Whites Writing Whiteness Google Analytics Data Report
1 July 2015 – 31 December 2015
This draft report contains provisional information about WWW website use for the particular time-period it covers. It has been compiled in a fairly undigested form from Google Analytics data, and will be subject to in-depth comparative analysis at culmination of the WWW project.
Changes from Last Report
In comparing user and traffic data of the Whites Writing Whiteness website with the previously reported period (1 January 2015 – 30 June 2015), there are new developments to report. Firstly, a growing number of users continue to access the website from a still-wider range of places. The website was accessed from 474 cities in 86 countries (compared with 82 in the previously reported period). Secondly, the average time users spend on each page they visit has increased by 52.4% (rising from 00:59 to 01:29). Thirdly, the ‘Traces Remaining’ area of the website has been very successful, with 177 pageviews since its launch in late August.
Six Month Report
The WWW website was visited by 1,284 unique users between 1 July 2015 and 31 December 2015. The site was accessed 1,687 times, from 86 countries, with the top ten countries in terms of number of users being the UK, USA, South Africa, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, India, Kenya (and (not set)***), and with visits from other countries including France, Zimbabwe, Italy, Denmark, Botswana, Thailand, Nigeria, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Israel, China, Brazil, Iceland, Qatar and Russia.
***(not set) indicates that location data could not be determined for the associated users. This could mean, for example, that IP addresses were masked or were not made available for data collection because of some other reason.
The site continues to have users who repeatedly visit the site and many who spend much longer than average looking at its pages. Particularly prolific repeat users for this period access the site from South Africa, the Netherlands, Iceland, Indonesia, Germany, New Zealand, Australia the USA and the UK, including some habitual users from London, Cape Town, Paris, New York, Sydney, Berlin, and Los Angeles. For more detailed information, please see Table 6.
Users view many pages per visit, with an average of 3 (2.91) pages viewed per visit. Overall, there have been 4,901 page views in total. There have been 138 habitual users, spending detailed time on average 4 (4.28) pages per visit, while the 1,263 new users view an average of 2 (2.44) pages.
Regarding how frequently users return to the site, there have been 2 visits to the site by 143 users, between 25 and 50 visits to the site by 85 users, between 101 and 200 visits to the site by 154 users, and more than 201 visits to the site by 93 users. These data indicate a serious research use by some 280+ in-depth users, with the corresponding most-used pages presenting verbatim transcribed letters and documents, and containing detailed analytical discussion. This demonstrates a major increase compared with the previous reported period. The average number users visiting the site per month is usually over 200 and sometimes over 250.
Concerning length of users’ sessions, 113 users have spent between 3 and 10 minutes browsing the website, 102 users have spent between 10.1-30 minutes, and 42 users spent more than 31 minutes.
| Breakdown of Site Usage by Month: 1 July 2015 – 31 December 2015 | ||||
| Users | Pageviews | Avg. visit duration (mins) | Freq. visitor countries | |
| July | 209 | 1,696 | 3.19 | 41 |
| August | 191 | 1,281 | 3.08 | 36 |
| September | 187 | 1,584 | 3.32 | 44 |
| October | 247 | 1,444 | 3.36 | 37 |
| November | 264 | 1,474 | 2.46 | 50 |
| December | 220 | 846 | 2.27 | 48 |
The most accessed page after the homepage for this period is the project ‘Blog’, with the ‘Publications’, and ‘Traces Remaining’ areas also highly popular. The project blog contains methodological and theoretical discussion in addition to project updates, and users continue to follow these discussions. Whites Writing Whiteness launched a new and increasingly popular area of the website earlier this year called ‘Traces Remaining’. The ‘Traces Remaining’ area includes pages which highlight particular documents found during the archival process, and includes original transcriptions and detailed discussions of these.
User Traffic
The majority of users (65.3%) find the website through organic searches via Google and other search engines. Many users also visit the website by direct link (17.3%) or via referrals from the Edinburgh University’s website (16.1%).
Where users access the site from, and how often:
Tables 1 through 5 below present geographical images show the frequency of website usage for this reported period. These indicate number of visits to the website by saturation of blue ranging from light blue (fewer sessions) to dark blue (the most sessions), and the range in the bottom left corner indicates the lower and upper bound of sessions for this period according to continent (Table 1), sub-continent (Table 2), and sub-regions (Tables 3-5).
Table 1. Number of Visits by Continent
Above, the range spans from 22 sessions ((not set)) to 798 sessions (Europe), and indicates via darkening shades of blue that the most users accessed the website from Europe for this reported period.
The data above demonstrate that the majority of Whites Writing Whiteness website users access the website from Europe (47.3%), the Americas (25.8%), and Africa (12.6%), and that users from the Americas and Europe tend to spend the most time on the website.
Table 2. Number of Visits by Sub-Continent Region
Above, the range spans from 1 session (Central Asia) to 622 sessions (Northern Europe), and indicates via darkening shades of blue that the most users accessed the website from Northern Europe for this reported period.
The data above demonstrate that the majority of Whites Writing Whiteness website users access the website from Northern Europe (36.9%), Northern America (24.1%) and Southern Africa (9.19%), and that users from Northern America, Northern Europe and Southern Africa tend to spend the most time on the website.
Table 3. Number of Users by Sub-Region – South Africa 
Above, the range spans from 1 session (Mpumalanga) to 60 sessions (Gauteng), and indicates via darkening shades of blue that the most users accessed the website from Gauteng for this reported period.
The data above demonstrate that the majority of Whites Writing Whiteness website users access the website from the Gauteng (41.1%), Western Cape (33.6%), and KwaZulu-Natal (12.3%) regions, and that users from the Free State and Western Cape regions tend to spend the most time on the website.
Table 4. Number of Users by Sub-Region – United States 
Above, the range spans from 1 session (Vermont) to 120 sessions (Connecticut), and indicates via darkening shades of blue that the most users accessed the website from Connecticut for this reported period.
The data above demonstrate that the majority of Whites Writing Whiteness website users access the website from the states of Connecticut (35.1%), New York (9.1%), and California (6.7%), though users from the Utah and Arizona as well as Connecticut tend to spend the most time on the website.
Table 5. Number of Views by Sub-Region – UK
Above, the range spans from 1 session ([not set]) to 447 sessions (England), and indicates via darkening shades of blue that the most users accessed the website from England for this reported period.
The data above demonstrate that the majority of Whites Writing Whiteness website users access the website from England (80%), Scotland (16.1%), and Wales (3.2%), though users from Northern Ireland as well as England tend to spend the most time on the website.
| Table 6: Cities, Number of Visits and Pages Accessed | ||||||
| The data below show, by city, the top numbers of visits, number of pages accessed on average and the average duration spent on the site, respectively. N.B. asterisks denote particularly intense site usage and/or high numbers of visits. | ||||||
| Country | City | Visits | Pages accessed | Avg. visit duration (mins) | ||
| UK (10 of 80) |
London | 129* | 2.20 | 02:46 | ||
| Edinburgh | 74* | 2.08 | 01:16 | |||
| Blackburn | 64* | 6.66* | 09:03* | |||
| Preston | 32* | 4.91* | 05:43* | |||
| Cambridge | 31* | 4.61* | 03:57 | |||
| Blackpool | 29* | 6.34* | 07:44* | |||
| Oxford | 25* | 2.48 | 04:45* | |||
| Cardiff | 13 | 1.08 | 01:20 | |||
| Southport | 12 | 4.08 | 06:54* | |||
| Sheffield | 11 | 1.18 | 00:02 | |||
| USA (10 of 136) |
Monroe | 79* | 13.77* | 14:27* | ||
| Woodbury | 35* | 10.77* | 12:03* | |||
| New York | 19* | 1.11 | 00:06 | |||
| (not set) | 11 | 1.64 | 00:12 | |||
| Washington | 7 | 1.14 | 01:04 | |||
| Minneapolis | 7 | 1.14 | 00:34 | |||
| Philadelphia | 7 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Seattle | 7 | 1.29 | 01:32 | |||
| Los Angeles | 6 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Chicago | 5 | 1.20 | 02:47 | |||
| Australia (10 of 11) |
Adelaide | 22* | 1.14 | 03:06* | ||
| Melbourne | 14* | 1.57* | 00:05 | |||
| Brisbane | 13* | 3.00* | 01:35 | |||
| Sydney | 12* | 1.08 | 01:01 | |||
| Perth | 3 | 1.00 | 00:31 | |||
| Wollongong | 2 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Canberra | 1 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Rockhampton | 1 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Toowoomba | 1 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Townsville | 1 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| South Africa (10 of 24) |
Cape Town | 48* | 4.02* | 03:36* | ||
| Sandton | 23* | 1.22 | 00:11 | |||
| Durban | 15* | 1.53 | 01:06 | |||
| Pretoria | 14* | 3.43* | 03:59* | |||
| Johannesburg | 11* | 2.82* | 01:20 | |||
| Grahamstown | 4 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| East London | 3 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
| Port Elizabeth | 3 | 1.33 | 00:12 | |||
| Randburg | 3 | 2.33* | 01:34 | |||
| Mahikeng | 3 | 1.00 | 00:00 | |||
Last updated: 31 January 2016
