Popular Design Blogs Share Their Stats

A few weeks ago I posted a blog post analysing my stats. It got a pretty good response as we don’t often see a lot of websites’ stats these days.

To follow this up I asked a few design blogs that I regularly visit to share their stats. No specific numbers, just percentages and interesting tidbits.

The questions I asked

Looking at your stats for 1st April 2009 - 30th April 2009:

1. What days of the week were the most and least popular?
2. What was the percentage browser share for the top 3 browsers?
3. What percentage of IE users used IE6?
4. What resolution was most popular?
5. What were the top 3 keywords for your site?
6. Who were the top 3 referrers to your site?
7. What was the most obscure keyword someone arrived at your site for?
8. What was your most popular blog post?

The results

In alphabetical order…

Abduzeedo

@abduzeedo

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday; Least - Saturday/Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 62.51%
2. Internet Explorer - 14.53%
3. Safari - 13.53%

3. IE6 users?

3%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. abduzeedo
2. abduzeedo.com
3. photoshop disasters

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. Google.com
3. Digg.com

7. Strangest search term?

None given

8. Most popular post?

45 Amazing Type Faces - Typographic Portraits

Andy Sowards

@andysowards

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Monday; Least - Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 65.89%
2. Internet Explorer - 15.37%
3. Safari - 10.30%

3. IE6 users?

3.15%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. twitter profile design
2. project management cartoon
3. best twitter profiles

6. Top referrers?

1. Twitter.com
2. Designfloat.com
3. Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk

7. Strangest search term?

andrew is a awesome 1 ooo yeah babe

8. Most popular post?

20+ Best songs to Listen to for Inspiration while Developing/Designing Projects

CSS Tricks

@chriscoyier

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Tuesday; Least - Saturday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 63.87%
2. Internet Explorer - 14.07%
3. Safari - 13.25%

3. IE6 users?

3%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x1024

5. Top search terms?

1. css tricks
2. css transparency
3. css sprites

6. Top referrers?

1. Smashingmagazine.com
2. Stumbleupon.com
3. Google.com

7. Strangest search term?

what computer code looks like

8. Most popular post?

Creating a Slick Auto-Playing Featured Content Slider

David Airey

@davidairey

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday; Least - Saturday/Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 52.49%
2. Internet Explorer - 24.20%
3. Safari - 17.29%

3. IE6 users?

5.81%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. design blogs
2. david airey
3. graphic designer

6. Top referrers?

1. PSD.TutsPlus.com
2. StumbleUpon.com
3. LogoDesignLove.com

7. Strangest search term?

gear shift sex

8. Most popular post?

Top 50+ graphic design blogs

Paddy Donnelly

@paddydonnelly

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Tuesday; Least - Saturday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 61.71%
2. Internet Explorer - 16.54%
3. Safari - 11.72%

3. IE6 users?

3.26%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800 - 21.92%

5. Top search terms?

1. how do you twitter
2. how do you twitter?
3. @PaddyDonnelly

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. WebDesignLedger.com
3. Twitter.com

7. Strangest search term?

’80s remix blog’ and ‘Peter Jones’ Socks’

8. Most popular post?

Web 2.0rigami

Pro Blog Design

@problogdesign

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Wednesday/Thursday; Least - Saturday/Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 66%
2. Internet Explorer - 16%
3. Safari - 9%

3. IE6 users?

3%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. Blog design
2. RSS icons
3. Poverty pictures

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. SmashingMagazine.com
3. Delicious.com

7. Strangest search term?

Just that “poverty pictures” has been one of my top keywords for months now!

8. Most popular post?

35 Awesome user interface design tutorials

Smashing Magazine

@smashingmag

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Thursday; Least - Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 60.5%
2. Safari - 17.1%
3. Internet Explorer - 13.2%

3. IE6 users?

3.9%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. photoshop
2. wordpress
3. css

6. Top referrers?

1. Digg.com
2. StumbleUpon.com
3. Delicious.com

7. Strangest search term?

Can’t tell

8. Most popular post?

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2009

Spoon Graphics

@chrisspooner

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Monday; Least - Saturday, Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 59.03%
2. Safari - 19.17%
3. Internet Explorer - 12.88%

3. IE6 users?

2.74%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. Spoon Graphics
2. SpoonGraphics
3. Poster Design

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. SmashingMagazine.com
3. PSD.tutsplus.com

7. Strangest search term?

corset designers

8. Most popular post?

How to Create Your Own Single Page Portfolio Site

The Design Cubicle

@behoff

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Monday/Tuesday/Thursday; Least - Saturday/Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 65.82%
2. Internet Explorer - 14.28%
3. Safari - 12.68%

3. IE6 users?

3.42%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. interactive pdf
2. social media icons
3. creative business cards

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. Twitter.com
3. Daily.Creattica.com

7. Strangest search term?

nerd shirts

8. Most popular post?

50 Creative Business Cards of 50 Graphic Designers

Vandelay Design

@stevensnell

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Tuesday; Least - Saturday/Sunday

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 57%
2. Internet Explorer - 24%
3. Safari - 10%

3. IE6 users?

5.52%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. photography websites
2. photoshop textures
3. church websites

6. Top referrers?

1. StumbleUpon.com
2. Delicious.com
3. Twitter.com

7. Strangest search term?

comentariu nenorocirea secolului

8. Most popular post?

25 Photoshop Tutorials for Working with Textures

Web Designer Depot

@DesignerDepot

1. Most & least popular days?

Most - Weekdays; Least - Weekends

2. Browser share?

1. Firefox - 64%
2. Safari - 13%
3. Internet Explorer - 11%

3. IE6 users?

2.2%

4. Most popular resolution?

1280x800

5. Top search terms?

1. web designer depot
2. webdesigner depot
3. web design depot

6. Top referrers?

1. Digg.com
2. Twitter.com
3. StumbleUpon.com

7. Strangest search term?

girl talk 2009, free sexy, ilastfm css

8. Most popular post?

Operating system interface design between 1981-2009

Conclusions

• Popularity of the day obviously depends on what day you post but it's obvious that not as many people are active on the internet over the weekend
• Firefox average share: 61.71%
• IE average share: 16%
• Safari average share: 13.36%
• 3.55% of visitors still use IE6 (average)
• The most popular resolution (for every blog but 1) is 1280x800
• A lot of users do enter your domain name or site name into Google (and don't just go directly to your site using the address bar) - I used to think it was just my girlfriend did this ;-)
• The top referrers are:
  1. StumbleUpon
  2. Twitter
  3. Digg
  4. Delicious
  5. Google
  So it's worth including submit links to social sites at the end of your posts (and tweeting about them)
• The strangest search terms are:
  1. andrew is a awesome 1 ooo yeah babe
  2. what computer code looks like
  3. gear shift sex
  4. Peter Jones' Socks
  5. poverty pictures
  6. corset designers
  7. nerd shirts
  8. comentariu nenorocirea secolului
  9. free sexy
• Giving away free stuff is a good way to get traffic to your site
• Offering 'How-to' tutorials is another good way to get traffic
• Lists of useful resources are also very popular

Share your stats

Please feel free to share your stats below and how they compare with the above conclusions. In particular I’m a fan of the obscure & strange search terms :-)