Statistics and lies in the new Smugmug

Pukkascott · August 1, 2013

Have you looked at your statistics once you have migrated to the new Smugmug? Seen a massive boost in views? I bet you have got a Multiple Photos content block on your home page.

The multiple photos block is one of the most eye catching features of the new Smugmug design and many people will choose to have it on the homepage, but as soon as someone lands on that page (including the owner I think) all the pictures add to the statistics.

I don't think much can be done about this, but it renders the statistics part of Smugmug pretty useless. You have to use Google Analytics to give a better idea of traffic.

Scott
London Photography and Video

mbonocore · August 1, 2013

Thanks for the feedback. I will check into this tomorrow for you.

Thanks!

Michael Bonocore
www.mb-photography-sf.com
www.facebook.com/mbonocore
plus.mb-photography-sf.com

David Ash · August 4, 2013

Is this also true of the slideshow module? Or of our own visits to our photos? My "hit count" has been so much higher than usual during this period when I have spent hours tweaking my new site that I am beginning to suspect that my own views of my own photos are being counted. That may include those times when I have the slideshow ticking by on my home page.

beardedgit · August 4, 2013

David Ash wrote: »

Is this also true of the slideshow module? Or of our own visits to our photos? My "hit count" has been so much higher than usual during this period when I have spent hours tweaking my new site that I am beginning to suspect that my own views of my own photos are being counted. That may include those times when I have the slideshow ticking by on my home page.

You've got me thinking now...

If 1 slideshow of 20 images is allowed to cycle 3 times, how many "hits" get registered in stats? 1? 3? 20? 60? n?

Just curious

Pukkascott · August 4, 2013

Yes I believe your own views are registered so periods of admin will show up as a high view count. Again you can filter out (or at least easily see) your own activity on Google Analytics.

I have thought of a possible way round which is to have a separate gallery containing pictures that are used for the multiple picture section (don't copy pics from another gallery as I think they are linked). Then you can look at individual gallery stats for better information.

David Ash · August 4, 2013

Pukkascott wrote: »

Yes I believe your own views are registered so periods of admin will show up as a high view count. Again you can filter out (or at least easily see) your own activity on Google Analytics.

Am I right in remembering that this didn't used to be the case on "legacy" SM ? If so, we would have another example of reduced, rather than enhanced, functionality in the new improved version.

southeasternphotography · August 6, 2013

Legacy views did not count when logged in
I remember distinctly SmugMug saying when you were logged in, your views did not count in the legacy system. Seems like I even played around to see and found it true. If this is happening, a Feature request could be made or a Bug Report filed since it is not functioning the way it was told to us it would work.

EMC · August 27, 2013

OK ..upgraded to new format - still trying to find my way around it - "WHERE" do we view stats on albums and which pictures are getting the most hits now ...? I simply can not find it...kinda missing the old format now. Someone please show me where to click, expand, etc to find the stats..?

denisegoldberg · August 27, 2013

EMC wrote: »

OK ..upgraded to new format - still trying to find my way around it - "WHERE" do we view stats on albums and which pictures are getting the most hits now ...? I simply can not find it...kinda missing the old format now. Someone please show me where to click, expand, etc to find the stats..?

Click your name in the menu, then Account Settings.
Click Stats in the sidebar.
Click the details button in Photo Views.

--- Denise

southeasternphotography · August 27, 2013

Off topic: So, all the people who have "Major grins" under their name in the profile area on the left of the post have not changed something in their profile, right?

zacHer0 · August 27, 2013

southeasternphotography wrote: »

Off topic: So, all the people who have "Major grins" under their name in the profile area on the left of the post have not changed something in their profile, right?

Pretty sure it depends on how many posts you have. There is probably a graduated system, more posts means the tag changes to something else. Dunno

Andy · August 27, 2013

southeasternphotography wrote: »

Off topic: So, all the people who have "Major grins" under their name in the profile area on the left of the post have not changed something in their profile, right?

It's based on # of posts.
But YOU CAN change it any time you like - ALL YOU have to do is click the "clipboard" icon upper right on Dgrin and just change it.

mishenka · August 27, 2013

Can we get back on topic? Michael - have you had a chance to clarify this question with the development team?

mbonocore · August 27, 2013

mishenka wrote: »

Can we get back on topic? Michael - have you had a chance to clarify this question with the development team?

Yes, if a multiple photos content block is loaded, those photos receive one view.

AceCo55 · August 28, 2013

I have three mini slideshows on my homepage running from three galleries.
When I view my stats, these three slideshow galleries get reported with LOTS of hits. Nearly always at the top of most popular galleries.
Is there some way for stats NOT to record these slideshows - the data is meaningless - I really don't get why they are getting recorded at all.

LPC · August 28, 2013

AceCo55 wrote: »

Is there some way for stats NOT to record these slideshows - the data is meaningless - I really don't get why they are getting recorded at all.

They are being recorded because they are being looked at! It doesn't matter if someone trawls though a gallery and clicks on individual photographs or watches a slideshow - if the photographs are being looked at then they should be recorded as stats. Why is the data meaningless if someone prefers to view your photos in a slideshow rather than going through a gallery and picking them out individually? Stats on Smugmug have never been an exact science and never will be. With Google Analytics for example I can see where the viewer is down to the city level and even what hardware, operating system or mobile provider they are using so I can easily tell which ones are me but Smugmug stats are not quite so advanced! But to me they would be meaningless if they only registered images that were actually clicked on and to exclude slideshows wouldn't make sense.

Recording your own visits is something I have always had my doubts about in the old legacy Smugmug - I'm convinced it did record my visits and I would cross reference that with Google Analytics sometimes and it seemed to back that up. So I only ever use stats on SM as a rough guide and if I want more in depth knowledge I go elsewhere.

Richard · August 28, 2013

Does the count depend on which images actually are viewed? That is, if I have a slideshow with thirty images and the user only looks at the first five, will the hit count be five or thirty?

AceCo55 · August 28, 2013

LPC wrote: »

........ Why is the data meaningless if someone prefers to view your photos in a slideshow rather than going through a gallery and picking them out individually? Stats on Smugmug have never been an exact science and never will be. With Google Analytics for example I can see where the viewer is down to the city level and even what hardware, operating system or mobile provider they are using so I can easily tell which ones are me but Smugmug stats are not quite so advanced! But to me they would be meaningless if they only registered images that were actually clicked on and to exclude slideshows wouldn't make sense.

I suspect we differ because we are using slideshows for a different purpose. My three homepage slideshows are not of photos for sale. They are merely there for visitors to get a quick idea of what sports I cover and the kind of images that they can expect to see if they go to my galleries. Its a bit of light entertainment and a "welcome to my website" feature. I have zero interest in knowing that my slideshows are running - I already know they are. I don't need Smug Stats telling me how many times the slideshow images have been shown.

I also run Statcounter from which I can get a detailed break down of "hits" ... but I really like the "quick and dirty" Smugmug stats showing the number of views of individual photos within a gallery.

What is also interesting is that Smug stats is consistently reporting much higher hit counts than Statcounter. Over the last four days, Smug reports 24,000 views (minus 4000 "hits" for my homepage slideshows means 20,000 views. In the same time period, Statcounter records 13500 hits.

Before the migration/unveiling, the two systems would report approximately the same number of hits.
As I said, I have no interest in the homepage slideshow hits and wish they were not reported. Is it a deal breaker? Not even close - just a minor annoyance. What is more concerning is the discrepancy between Smug stats and Statcounter - really don't know which one to believe.

LPC · August 28, 2013

AceCo55 wrote: »

I suspect we differ because we are using slideshows for a different purpose. My three homepage slideshows are not of photos for sale. They are merely there for visitors to get a quick idea of what sports I cover and the kind of images that they can expect to see if they go to my galleries. Its a bit of light entertainment and a "welcome to my website" feature. I have zero interest in knowing that my slideshows are running - I already know they are. I don't need Smug Stats telling me how many times the slideshow images have been shown.

I also run Statcounter from which I can get a detailed break down of "hits" ... but I really like the "quick and dirty" Smugmug stats showing the number of views of individual photos within a gallery.

What is also interesting is that Smug stats is consistently reporting much higher hit counts than Statcounter. Over the last four days, Smug reports 24,000 views (minus 4000 "hits" for my homepage slideshows means 20,000 views. In the same time period, Statcounter records 13500 hits.

Before the migration/unveiling, the two systems would report approximately the same number of hits.
As I said, I have no interest in the homepage slideshow hits and wish they were not reported. Is it a deal breaker? Not even close - just a minor annoyance. What is more concerning is the discrepancy between Smug stats and Statcounter - really don't know which one to believe.

I kind of went off slideshows completely a while ago so I don't use them at all anymore (although I didn't know you could make them really small like you have - I like that) but I know the page of Recent Photos on my site counts as one hit for all of them every time someone visits that page however briefly which is annoying but understandable and unavoidable I'm afraid. But it would be good to exclude certain pages if that was possible.

Does Statcounter count visits from your IP address? I know that when I was looking at my site every five minutes recently when working on the new look my stats went though the roof whether I was logged in or not.

I tend to look at the graphs on SM and if there is a peak I can't explain I will have a closer look but otherwise they are just a guide as I said.

Richard · August 28, 2013

LPC wrote: »

Does Statcounter count visits from your IP address? I know that when I was looking at my site every five minutes recently when working on the new look my stats went though the roof whether I was logged in or not.

By default it does, but it allows you to set a blocking cookie that will exclude any machine/browser you want.

LPC · August 28, 2013

Richard wrote: »

By default it does, but it allows you to set a blocking cookie that will exclude any machine/browser you want.

Interesting, thank you. I really should get round to doing the same with Google Analytics. Now I have a new look website this would be a good time to start!

EMC · August 28, 2013

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Click your name in the menu, then Account Settings.

Click Stats in the sidebar.

Click the details button in Photo Views.

--- Denise

...THANK YOU !!!

harkinna · September 12, 2013

statcounter
Hi guys, I re-installed Statcounter using the directions from Smugmug, but it does not seem to be working.
Any tips?
Thanks,
nicole

www.nicoleharkin.com

monsieurmaphotography · September 13, 2013

Hello,

Hope it's not of topic, but I see everyday also a huge difference between SM Stat and Stacounter, like on September 11, Stacounter hit 6 pictures and SM Stat 5391. I have no slideshow in my site.

How it can be solve?
Thank you,
monsieurma

http://monsieurmaphotography.com

mbonocore · September 13, 2013

monsieurmaphotography wrote: »

Hello,

Hope it's not of topic, but I see everyday also a huge difference between SM Stat and Stacounter, like on September 11, Stacounter hit 6 pictures and SM Stat 5391. I have no slideshow in my site.

How it can be solve?
Thank you,
monsieurma

http://monsieurmaphotography.com

Your SM stats only show 184 photo views on September 11 for me. Can you post a screenshot of where you are seeing this number? Thanks!

Richard · September 13, 2013

SM stats are sometimes a little confused about timezone differences--the date period appears to use Pacific time, not local time. I know this is true when you click on Today or Yesterday on the stats display, but I'm not sure what happens when specifying start and end dates. Statcounter adjusts everything to local time. This isn't a new issue. When viewed from China (or Spain) this can create big differences for a given date. For me, the Statcounter method is more intuitive, but I think it's just a matter of getting used to it.

HTH.

monsieurmaphotography · September 16, 2013

mbonocore wrote: »

Your SM stats only show 184 photo views on September 11 for me. Can you post a screenshot of where you are seeing this number? Thanks!

Thank you for your answer. You are right, I made a mistake with August 11 instead of September 11
BUT
Sept. 13 on SM STAT 641 photo views, Stacounter same day, 23 views.
Sept. 4 on SM STAT 393 photo views, Stacounter same day, 4 views.
and it's the same everyday.

Thank you for your help.

mbonocore · September 17, 2013

monsieurmaphotography wrote: »

Thank you for your answer. You are right, I made a mistake with August 11 instead of September 11
BUT
Sept. 13 on SM STAT 641 photo views, Stacounter same day, 23 views.
Sept. 4 on SM STAT 393 photo views, Stacounter same day, 4 views.
and it's the same everyday.

Thank you for your help.

That would make more sense, as any multiple photo content block counts as one photo view in the SM stats. But the screenshot you showed is not the SM in account stats.

monsieurmaphotography · September 17, 2013

Thank you,

Statistics and lies in the new Smugmug

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