How I Collect Blog Statistics, Respectfully

Ever since I’ve had a website, I’ve been curious to know who is visiting it and what they do while they’re there. Am I posting into an empty space, or is somebody actually reading? I don’t need (or desire) to write about the development and ethics of the analytics industry - we all know what Google is doing with our data. Instead I want to write about collecting data with respect for our readers. Because it is possible. The biggest attraction to me is knowing what parts of my website people are viewing. This is easily done by simply logging the number of hits to a given page. Good old-fashioned raw access website logs can tell you this, though they aren’t always user-friendly and certainly not pretty1. Critically, I don’t need to know who is viewing the page. Other useful stats can still be collected ethically: Referrers - very useful for knowing how people are finding your site. Devices and Screen Resolutions - to help ensure your site design fits your audience. And then there is…