Like Derek, I am a statistics addict. I log in to Google Analytics and my ShortStat page at least 10 times a day.
While this site has only been a full fledged blog for a little under a month, a couple numbers have stayed pretty true. Some of this may surprise you, other areas may not, but here is what I find interesting about my visitors.
You may have seen the google analytics screen shots that I use as headers, or you might have read my analytics post where I questioned the numbers I was receiving, but this is it. The real numbers revealed.
Browsers
Apart from the crawlers and search engines which turn up as “indeterminable,” most visitors (60%) are using Apple’s Safari browser. More specifically, they are all using the most up-to-date version, 419.3. This tells me that (although I already knew it) that I have an apple centric audience. It also tells me that my apple users are computer savvy, staying current with the latest and greatest. They care about their browsers and want to experience the latest technology. The runner up is Mozilla’s Firefox with 35%. Internet Exploiter comes in with a measly 5%. Ok guys, stop optimizing for IE.
Platforms
Again, Mac OS X is my top hit. 70% of my readers are enjoying the best operating system in the world. Windows XP comes in at 25%, with Linux, Windows 2000, *windows*, BSD, and Windows Longhorn beta (???) nipping at 1% each. At this point I think it’s safe to assume that I don’t need to cover major developments in the Windoze world.
Resolutions
A year ago, you would have been laughed out of the business if you designed a corporate site for anything bigger than 800×600. If you want the majority of people to see your content comfortably, you have to accomodate their 15″ monitors set to the lowest resolution available. I am sooo happy to see that 25% of my visitors use 1280×1024. 24% use 1024×768. What about ol’ 800? 2%. This also makes me happy.
Referrers
While my biggest referrers are new visitors from Digg and Technorati, my returning visitor percentage is steadily increasing. Over the course of this month it has gone from 25% returning to 33%. I think this has been helped significantly by optimizing my RSS feed and “subscribe to comments” plugin which emails comment updates to the respective user. Let’s hope this continues.
I’m am really fighting the urge to pick up a license for Shaun Inman’s Mint tracking system for comparative purposes.
Ok. Off to class. Wish me luck.
Is it odd that I am jealous your readership is comprised mostly of Safari users? Actually, I guess the first step to reaching that type of figure is grabbing a larger OS X user base. As far as your decision concerning whether or not you should splurge on a Mint license, it looks like you’re getting all the vital stats you need using your current setup. Why change?
The mere suggestion that you are jealous of anyone’s readership makes me laugh. I’m just glad that thanks to these results, I feel a little more comfortable sticking a “this site not optimized for IE” warning on my upcoming redesign. Or at least until I get a chance to do some hacks :)
It is strange that I have such a mac specific userbase considering I write mostly about non-platform specific internet ongoings. I’m guessing most of them showed up around the “macbook-dell” debate.
Mint is gorgeous. Hands down. I love the naming schemes, the plugins or peppers. I’m just looking for justification to drop 30 bucks. I’d also like to compare the results against Google Analytics. My gut feeling is that the numbers are just slightly off base. Shortstat is good, but with a free product you get what you pay for.