Dennis Kennedy

I got a note from my web host, who was running my log files for 2003, that my web site had hit the magical 1,000,000 hits mark for 2003. As a frame of reference, there were 200,000+ hits in 2002.

As most of you know, the number of hits statistic can be very misleading, especially given all the hits on a site (especially a blog site) than happen automatically by robots, spiders and other software animals few of us really understand. That said, topping the million mark is meaningful by any standard, especially for a niche site such as mine. In addition, my pages have few graphics, so the hits number on my site is not as grossly overinflated as it can be on some sites. However, don’t rain on my parade and tell me even more reasons the hits number might not matter; I’m very excited to hit this milestone.

What were the differences between 2002 and 2003? The two significant ones where (1) I left my old law firm to start my own practice and my website became a more central part of my marketing, and (2) I started this blog. I think difference #1 might have accounted for a significant, but reasonable, increase. However, I would guess (not having the log files yet and, let’s face it, I’m probably never going to find some spare time when I actually want to dig into them), that perhaps 80 – 90% of the increase is attributable, directly or indirectly, to the blog. Then, even if I categorize a large portion of the “blog hits,” say 2/3, as being “mechanical,” or in some way attributable to pinging and other hits generated automatically in connection with RSS feed and news aggregator mechanisms, I still have to conclude that the blog had a huge effect on traffic to my site.

We shifted to a way I can get current traffic stats for my site in mid-November. These traffic stats also are consistent with about a tripling of page views and visitors since the end of last year.

Awesome! Thanks to all of you who visited my site and helped me hit this milestone. Onward aand upward!