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Urchin analytics (which, IIRC, were provided to us by our host OVH for free at the time) is what taught me what I would still call Rule #1 of being a webmaster:
by sebastiennight 2y ago
Urchin analytics (which, IIRC, were provided to us by our host OVH for free at the time) is what taught me what I would still call Rule #1 of being a webmaster:
> Tracking your analytics makes traffic grow. Refreshing your analytics makes traffic stall.
- stingraycharles 2y agoCould you elaborate on that? The meaning of “makes traffic stall” is lost on me, unless you simply mean “don’t obsess over it, just look at long-term trends”.
- sebastiennight 2y agoBecause humans like to see lines go up to the right, there's a weird Gaussian curve where - never checking your analytics means you're probably going to stagnate forever, - checking them at a fixed frequency means you're going to look at what's worked and work hard to keep it going, so traffic grows, - checking them at every time of the hour (I was at my worst when I switched from Urchin to Xiti client-side analytics in '06) means you're switching back to a passive almost-superstitious wait for the number to move, which is both frustrating and extremely ineffective. I've been there and done all 3, and as CEO of a startup[0] I find it's my job to do my best to stay in the middle :) [0] https://onetake.ai https://onetake.ai