The numbers game

I guess for anyone running a website, there must always be the occasional nagging doubt as to whether anyone is actually reading it. Luckily, the hosting service I use (Globalgold) provides access statistics, the results of which never fail to amaze me...

www.625.org.uk

This is currently running at an average of 29,145 hits per month, which resolves to 4,721 individual visits a month - 155 per day. The last full month - February 2009 (see graph) - had 26,331 hits, resolving to 4,179 visits - 149.25 per day. The following were the most popular hits in terms of entry pages, i.e. first page which visitors accessed:

463 - Top-level
327 - John Mortimer biography
243 - Nineteen Eighty-Four review, part 1
243 - Things to Come
198 - Out of the Unknown
196 - Out of the Unknown archive guide
155 - Nineteen Eighty-Four review, part 2
151 - Story Parade: The Caves of Steel review
150 - BBC Enterprises sales documentation for Out of the Unknown: Tunnel Under the World
140 - The Listener - The BBC Archives

In terms of actual pages accessed, the top 30 were:

463 - Top-level
327 - John Mortimer biography
243 - Nineteen Eighty-Four review, part 1
243 - Things to Come
198 - Out of the Unknown
196 - Out of the Unknown archive guide
187 - 625 mainpage
155 - Nineteen Eighty-Four review, part 2
151 - Story Parade: The Caves of Steel review
151 - Things to Come - Photo Gallery
150 - BBC Enterprises sales documentation for Out of the Unknown: Tunnel Under the World
140 - The Listener - The BBC Archives
114 - Things to Come - Publicity Gallery
114 - Things to Come - The Gutlohn Print
103 - Top-level (frames)
99 - Rudolph Cartier biography
97 - "British Telefantasy Began in 1963...." Part 1
95 - Kate Hardie screenography
86 - Ian Curteis biography
86 - Biographies index
86 - Things to Come - Film Story
85 - Out of the Unknown, part 2
83 - Stephen Poliakoff biography
82 - Left frameset
82 - Things to Come - Merchandise Gallery
76 - Giles Cooper biography
72 - Staraker Publishing issues
71 - Doctor Who: The Aztecs review
69 - G.F. Newman biography
68 - "British Telefantasy Began in 1963...." Part 2

The continued popularity of the biographies - particularly that of John Mortimer (which I really must update!) - are explained by the fact that someone along the line people added links to the relevant Wikipedia pages. Nineteen Eight-Four remains of interest, although it's a little sad that 36% of those who at least get look at the first part of the review don't progress to the second, while 30% don't progress to the second part of the Pre-1963 British Telefantasy article.

www.cwgcuser.org.uk:

It rather startling to realise that this site now averages 105,941 hits per month, although this resolves to a 6,259 individual visits a month - 206 per day. February 2009 (see graph) had 103,572 hits, resolving to 5,723 visits - 204.39 per day. The following were the most popular hits in terms of entry pages:

796 - The Underground at War
631 - The London Underground in Films & TV
485 - Lost in France, Day 2
352 - Lost in France, Day 6
332 - Simon of the Amethyst
295 - The Underground at War - Casualty & Fatality Analysis
328 - Lost in France, Day 5
287 - Top-level
253 - Lost in France, Day 1
447 - Personal

In terms of actual pages accessed, the top 30 were:

796 - The Underground at War
631 - The London Underground in Films & TV
485 - Lost in France, Day 2
447 - Personal
352 - Lost in France, Day 6
332 - Simon of the Amethyst
328 - Lost in France, Day 5
295 - The Underground at War - Casualty & Fatality Analysis
287 - Top-level
253 - Lost in France, Day 1
151 - Lost in France, Day 7
141 - The London Underground in Films & TV: An American Werewolf in London
133 - Lost in France, index
114 - Hidden City photo gallery
112 - Lost in France, Day 8
110 - Lost in France, Day 4
106 - Terrorist Attacks on the London Underground
104 - The Loss of H.M. Minesweeper No. 847, The Lord Airdale - 18th/19th March 1915
101 - Hidden City: South Kentish Town Tube Station
94 - The London Underground in Films & TV: Sliding Doors
82 - The London Underground in Films & TV: Adverts
81 - Hidden City: 23/24 leinster Gardens
79 - Lost in France, Day 3
78 - Shields-Con I
76 - The London Underground in Films & TV: Doctor Who: The Web of Fear
73 - The Cat-alogue
71 - The London Underground in Films & TV: Quatermass and the Pit
67 - Hidden City: Aldwych Tube Station
67 - The London Underground in Films & TV: EastEnders
67 - The London Underground in Films & TV: Lost

It's interesting that while the Hidden City index gets 114 hits, the three sub-pages collectively get 249, so clearly there are a lot of people going straight to specific sub-pages, presumably as a result of relevant web searches.

Although the London Underground at War has long been established as the most popular page on this site, there was a time when hits to it went through the roof, as the graph here shows, with the immediate and massive spike on 7 July 2005 being all to painfully apparent. Rather than the usual ~750 visits a month, it shot up to 1,700 before I hastily installed a intermediate page, and shifted the page proper and its images temporarily over to the 625.org.uk domain. This was necessary because the, due to the large number of images on the page, there was a danger of exceding my bandwidth limits for the month.