Stats Pageview Counts Fluctuate Daily, Not At Midnight

One of the many controversial issues about Stats involves the daily pageview counts, which are reset daily.

Most blog owners accept the daily count reset, in principle - they just don't understand why the counts should be reset during their day, instead of at midnight.

My pageview count goes up during the day - but in the afternoon, it goes to zero, then starts over again. Why is Stats so unreliable?

The pageview count reset would be better understood, were it to happen daily, at midnight, for each blog owner. Unfortunately, there are over 24 different time zones, worldwide - and Blogger blogs are surely owned by some persons, in each of the time zones represented.

There are 24 time zones which roughly follow longitudinal lines - plus specific countries which have their own national clocks. WikiPedia identifies a total of 40 time zones.

Some countries span multiple time zones, adding to the 24 longitudinal zones.

Some countries span and divide into multiple time zones, others span multiple time zones and use one time zone. India, for instance, spans 3 time zones, geographically - but observes one time zone, offset by 30 minutes, as "GMT+5.5".

Most people observe a twice yearly 1 hour clock shift.

Many countries observe a seasonal variation, "Daylight Savings Time", when they shift local clocks ahead or behind, by an hour. DST beginning and ending dates vary by country, irregularly.

Also, countries south of the equator start summer, when countries north of the equator start winter. People south of the equator move their clocks forward, when people north of the equator are moving theirs backwards. If you ever try to communicate with somebody in Australia, from the USA, you'll notice how much relative fluctuation this causes, during a year.

To reset Stats at midnight for everybody, there would be pandemonium.

If the daily Stats pageview count reset were to be scheduled according to the local clock of the blog owner (which would be impossible, for multi owner blogs), there would have to be as many reset process schedules as there are countries / time zones. Additionally, twice a year, most reset schedules would be shifted, according to the local DST offset.

The only practical solution is to reset at the same time, worldwide.

Considering the almost inestimable number of rules required to schedule a local midnight count reset for all Blogger blogs, during the entire year, I suspect that the only practical design involves scheduling the reset, for all blogs, at midnight GMT. This means that no blog owners will see their pageview counts reset at midnight, during the entire year.

Everybody simply has to accept their count being reset sometime during their day - with the reset time varying according to the twice a year local clock shift.

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Some #Blogger blog owners claim that Stats daily totals seem to go up, and down, during the day. They do not understand why Stats counts are reset during their day, instead of at midnight their time.

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Stats Time Ranges, And Pageview Count Recalculation

Periodically, we see evidence of confusion about Stats and the pageview counts, as provided in the various displays and time ranges, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My pageview counts keep going down!

or

My counts go up during the day - but in the afternoon, they drop to zero!!

or

My counts keep going down! There's no end to the drop!!

All of these complaints - and more - involve blog owners, who don't understand the relationships between the displays and time ranges.

We've explored the results of the ongoing referer spam war, of normal viewer activity, and of the daily pageview count reset which applies, periodically, to all blogs. Besides those 3 issues, there is some confusion about the relationships between the various time ranges.

There are 6 different displays - and opportunities for confusion.

1. The Dashboard "Overview" page.
2. The Posts "All time" per post pageviews count.
3. The Stats "Overview" page.
4. The Stats "Posts" page.
5. The Stats "Traffic sources" page.
6. The Stats "Audience" page.

The 4 Stats display pages each offer 5 different "Time range" displays.

• Now (the last 2 hours).
• Day (the last 24 hours).
• Week (the last 7 days).
• Month (the last 30 days).
• All time (since May 2006, when Stats pageview counts were first extracted) - though possibly missing one year or another.

Some blog owners try to compare the Stats "Overview" histogram (in its 5 time ranges), with the "Overview" counts ("today", "yesterday", "last month", and "all time history"). Unfortunately, the graphs and numbers are recalculated (by Blogger) on various schedules.

• Some are recalculated on a minute by minute basis.
• Some are recalculated hourly.
• Some are recalculated daily (but not necessarily at midnight, for everybody).
• We have no idea of the timings involved, for "Popular Posts" re ranking.

Confusion arises, when a blog owner refreshes a display, without understanding when the numbers behind the display may have been recalculated, relevant to reader activity.

• When reader activity occurs, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate an increase.
• When reader activity expires from relevance, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.
• When reader activity is removed because it was bogus, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.

Note that Stats bases its figures on access to the URL - not to the blog - and recalculates each display when requested, as far back as 2006. If you just changed the URL of your blog, you may see pageview counts which reflect access to another blog.

The different time ranges may not balance, when a URL change is involved.

Like the inability to balance the various per post pageview counts, the task of balancing the various graphs and numbers may be beyond the ability of some blog owners. Each count or graph has to be considered in its own context.

Comparing any two displays, in context with each other, simply may not be a useful activity.

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Fluctuations In Stats Pageview Counts And Newer Blogs

Some owners of newer Blogger blogs spend time reading their Stats logs, and worry that their "All time" pageview counts don't always go up - they go down, too.

Why do the counts go down? Is there one number, that I can believe?

They don't understand that with Stats, you need to look for trends - not absolute readings. In the beginning, fluctuations are more obvious, and trends are less obvious.

Thanks to the referer spam war, and to normal visitor activity, even the "All time" numbers will go up and down - for newer blogs, which have less genuine and constant visitor traffic. And the constant rise and fall is scary - until you get used to it.

Newer blogs have less established readers, which makes spikes in both the periodic referer spam, and normal visitor activity, more visible.

With the 4 limited time ranges (Now, Day, Week, and Month), the spikes will "move" in and out of context - and make pageview counts in these time ranges fluctuate. When a spike in numbers "moves in" to a time range, the pageview counts will rise, suddenly. When a spike "moves out" of a time range, the counts will fall, just as suddenly.

With newer blogs, the fluctuations exert a "double whammy".

1. The fluctuations are more visible, because overall genuine visitor activity is lower. Less readers = less visitor activity.
2. Worrying over the fluctuations takes time away from working on the blog. Less time working on the blog leads to less blog content, attracts less new readers, and leads to less visitor activity.

More experienced blog owners know to use Stats to watch for trends - not immediate numbers.

The answer here is simple. Monitor Stats periodically - not constantly. Watch for trends, and learn how to interpret the trends. Spend more time working on your blog, because that's where the value of your blog lies.

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