Google Analytics

So I posted about Search Terms last week. That's a really neat thing Blogger does, among other things. Blogger keeps loose track of my page visits so I can see where people are coming from (as in the country) and what they are looking at. I know which posts are popular, which ones aren't, and it helps me to know what people are reading. If I do a post that gets a lot of interest, I know that might be a topic to come back and revisit later.

I also have Google Analytics on my page. It just goes into a little bit more detail. Why would a person like me really care about where my readers are coming from and how long they stay on my blog? Purely for the fact that I keep looking for a little dot to pop up near where my first family lives. So far they haven't found this blog yet, and I hope it stays that way for a while. I put some pretty personal things up here, and I don't think I really want them to read about it. I also keep an eye out for my adoptive parents or sister, as well as my larger adoptive family. Its not that I'm ashamed of what I wrote or I think it's wrong, but I haven't had some of these conversations with them yet and I don't think I want to stop blogging long enough to have those conversations. There are simply too many of them. I also don't think a lot of them would care. Adoption is a huge thing in my life, but it isn't in theirs. So I try to keep that in mind.

So most of the time I only care about that one little region. It also helps me to figure out when I have a new reader as well, because all of a sudden I'll have a ton of page views from one particular area that I haven't seen before. Plus, I know when my friends in Africa have Internet because they pop up on my Google so I know to expect an email soon ( ;-) ).

It's a useful tool. It's also fun to see where all of my visitors are coming from. I've had visitors from all over the world :-) If you feel like it, chime in and introduce yourself!