April – another record month at WUWT

The hits just keep on coming. 1,672,437 page views this month, up from 1,478,801 page views in March.

After posting last months stats, there was some discontent by some angry and somewhat incredulous bloggers that it might be an April Fools joke of some sorts. Sorry, no such luck.

But what was humorous, was one particular blogger (Joe Romm) who said:

It is absurd to publish one’s page views to 7 significant digits without caveats — even 2 is stretching it.

I got a huge chuckle out of that. So just to show that the stats are indeed real, and accurate down to that 7th digit (since they come from the WordPress internal traffic counter), I’m expanding this month’s report.

Joe, this report’s for you. Here is a screencap showing my WordPress internal report page, with all 7 digits, sans caveats. No caveats are needed since the WordPress numbers are actual, not estimated, and not drawn from router statistics.

Maybe Joe will reciprocate and post a screencap his own internal stats page.

The graph on this page above differs a bit from the headline graph (which is graphically edited to move the title inwards and downwards to fit nicely on the page) because it was snapped after 00GMT (5PM PST) and it shows the new month of May stats also, which are of course quite low by comparison.

So the numbers are real, from WordPress.com (where my blog is hosted) and exact to the 7th digit, despite angry accusations otherwise.

In that blog post, Joe Romm also showed an Alexa graph to prove his point, saying:

Interestingly, there is one independent source that suggests Watts’ page views and mine are in fact the same (and hence possibly around 1.4 million).  If you go to the Web traffic ranking and comparison site Alexa, go to page views, and type in wattsupwiththat.com, you’ll get this graph:

So at best I am just negating the disinformation Watts is spreading.  Sigh.  And lest there be any doubt, WattsUpWithThat is in fact an extremist anti-scientific denialist website, as his recent posts make clear.

Gosh, all that angry prose from a traffic report? I don’t much care whether WUWT beats Climate Progress in traffic or vice versa, but I do care when the proprietor suggests that by printing my own internal stats page I’m spreading disinformation. Of course, I don’t expect an apology, but I wanted WUWT readers to know.

OK, following Joe’s lead, lets look at Alexa this month.

Pageviews: we are still about the same in April according to Alexa.

Though over the longer 6 month term, WUWT is slow and steady while Climate Progress runs hot and cold.

Joe didn’t show the other interesting comparative statistics from Alexa though, so I thought WUWT readers might enjoy seeing them.

Here is Traffic Rank over 6 months:

And here is Reach:

But having been labeled a “spreader of disinformation”, please, don’t take my word for it, visit Alexa and see for yourselves. Here is the link.

Some people might wonder why I post my web stats each month. Some might say I’m tooting my own horn, well maybe a bit, I’m admittedly proud of WUWT.

But there’s a bigger reason. WUWT has thousands of visitors, many of whom are regulars who see this blog as something they relate to and grow with. Many visit daily or even more often. There’s a sense of pride and ownership with all of you, too. Without its readers, content contributors, and those tireless volunteer moderators that keep the snark under control, WUWT would be nothing. I try not to lose sight of that. This is my monthly reminder to myself that this is a team effort.

As this blog expands its reach, it seems only fair that my readers also get to share in seeing the growth. I listen to my readers, who are often more insightful than I am, and they offer wonderful suggestions and topics.

I thank you all for making WUWT one of top science blogs on the Internet today.

And thanks to you to Joe, for bringing up this topic last month.