Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Now, I know many people don’t like Jetpack as a whole. Personally, I’m not really sure why since it comes with a lot of modules for various purposes. Today, I’ll share why I like using Jetpack Stats and why it’s one of the first things I enable on a new site.
Considering how much of the plugin is free to use, you don’t lose anything by trying it out for yourself.
In fact, I use several elements of Jetpack on a daily basis.
Why the Stats in Jetpack Are Worth its Install
This is all based on personal preference. What is awesome for one person may not be the best option for your needs.
With that in mind, there are quite a few things in the Jetpack Stats that I find quite intriguing. In fact, Jetpack has been playing a role in the development of various blogs I’ve worked on over many years.
1. Fewer Bots?
First of all, now this is purely speculation, but there seem to be fewer bot entries in Jetpack as opposed to something like Google Analytics. I came to this conclusion while researching an influx of traffic picked up by Google.
It turns out, there was a ton of bot traffic coming in that Jetpack ignored. This was actually quite useful as it prevented a false positive report of a certain piece of content going “viral.”
I was also able to verify a lot of this in the past using heat mapping technology. Some plugins out there will let you record every visit to the website and watch how people interact with the content.
It’s actually quite cool…and a bit creepy, when you think about it.
In any case, Jetpack just seems to record more organic visitation than some of the other tracking tools I’ve used in the past.
2. Top Posts, Pages, and Referrers on One Page
Jetpack stats will show you the top 10 articles for your website at any given time. This includes posts and pages should you want to know if your homepage or contact form is popular.
Of course, most analytical tools do this as well. However, Jetpack includes a list of referrers on the same screen. This saves a bit of time from having to dig through Google Analytics to see where your traffic is originating.
Though, this list is also dependent on a lot of variables. Some referrers might not show because of firewall or other website elements on their end.
In many situations, you can get an idea of where your marketing efforts are working thanks to a list of referring websites.
3. Easy to See Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly Progress
It’s quite easy to take a glance at how your site is progressing. You can see traffic performance throughout the day, week, month, or year. While other analytics tools also provide this info, it’s simply a nice element to have at your disposal.
From the Jetpack Stats screen, you can see a bar graph in regard to visitor traffic, a comparison over the last seven days, or cycle through the top content of any given period.
So, let’s say I wanted to take a glance at the top-performing day over the last month. I’d just click on the tallest bar and Jetpack will show me views, visitors, most popular content, referrers, countries, and what people clicked on that day.
While it might not go into the deep details as Google Analytics, it’s great for beginners and those who don’t want to spend hours sifting through tracking data.
Though I have to admit, it’s worth the time to learn how to use Google as much as possible. It can help you create amazing content by understanding your target audience.
In any case, Jetpack is just a simplified tracker that has a lot of actionable data for any level of user.
4. Shows What People Click on Most
Do you know if people are clicking on affiliate links? Is that link campaign on your blog working in content? Jetpack Stats can help answer these questions.
This information lets me know what kind of resources visitors are interested in exploring. This includes all of the backlinks I add, most of the affiliates I use, and even which YouTube videos are most prevalent on the blog.
That’s because I often embed video versions of the content, depending on the topic.
In any case, I use this information to determine what kind of content I need to create next to build on those clicks. Especially when people are checking out the affiliate links I provide.
Sure, I love to help people in their writing careers. But I wouldn’t mind making a few bucks on the side.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Jetpack tracks Amazon links very well, which is unfortunate. Though, it’s still interesting to see how many people click on MichaelBrockbank.com.
5. Yearly Insights
Because I love data, the yearly insights section shows me how many posts I published, the number of words in total for the year, likes, comments, and followers gained.
Jetpack Stats will also show the most popular time when people read the content of the website. Coincidentally, Wednesday at 10:00 am is the most popular time of the week in 2022.
Why is this important? Because I can schedule content around when people are most active on the site. Should someone subscribe to the push notifications, they get an update immediately.
This usually results in a handful of instant visitors.
6. Easily Tracks Tags and Categories
For the longest time, I’ve wanted a method that would let me track categories and tags to see what topics were the most popular. In the past, this often required jumping through hoops with Google Analytics Tag Manager, which is a bit of a pain to manage.
In 2022, though, Jetpack Stats added the feature automatically. Now, I can just take a look at the yearly insights screen and see what was the most popular type of content this year.
Although I’m still cleaning up the categories and tags, it’s interesting to see what content is most sought on this website.
Let’s say that I want to improve the views for the Self-Publishing category. I already know that I would need to create more content surrounding that topic as I don’t have a lot as it is. But you can see how tracking categories and tags can help you decide what to write next.
7. Dashboard Traffic Stats
And lastly, Jetpack will create a dashboard view for stats once it’s enabled. Not to mention you can click on the stat icon for any post or page in WordPress and see the performance of that particular piece of content.
The entire system is woven into WordPress, which gives you access to data on a variety of screens.
The dashboard screen will also show the top posts for the day as well as any detectable searches. But as I said, there are a lot of variables that come into play for search information.
When it comes to seeing how people find your content in Google, it’s better to use Search Console. It’ll show you a great deal more information regarding search performance than Jetpack Stats.
After all, it’s Google. Of course, it’s going to show you how people are finding your posts.
Jetpack Has More than Just Stats
Jetpack is made by the same people who brought you WordPress. And being a free plugin, for the most part, it has a lot of great tools attached. Many of them could save you from having to install yet another plugin.
Though, keep in mind that Jetpack does offer quite a few premium services for a fee.
Perhaps the two modules I use the most in Jetpack are Publicize and Stats. But you also have the link shortener, the ability to add verification for website ownership for search engines, enhance performance and speed, and much more.
What I like most is that developers are constantly adding more flexibility and versatility to Jetpack.
Now, there are a lot of great visitor stat plugins available for WordPress. If you’re already using Google to manage your website, you can use something like Site Kit to expand on the data your site collects.
Nonetheless, Jetpack is an easy-to-use alternative that doesn’t take much to set up. The only downside is that you need to set up a free account at WordPress.com to use the plugin to the fullest.
This doesn’t mean you need to use WordPress.com, though. Essentially, it’s just the server that stores the information for your website. The only time I access WordPress.com is to view my Jetpack Stats.
In any case, Jetpack is worth considering if you need a few more bells and whistles for your website. And a lot of its modules make less of an impact on site performance than some of the heavier plugins you can use.
What Analytical Tools Do You Like Most?
Although I like Jetpack Stats, I’ll still use Google Analytics and Search Console for deeper information regarding visitors. In fact, I use several different tools every day for monitoring content and traffic performance for myself and my clients.
Nonetheless, the best tool for tracking visitors on your site is the one that works best for you.
So, what analytical tools do you use most for your blog?
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