WEBSITE USAGE REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2017

The 26,705 visitors, who came either as "Direct Visits" or as a result of "Organic Search", represent over 95% of all visitors to the site. They represent 19 out of every 20 visitors. The over one quarter of all visitors who type in the website address directly represent people who visit the site fairly regularly. And two-thirds of all visitors are searching for some specific information when they come to this website, as indicated by the "Organic Search" data.

15) TOP 10 MOST VIEWED ARTICLES

Of the 50,423 Pageviews during this period, the following were the top 10 most viewed articles.

#1 = The Real Story Behind the Translation of 2 Timothy 3:16

    Viewed = 2,323 times

#2 = The Timing of the Barley Harvest in Israel

    Viewed = 2,184 times

#3 = The Name Lucifer Has Never belonged To Satan

    Viewed = 1,840 times

#4 = Isaiah 14:12 (in Mistranslated Scriptures)

    Viewed = 1,792 times

#5 = Significance of the Feeding of the 5000 & the 4000

    Viewed = 1,127 times

#6 = What does the Bible say about Eating Fat?

    Viewed = 1,101 times

#7 = What Does "The Foundation of the World" Really Mean?

    Viewed = 632 times

#8 = The Meaning of "Clean & Unclean" and "Holy & Unholy"

    Viewed = 419 times

#9 = 80 Mistranslations of the Bible & Their Significance

    Viewed = 417 times

#10 = "Submitting Yourselves to One Another"

    Viewed = 385 times

These top 10 articles were viewed 12,220 times, and this represents close to a quarter (i.e. 24.2%) of the 50,423 pages that were viewed during this year. See also the separate report "Most Viewed Articles".

16) 7-DAY PERIOD WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF VISITORS

While my desire is to provide biblical understanding to all people who are searching for such understanding, my target audience are people who have some background in the churches of God. I write my articles with a Church of God perspective, meaning that mostly I don’t explain certain things that are commonly understood by people in the various churches of God.

Visitor numbers to my website were higher during and immediately after the Feast of Unleavened Bread in April, and again during and immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles in October. This increased interest level around the two 7-day Feast periods indicates that a large proportion of all visitors to my website have some Church of God association, people who are searching for more understanding during those Feast periods. This assessment is further reinforced by the fact that for most weeks during the year the highest daily visitor numbers are almost always on Saturdays. I conclude therefore that for the year 2017 my website was being accessed overwhelmingly by my target audience.

The 7-day period (not a literal week) with the highest number of visitors for the year 2017 was during the Feast of Tabernacles, for October 9-15 inclusive. During those 7 days there were:

   - 1,213 website visitors (4.3% of the year’s total)

   - who viewed 1,699 articles (3.3% of the year’s total)

   - these 1,213 visits came from 991 different users

   - 222 visits came from repeat visitors during those 7 days

   - visitors came from 600 cities and towns

   - located in 52 different countries

Let’s also consider another statistic, one which websites generally prefer not to divulge, because it is a bit of a negative statistic. In fact, many websites prefer to not even be aware of this statistic. However, it is helpful to be aware of this statistic if we seek to establish a realistic picture for website visitors, rather than an unrealistic and artificially inflated picture.

17) NUMBER OF VISITORS WHO CAME BY MISTAKE

Every website has visitors who didn’t really want to visit that website. They clicked on something without really knowing where that click would lead them. Or they had a totally different expectation when they clicked that link. Or they were inquisitive, but had no real interest in the website on which they landed. In some cases we were tricked, deceived or enticed into going to a website. You know the feeling.

At one time or another we’ve all clicked on something, only to find ourselves at a page where somebody wanted to sell us something, or get information about us and from us, or lecture us on something, when we had no intention of getting involved. So when we get to such a website, as soon as we realize our mistake, we exist that page by clicking the "Back to Previous Page" arrow in our browser bar, or we may even abruptly close the browser itself. We can’t leave fast enough.

In those cases we are counted as having visited those sites, when in fact we wanted nothing to do with those websites. So our "visit" artificially inflates the visitor numbers for that site, something most websites actually desire (i.e. they desire inflated visitor numbers). But for us personally our "visit" to that site was meaningless. For us it was a mistake.

This happens to all websites, that visitors come "by mistake". And that is also true for my website, that some people, who were not looking for anything that is available on my website, ended up coming as visitors. And typically such "visitors by mistake" exit as quickly as possible.

Now it is a bit tricky to quantify such "mistaken visits". So here is how I have arrived at the number of visits in this category.

For every visit there is a "Landing Page", and there is also an "Exit Page". The "Landing Page" is where a website visitor arrives at a website, and the "Exit Page" is where the visitor leaves that website.

On my website there are well over 300 different "Landing Pages", where visitors can and do arrive at my website. All of those "Landing Pages" provide the visitor with meaningful information (i.e. articles, reference material, etc.), except for one page.

The one page on my site that does not provide information itself is my Home Page. All that the Home Page offers is access to specific information (like articles, research information, a calendar tutorial, etc.). The Home Page is simply the gateway to all the information available on my site. To get any information from my website, visitors must click to another page, away from the Home Page. And the great majority of the visitors who land on my Home Page, do click through to other pages on the site. But some visitors don’t.

So when visitors have my Home Page as their Landing Page, and if they then also have my Home Page as their Exit Page, without having clicked to any other page, then I believe that such people were "visitors by mistake". They didn’t look for any information on my website, other than the text on the Home Page, and they left after seeing nothing more than the Home Page. They did not access any meaningful information. So here is this statistic:

   Total visits for the year = 28,034.

   Visits where the Home Page was both Landing Page + Exit     Page = 1,408.

   1,408 = 5.0% of the total number of visits.

   So we can say:

5% of all visitors in 2017 were "visitors by mistake". They came and then left without looking for any information. They were not looking for anything on my website. Thus such people have inflated my visitor numbers by 5%. I suspect that this percentage is likely to basically hold true for future years. But time will tell.

The upside of this picture is that the other 95% of all visitors are very likely "real visitors" who are looking for information and understanding, as evidenced by the large number of articles that were printed out and downloaded. And 95% still amounts to a significant number of visitors.

18) SEARCHES PERFORMED ON THE INTERNET

In November 2017 I started a Monthly Report based on Google Search Module data. For every month this Report will record in how many searches around the world my website appeared in the search results. Those appearances in search results are designated as "Impressions". It will also record how many of those "Impressions" led to people actually visiting the website. Those visits are designated as "Clicks". And it will also record "the Average Position" in the search results that applies to all of the "Impressions" for every country. The smaller the number for "Average Position", the greater the likelihood that those people will actually see the reference to my website.

All three of these statistics are grouped by country. I will only keep such Monthly Reports for 3 months. After that they will be deleted from the webpage and replaced by new reports.

For a more detailed discussion of these Monthly Reports, see the page titled "REPORTS OVERVIEW".

1) During December my website appeared in 81,314 internet searches around the world. If this trend holds up for the coming year, it will mean that my website will appear in about one million search results for a full year. Only a small portion of those "Impressions" will lead to actual website visits.

2) 41,411 of those searches in December were performed in the USA.

3) The remaining 39,903 internet searches were performed in 212 other "countries" (as Google counts countries). Visitors to the website did not actually come from all of those 212 other countries, as is made clear earlier in this report.

4) The 81,314 times this website was listed in internet search results led to 2,657 visitors coming to the website, 1,508 of whom were in the USA.

5) The total number of all visitors to my website for December 2017 was 3,408. Thus the 2,657 visitors who came as a result of having done a search on the internet represent 78% of total visitors for that month, with the remaining 22% of visitors coming directly by typing in my website address, or they came as referrals from other websites, or they came from social media.

6) For December 2017: for every 30 internet searches anywhere on earth that featured my website address somewhere in the results pages, there was 1 visitor to the website.

IN SUMMARY The following conclusions for the year 2017 emerge from these reports:

1) The 28,034 visitors came from 169 different countries, representing 4,990 different cities or towns around the world. This includes visitors from every continent and from some of the most remote human settlements and some of the most remote islands on earth, representing a vast range of local languages. On average, there is 1 new town represented for every 5.6 visitors. This shows a very wide geographic spread amongst visitors to my website.

2) While close to 60% of all visitors live in the U.S.A. (i.e. 16,672), those visitors were spread around in 3,432 different towns and cities in the U.S.A., spread across all 50 states. On average, there is 1 new town in the U.S.A. represented for every 4.8 visitors from the U.S.A. This shows that people from every part of this country are accessing this website.

3) 332 out of the 333 articles on the website at the end of the year were viewed at least twice during the year by visitors to the website.

4) The 28,034 visitors to the website either printed out or downloaded 7,925 articles. That represents 1 article printed out or downloaded for every 3.5 visitors.

5) Close to 72% of all visitors used either Chrome or Safari as their browser of choice to come to the website.

6) During this year 68% of all visitors were new visitors, and 32% were return visits by previous visitors. The ratio of return visits to new visitors is 1:2.1.

You might also like to see the separate reports "SUMMARY FOR MOST VIEWED ARTICLES IN 2017", which report combines the quarterly data for the "most viewed articles", and then expands the list for the whole year to the 10 most viewed articles, and "THE NUMBER OF CITIES FOR EACH COUNTRY FOR VISITORS", which report shows the number of cities for each of the 169 countries from which visitors came to this website.

The above statistics are restricted to website activities, and they do not take into account all the articles I send out via my personal email mailing list, which list also includes people from many different countries around the world. And during the year 2017 I sent out 20 new articles.

This is a small 1-man website, and I do not seek a following. And I certainly don’t seek any financial contributions. If website visitors are able to find information they find helpful, then my goal has been achieved. I was happy to learn that over 28% of all the visits to my website for the year 2017 resulted in 1 article either being printed out or downloaded by those visitors.

I suspect that the in percentage terms significant increase in the number of visitors for every quarter is perhaps due to all the internet search engines having catalogued my website more completely since we installed Google Analytics. But if those trends hold for the coming year, then the year of 2018 is heading for something like a 100% increase in the number of visitors over the year 2017. Personally I am a believer in the principle that "it is God who gives the increase" (see 1 Corinthians 3:7). So we'll see how things go for 2018.

With 2017 having been the first year for which I have ever had access to any kind of website statistics, many of the things in this report were a surprise to me.

Frank W Nelte