I've figured out what I really need from a web analytics / stats package, and simultaneously discovered it doesn't seem to be something that any stats providers offer.
What I need is a package that can show me stats on content published within a certain timeframe. Stats packages seem to all be able to limit reports to content viewed within a certain timeframe, but this inevitably shows old content that people recently viewed.
Put simply: I want to be able to get stats on "how did this week's stories go?" — I want to be able to exclude all the old content that continues to draw traffic long term.
It seems like such a simple requirement — and something that all bloggers/publishers would find useful — but the actual capability is proving remarkably elusive.
On a technical level, it should be as easy as the stats package recording when a particular URL was first 'seen' on the site — but I can't find this function in Omniture or Google Analytics.
Anyone know a serverside or cloud stats package that can provide this functionality?
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#1 by @josephb on August 8, 2009 - 11:39 am
Not sure if it's a WordPress powered blog, if so maybe the "Wordpress.com Stats" plugin might be useful.
It just needs the API key form your WordPress.com account, gives a good idea of top performing posts etc.
#2 by Dan on August 9, 2009 - 12:27 am
Thanks Joseph… have installed and tried out the WordPress.com Stats plugin following your suggestion. Seems to have the same problem as other stats systems though, in that it will show you the most popular posts, but this includes old (but popular) content.
My quest to find a system that can show the popularity of new content only goes on…
(I also really need one for APCmag.com, which does not run on WordPress sadly…)
#3 by Alex on August 9, 2009 - 11:11 pm
Dan, you can achieve through the useage of Net Insight. Please see website and contact me for further information.
Alex
#4 by Dan on August 9, 2009 - 1:16 pm
Fantastic!! Thanks Andrew — greatly appreciate the recommendation.
Will check out Net Insight.
#5 by JeffHardy on August 11, 2009 - 4:35 pm
Since Web log analytics packages report well on individual pages, you may want to lean in that direction. SmarterSTats does this: http://www.smartertools.com/Sm.....Features...
If each new article appears on its own page, custom reports in SmarterStats should allow you to filter by page or series of pages. There is a FREE edition of SmarterStats that runs in Enterprise mode for one domain so you can try it out at no cost.
#6 by Dan on August 11, 2009 - 9:30 pm
Awesome Jeff, thanks very much for the recommendation. Will download
it and take it for a spin.