving naturally.

It is great to see all you folks from around the world returning.

Should your blog experience a major dip in traffic, do use Google Webmaster Tools to get a clearer idea of what’s going on.

The Google statistics for your blog can hold many answers. And Google gives all that information to you for free!

Smiles. ET

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Great stat add-ons for WP blogs

It is easy to see from my post views, that many of you are also interested in who is visiting your blogs. There is a great deal of information available from free stat services, that is not available in the current WordPress stats application.

In my recent posts, there has been a lot of grumbling about the short comings of WordPress stats. I had difficulty finding the programs that were compatible with my WordPress.com hosted blog. I have now found some excellent solutions.

In my search for better stats, I found the programs I was seeking were located under the search term “site counters,” in the WordPress FAQ section.

Two of these stats services are now running on my blog, and they are free.

The first service I installed was Site Meter. The amount of detailed information they provide is astounding. I especially like the colored world map that shows were each reader came from.Knowing two thirds of WordPress visitors are from countries other than the US, this is a great feature.

Site Meter has a guided tour and you can get there from this page by clicking on the Site Meter icon in the right column.

Next, I installed Stat Counter. It calls you blog a Project and provides colored charts and a huge amount of varied data on visitor history. Site Counter seem to focus more on Search Engines and Keyword results as well.

Both Site Meter and Stat Counter provide extensive stats. They are both Internet based stat services that do not slow your blog down. Remember, just install straight HTML code for each. WordPress does not allow the Java Scripts.

The FAQ pages on WordPress are constantly being updated, though some have outdated information. Outdated information can throw you. Forget everything else you read. Just use the widget solution below.

Remember, these instructions work to install the proper HTML code for either of these new WordPress stats services:

1. You will get the HTML code for your blog once you have set up your account. Copy these few lines of HTML code.

2. Now go to your Design page, then hit the Widget link for your theme.

3. Add a new Text Widget to your list of widgets.

4. Open the new Text Widget.

5. Put “Site Meter” or “Site Counter,” in the top box of the widget information. In the lower section, paste in your HTML code. Save your changes!

6. Each service gets its’ own text widget. You can now have more than nine widgets on your WP blog. Nine’s an old rule.

Visit your account, at either website, and it will already be recording site visits. Even yours! Set the cookies they provide for blocking hits from your personal browsers. That way, you don’t throw off your results with your own page views.

There you have it. That is all you have to do to have great stats for your WordPress blog. Just install the widgets, and use both services at the same time. Now, you have mucho information to work with.

All this, while you still have your regular WordPress stats numbers too!

Many Smiles. ET