Updated on June 14, 2022
Thought I’d give a heads-up on the behind-the-scenes workings of the blog…
After a year of having gone back to Piwik, I’ve decided to go back to using Google Analytics again. Recently, I’ve been trying to simplify the number of plugins, theme used, etc. for the site to make it easier to manage. Thus, I’ve replaced some of the various plugins with Jetpack for WordPress, changed to an easier-to-manage theme (and one that’s actually still being updated), and so forth.
While Piwik’s been OK, I’ve figured that installing an entire set of software just for statistics (with its own database, etc.) is probably overkill for this blog. (It’s also been throwing a few minor errors of late.) Thus, it’s easier to let Google do most of the work. As for being able to save/export data, none of the programs I looked at (Piwik, Google Analytics, WordPress.com Stats, etc.) seem to really support doing such easily, though Google Analytics’ popularity has lead to a lot of third-party support (WordPress plugins, etc.).
As for Google Analytics, a lot of its statistics/layout seem geared toward business/hardcore professional SEO usage, but there’s plugins that’ll present its information in a clear format. The plugin I’m using to display such statistics is Google Analytics Dashboard for WP, which displays the most important information (number of visitors, most popular blog posts, etc.) in a clear format.
