Who is really viewing my site?

Mark Ledingham

I'm not sure what is going on when I look at my SmugMug statistics. To me, it seems that I'm getting some rather bizarre referrers. Take a look at my most recent statistics below. I certainly don't have any desire to have some of the sites listed here as those who make up my visitors. Am I misunderstanding something - or can SmugMug help out? What about creating some filters for this kind of thing? Thanks for any advice.

richpepp

Yep, I've seen that as well. Folks like baidu are obviously ok but the other ones seem to have been popping up of late. I'm not sure what is going on and I'm wondering if it is a bizarre form of advertising where they get to put their url in our web stats as they can't get it to appear in regular search. I confess that I'm not going to even click through to see what the sites are as I don't trust them not to be dodgy!

I don't know if you can filter these visits out in SmugMug stats but you can if you are also using Google Analytics

good luck

Rich

jachang

richpepp wrote: »

Yep, I've seen that as well. Folks like baidu are obviously ok but the other ones seem to have been popping up of late. I'm not sure what is going on and I'm wondering if it is a bizarre form of advertising where they get to put their url in our web stats as they can't get it to appear in regular search. I confess that I'm not going to even click through to see what the sites are as I don't trust them not to be dodgy!

I don't know if you can filter these visits out in SmugMug stats but you can if you are also using Google Analytics

good luck

Rich

Well, this is interesting. I noticed I had one from "wiki1.a-r-t-d-e-a-l-e-r.com". I clicked on it, and it's apparently in Europe somewhere (it says Euroserv), but it had all kinds of art work on it. They had one of my graphite drawings, and I noticed a couple of others by SmugMug members. I'm not sure what they're doing with them. If I go by their name--Art Dealer.com--I wonder if they're selling our stuff, or should I be naive and hope they're directing people to our sites to buy from us?

Jean

Andy

Hi, sorry we don't have any filters for these guys.

jachang

Andy wrote: »

Hi, sorry we don't have any filters for these guys.

Well, I can take consolation in at least knowing I'm "world famous". rofl

Jean

fotog

Well at least you are getting referrers
I have done everything I know how, which it must be said is limited but I can not get a referral to save my life. I have hit up Stumbled Upon, DIGG, and a bunch of others and yes my view count has risen slightly but not one referral. I have gone into Google Analytics and thought of using that but as far as I can tell I have to put code on every page somewhere. So congrats on being world famous. I would just like to be found.

Andy

fotog wrote: »

I have done everything I know how, which it must be said is limited but I can not get a referral to save my life. I have hit up Stumbled Upon, DIGG, and a bunch of others and yes my view count has risen slightly but not one referral. I have gone into Google Analytics and thought of using that but as far as I can tell I have to put code on every page somewhere. So congrats on being world famous. I would just like to be found.

What's your site? I'd like to take a look.

fotog

Sorry Andy that would help: lar.smugmug.com

Andy

fotog wrote: »

Sorry Andy that would help: lar.smugmug.com

Do every single thing we recommend here http://smugmug.com/help/search-engines

Example, you have no gallery description here http://lar.smugmug.com/Portfolio/People-Portraiture/14290059_GXZ7C#1002354786_kmjdW and google will find that if you add it.

WinsomeWorks

What is a referrer exactly?
Could someone explain in a detailed way exactly what "Referrers" means? Some of the conversation in this thread makes it sound to me like people aren't really clear on what a referrer is, or have varied understandings about it. As far as what I think it is, "referrer" isn't really a very descriptive thing to call it. (although I realize it's probably a widely-used term for this, and not a Smug invention.) But I could be completely confused. In other words, if I click on one of those websites under my "referrers", what am I looking at? Isn't this simply the last website visited by a person who arrives on my site? I mean, say the referrer is www.etsy.com . Doesn't this just mean that the person was on Etsy, then they came over to my site? Or does it actually mean they posted a link to my site on Etsy?

I too would like to understand what all these spelled-out links are. They bother me. What's with all the wiki1_b-l-a-h-b-l-a-h-b-l-a-h.com sites? Very weird, and many of them can't be clicked on by me. Why?

WinsomeWorks

jachang wrote: »

Well, this is interesting. I noticed I had one from "wiki1.a-r-t-d-e-a-l-e-r.com". I clicked on it, and it's apparently in Europe somewhere (it says Euroserv), but it had all kinds of art work on it. They had one of my graphite drawings, and I noticed a couple of others by SmugMug members. I'm not sure what they're doing with them. If I go by their name--Art Dealer.com--I wonder if they're selling our stuff, or should I be naive and hope they're directing people to our sites to buy from us?

Jean

Jean, I would highly doubt this site is doing something good with your stuff, if it's called Artdealer.com . No, don't be naive. Can't imagine any reason they'd care to direct people to our site. You couldn't tell what they were doing with the images? I think I've seen that on my stats before, but didn't look into it. If I see it again, I will.

jfriend

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Could someone explain in a detailed way exactly what "Referrers" means? Some of the conversation in this thread makes it sound to me like people aren't really clear on what a referrer is, or have varied understandings about it. As far as what I think it is, "referrer" isn't really a very descriptive thing to call it. (although I realize it's probably a widely-used term for this, and not a Smug invention.) But I could be completely confused. In other words, if I click on one of those websites under my "referrers", what am I looking at? Isn't this simply the last website visited by a person who arrives on my site? I mean, say the referrer is www.etsy.com . Doesn't this just mean that the person was on Etsy, then they came over to my site? Or does it actually mean they posted a link to my site on Etsy?

I too would like to understand what all these spelled-out links are. They bother me. What's with all the wiki1_b-l-a-h-b-l-a-h-b-l-a-h.com sites? Very weird, and many of them can't be clicked on by me. Why?

When a user clicks on a link to take them to a new page, the browser is supposed to include the page that the user came from in the HTTP headers at the referrer field. If an image is loaded into a web page, the refferer is the URL of the page that the image is embedded in. So the referrer either tells you where your images are embedded or where users found a link to your site and clicked on it. In your example, if you see a referrer from Etsy, it should mean that there's some link to your site on Etsy (either to your image or something the user clicked on). It should not mean that the user was just viewing Etsy when they decided to go to your site.

There are situations where there will be no referrer. For example, if someone bookmarks your site and then goes to it from their bookmark or just types your URL directly, there will probably be no referrer. Also, some browsers can be configured to stop supplying the referrer info at all.

Andy

Anna Lisa, this may help, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referrer

WinsomeWorks

Andy wrote: »

Anna Lisa, this may help, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referrer

Forgot to say thanks, Andy, and John too. That did help a lot. I don't think I have had exactly the right concept of what a referrer is. So here's a question I couldn't figure out the answer to: My biggest referrer is http://www.troyerscountryamishblatz.com and it's no mystery why-- it's my sister-in-law's store, and we've placed a slideshow on their site that draws from a gallery I made here on Smug. I also have several SmugMug badges on their site, showing off their furniture & other items for sale. However, this is my question: what registers exactly in my stats? Would someone have to click on the slideshow or badge somehow for it to register here? I'm pretty sure they don't have to click all the way through to Smug for it to register, but I don't know what happens on the other end (the store) for my stats to go up.

jfriend

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Forgot to say thanks, Andy, and John too. That did help a lot. I don't think I have had exactly the right concept of what a referrer is. So here's a question I couldn't figure out the answer to: My biggest referrer is http://www.troyerscountryamishblatz.com and it's no mystery why-- it's my sister-in-law's store, and we've placed a slideshow on their site that draws from a gallery I made here on Smug. I also have several SmugMug badges on their site, showing off their furniture & other items for sale. However, this is my question: what registers exactly in my stats? Would someone have to click on the slideshow or badge somehow for it to register here? I'm pretty sure they don't have to click all the way through to Smug for it to register, but I don't know what happens on the other end (the store) for my stats to go up.

I'd guess the referrer from the store is coming just from your slideshow display on their site. They are essentially externally linked images which can also report a referrer of the host site that is displaying the image.