The month of May 2012 has been a somewhat different month to the normal consistency Ask Will Online shows. With many exams in May which will hopefully provide an extra boost in traffic, the lack of exams and wanting to revise after these exams produced an all time low traffic. Anyway, enough of the negativity, let’s get stuck in with some stats!
Before I start, I must warn that Ask Will Online had a mid-life crisis. For around two days, I changed the whole template and look to the website which in turned proved unsuccessful. As well as this, it also means that this month does not have the traffic from them two days to account for.
Ask Will Online’s Stats (from Google Analytics) May 1st – June 1st
Visits – 12,421
This is an increase of about 500 visits from last month which I predicted. From the way Ask Will Online’s traffic goes, it peaks and then troths then peaks and troths etc… Last month was a troth therefore this month would be a peak.
A bounce rate of 83.90% last month, Ask Will Online now has a bounce rate of 82.41%. Again, it’s no big change. However, that’s a decrease of 1% every month for two months now. If this continues, it could potentially become very promising.
Pageviews 17,842 therefore average pages per visit is 1.44
Both statistics have increased upon last month which is great news. However, comparing this to March 2012 before, it’s a drop of 2,000 views. The only positive is the pages per visit which has increased by 0.11. It’s not been a disastrous month: it’s just not lived up to the expectations.
Saying this, I think a monthly timeline of my pageviews will show you clearer how Ask Will Online has been over May:
For around a month, when students had exams, I had a whole week with everyday having over 1,000 views which for Ask Will Online is unheard of. However, since exams are over and half term has approached (as well as the Queen’s diamond Jubilee), traffic has slumped.
Traffic Sources
Dropping 2% last month, search engine traffic has increased back to it’s original 88% which is good news. With the referral traffic staying constant, it seems that the search engine traffic has pinched the 2% from direct traffic. The reason for this may have been for the students ‘Googling’ help for their topics close to their exams.
Making Money Online
It has been a disappointing month for Ask Will Online with making money too:
- My CTR has decreased from 1.30% to 1.12%. However, I don’t think that is yet to be the worst news.
- My CPC has decreased from £0.15 ($0.24) to £0.13 ($0.20).
- This in turn has decreased my overall earnings.
- From this, I have completely optimised my website for the use of BuySellAds.
As well this, my CTR has been the worst it’s ever been for the first few days of June and I now understand why. Since changing the appearances of my sidebar widgets, I had the Twitter widget featuring at the top. The link colour in the widget is different to the link colour of my text advert. Therefore, this decreased my CTR. I have now moved Twitter away from the advert so visitors will understand what colour links are on Ask Will Online a lot clearer.
My main aim for Ask Will Online now is to increase my CPC. It is far too low considering what it can be. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and look forward to next month!
