ITP V.012 UPDATE: BLOGSPOT STATS INACURRATE

Most bloggers on BLOGSPOT KNOW, (if they've been on BLOGSPOT for a while) that BLOGSPOT stats (hits, and where the hits are coming from) are inaccurate this time to ITP V.012's disadvantage.
I call bullsh*t on BLOGSPOT stats, I've had more than ''82" on specific blog entries alone as (this stat is NOT record breaking in the context of blogs world wide) ITP hit a milestone late last month of 300, 000 all time page views. 
I also noticed, many bloggers have LEFT BLOGSPOT for a variety of reasons, some their own, and many issues regarding the server as well. We'll keep in touch with my warrior friends. BLOGSPOT is NOT a monopoly on blog servers, there are many other blog servers as journals can be exported out of BLOGSPOT as many had been imported in.. 

Since ITP's author has NEVER has this "stat' problem with the old BLOGSPOT interface, me thinks it's a new interface or/and server problem as other bloggers on BLOGSPOT have complained of the same problem regarding their journals. 

Hopefully there's no 'puter virus, mall ware or spyware going around,  I'm pissed.

This past week, BLOGSPOT STATS, for blogs, (in the dashboard) have been kinda sketchy and inconsistent.

ITP is NOT a new BLOG on BLOGSPOT as ITP was imported from AOL HOMETOWN to BLOGSPOT 10/2008. ITP has existed, (first on AOL) since early 2004.

Also, ITP is copy written. 

UPDATE: 10/15/2012: 12: 20 AM EST USA:  ITP V.012 STATS (HOPEFULLY FIXED)

UPDATE: 10/16/2012: 7:41 PM EST: BLOGSPOT STATS ARE INNACURATE, again..

ACCURATE ITP V.012 STATS 10/15/2012:

Pageviews last month

15,289

Pageviews all time history

308,505

INACURRATE ITP V.012 STATS 10/16/2012 7:48 PM EST USA:

BLOGSPOT is STILL innacurate regarding hits to (ITP's) specific blog posts, lmao.

Pageviews today

12

Pageviews yesterday

70

Pageviews last month

82

Pageviews all time history

82

For lack of a better sentence, and whoever is jealous, hiding something, in denial, F**CK the HATERS. I CALL BULLSH*T ON BLOGGER (BLOGSPOT) STATS,

FIX IT, OR I'LL LEAVE..

FROM CANSPECCY BLOGSPOT:

http://canspeccy.blogspot.com/2011/09/bogger-stats-you-can-trust.html

FROM BLOGGING CALLWALL:

http://blog.cwl.cc/2012/03/why-are-blogger-and-analytics-stats-so.html

So, you've been blogging for a while on Google's Blogger site and have become sophisticated enough to include the Google Analytics code required to gain a more enterprise-level look at your blog statistics. But, as your blog is being viewed, you notice that the stats that Blogger offers are distinctly different from what you see in Analytics. What gives?

Summary: I take a look at the common different statistics in Blogger and Google Analytics and offer some ways to improve the sometimes wildly different  display of statistics.

The Problem

First, let me show you an example of this discrepancy. In the graphic below, I have listed a recent post on Windows 8. In the Google Analytics example, PageViews are listed as 111 and unique PageViews are listed as 105. However, in Blogger, the exact same post is listed as having a "View Count" of 147.

Even worse, if I drill down in Blogger's stats, I see another reference to the above post and a PageView count of 145.

All of these different numbers are quite troubling. Since a user can't stop the gathering of stats by Blogger,  this information is constantly a reminder of how one or both of these sources of information are incorrect. So, what's going on?

The story from Google

Some information can be gathered from the blog that announced the addition of stats. Based on the updates they've undertaken, it seems clear that the PageViews can be skewed by your own viewing of the page (while you're writing) as well as bots that crawl pages automatically. It seems very likely that Blogger is not capable of catching all the different kinds of robots out there, hence the major discrepancy in PageViews. Blogger also attaches a disclaimer "Note that the pageview data in Blogger Stats and in Google Analytics may not be identical, due to different collection mechanisms used."

To make the counting in Blogger more accurate, I would suggest you exclude your own opening of the site by going to Stats -> Overview in your Blogger Dashboard and clicking on the link that says  "Don't track my pageviews". This adds a cookie to your computer that tells Blogger not to count you. You'll want to do that from every computer  (and browser) you use to write with.

What about the Preview?

On average, I'm going to preview an article I write three or more times. This preview counts, right? Well, not exactly. When I look at the code of the preview ("View Source" in your browser), you'll find all of the code required for counting in Analytics and presumably in Blogger too. 

Here's where things are different though. Blogger is likely counting the preview operation as a pageview because of the title of the post. Analytics, however is smart enough to know that the preview is not the actual post. If you take a look at the content drill-down in Analytics, you'll see that the posts you preview are counting completely separate from your published posts: 

Which should I trust?

In this case, you are going to trust Google Analytics statistics. It can't be understated that the kinds of statistics you get in Blogger are as simplistic as possible. Blogger is really only tracking PageViews and likely by title which can really skew the total. In Analytics, there are more details and options to understand your site's performance. Another reason to trust Analytics? Professionals use it to track all kinds of sites, not just blogs.

What can I do now to make the statistics more accurate?

Here's a few things you can do if you still want to use Blogger's stats in addition to having an Analytics account.

#1. Exclude yourself - Make sure you exclude your use of the blog by going to Stats -> Overview in your Blogger Dashboard and clicking on the link that says "Don't track my pageviews".

#2. Make sure Analytics code is installed - For every page (or a few of them to test), open the page and right-click on any white space area. In that menu, chose "view source" or "page source" or whatever is equivalent for your browser. In the source, search for "_setAccount" and check that account number with your Analytics setup. Make sure all pages, including the root or home are being tracked.

#3. Let it go - Ultimately Blogger's stats are best for sites with low hit counts that wouldn't care to use Analytics. You're site isn't one of them, so don't worry. If anything, Blogger's stats will be inflated, so take it as an ego boost.

Ultimately knowledge is power. Keep looking for more details about this. Keep your eyes open for articles that discuss this in further detail too. Make sure you're comfortable understanding what the data these technologies produce are going to do for you and how useful they can be. For example, if you have an AdSense account, you'll find the numbers there are also not the same as Blogger or Analytics. Knowing that many people employ ad blockers an that often ads don't load because of DNS changes will help you undersand that the pure number of ad views will be different, and that's ok. If do you learn something new, please do post it in the comments.

FROM JENSONTAYLOR BLOGSPOT: 

This is follow up post on Using Google Analytics with Blogger Tutorial. I encourage everyone to use Google Analytics instead of Blogger Stats however when people make the switch the first question everyone asks is why is there such a big difference/drop in Google Analytics stats versus Blogger Stats. In particular the Blogger stats shows much larger number for page views than Google Analytics.

Before I go into details, I like to point out that Google Analytics is showing the "more" correct statistics of user activity on your blog.

The major difference in statistics between Google Analytics and Blogger Stats comes from the method they use to track page views and visitors. Google Analytics uses a more accurate method by setting a cookie on the user's browser which means the user is most likely to be a real user as opposed to an automate computer program.
There are many automated computer programs that visit your blogs on regular basis(known as bots) that fetch your content in order to create an index for search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google Analytics will not recognize these as valid visits whereas Blogger Stats counts each one of these as a valid visit. Aside from search engines viewing your blog there are many other automated programs that are designed for spamming and email harvesting that visit your blog. These visits are added up to your Blogger Stats, therefore inflating your egovisitor numbers.

If you have previously used solutions other than Blogger Stats, other factors can contribute to a difference in numbers such as their use of third party images or third party cookies. Some statistic-collection websites place a small image on your blog such as a counter or their logo or even a transparent image. Every time that image is loaded a "hit" or "page view" is recorded on their servers. Whereas Google Analytics only counts a "visit" to the same page if it's not within the same 30 minutes.

It's also worth knowing that some security programs such as firewalls and anti-viruses change the settings of your browser to stop these third party images from loading which means even more incorrect statistics are recorded.

Also, it is worth pointing out that Blogger Stats will record your visits to your own blog. So disabling this feature is a great help toward getting more consistent statistics across Blogger Stats and Google Analytics, even though Google Analytics also records your visits to your own blog. You can find the procedure on how to disable tracking your own visits to your blog below however since the country code domain name changes have gone live, disabling tracking will not be as accurate as it was before the top level domain name changes.

You can find more information on this topic via the Google Help pages.

Stop Tracking your own views
For bloggers that have very popular blogs, it will not make a noticeable difference whether you track your own visits to your blog or not. However if your blog doesn't get that many views then your own visits could account for a large portion of page views on your blog. Hence it is important to stop tracking your own views in Blogger Stats. So:

1. Go to your Blog dashboard
2. Click on "Stats" (Overview)
3. Click on "Don't track your own pageviews" as shown in the screenshot below

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-