• Find
    • Photographers
    • Directors
    • Crew
    • Stock
  • Produce
  • Read
    • Published
    • Unpublished
    • Intel
  • Consult
    • Design
    • Marketing
    • Photo Editing
    • Pricing & Negotiating
    • Publicity
    • Shoot Production
  • About
    • Mission
    • Team
    • Successes
    • Press
    • Specialties
    • Membership
    • Terms
    • Privacy
    • Contact
  • Account
    • Sign In
Wonderful Machine
  • Sign In
  • Consult
    • Design
    • Marketing
    • Photo Editing
    • Pricing & Negotiating
    • Publicity
    • Shoot Production
  • About
    • Mission
    • Team
    • Successes
    • Press
    • Specialties
    • Membership
    • Terms
    • Privacy
    • Contact
  • Account
    • Sign In
Recover Password Learn More

Please enter your email and website or LinkedIn to receive more information about our free and paid accounts.

Wonderful Machine

Thanks!
We'll reply to you shortly.

Please enter your email address below and we’ll send you instructions on how to change your password.

Enter your new password below or generate one. The password should be at least ten characters long. To make it stronger, use upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.

Generate Password

Analytics: August 2021

BY Ashley Vaught 3 September 2021
Intel, Report Card, Analytics

Wonderful Machine saw significant increases in searches as well as improvements in general traffic during the month of August.

Traffic

During August -4.8% fewer users (8,221) visited the site than in July (8,639), with an associated drop in new users of -3.3%. However, those numbers almost exhaust all of the ill news for the site during August.

Pageviews (each page of the website viewed), pages per session (the number of pages viewed during a session), and sessions per user increased by +7.3, +4.6, and +7.7% respectively, while sessions (the time a user spends on the site visiting multiple pages) decreased slightly by -.7%.

A screenshot of Google Analytics' Audience data for Wonderful Machine during August 2021, compared with July 2021
Google Analytics’ Audience data for Wonderful Machine during August 2021, compared with July 2021

The average session duration and bounce rates for the site both improved by dramatic margins. The average session duration went from 3:43 during July to 4:16 in August, a +15.1% change. In relation to August 2020 when the average session duration was 2:18, this is a +85.8% gain.

The site’s average bounce rate also improved, albeit nominally, dropping from 54.3% in July to 53.6% in August. In relation to August 2020 the improvement is more dramatic, since it had fallen from 65.2%, which is a -17.8 improvement. Remember that a lower bounce rate is desirable.

Site events

All photographer searches increased during the month of August, some significantly. As it was, +27% more photographer searches were conducted during August (5,253) in comparison with July (4,136). Searches by specialty increased by a whopping +38.7%, going from 1,426 in July to 1,978 in August.

The most popular type of search, searches by location, increased by +34% during August, with 3,375, as opposed to the 2,519 during July. Searches by date increased +148% in August (1,974) from July (796).

Users searched photographers by name 1,522 times in August, an increase of +25.7% over the 1,211 times in July. There were also more searches for videographers during August (376), +30.5% more than July (288).

Whoa!

Locations

The United States was the location for 58.8% of our users during August, followed by India (6.4%) and Brazil (3.9%). The cities from which most users hailed were New York (5.3%), Los Angeles (2.6%), Philadelphia (2.3%), London (1.4%), and Chicago (1.2%).

A screenshot of Google Analytics' August 2021 data on the cities from which most site users hail
Google Analytics’ August 2021 data on the cities from which most site users hail

Acquisitions

“Acquisitions” is Google’s term to describe how users arrived at a website — the sources for a site’s traffic. These numbers are important for a variety of reasons, one of which being that they let us know how our efforts in SEO, in web ads, in our social media efforts, and other forms of promotion work.

A screenshot of Google Analytics' August 2021 channel numbers, with the organic search, direct, and paid search plotted
Google Analytics’ August 2021 channel numbers, with the organic search, direct, and paid search plotted

Since SEO means Search Engine Optimization, the “Organic Search” numbers tell us how effective is our SEO strategy. During August search engines provided 34% of the traffic to Wonderful Machine, which is actually a -49.6% decrease from the 55.9% directed by search engines last year.

The chart below, although drawn according to day and therefore showing the cycles of traffic throughout a week, shows the slight decrease in organic search numbers, just over the last three months.

A screenshot of Google Analytics' May-August 2021 channel changes, with the organic search, direct, and paid search plotted
Google Analytics’ May-August 2021 channel changes, with the organic search, direct, and paid search plotted

By contrast, we received 33.6% of our traffic directly (this means that users either type the URL into the address bar or have the site’s address bookmarked), which is actually a +33.6% increase over last year’s 20.8% share of traffic.

Site Blogs

Wonderful Machine has two different blogs. The first, called Intel, is designed to provide information germane to the business of being a commercial or editorial photographer. The second, called Published, promotes recent usually published projects by our member photographers.

As a whole, over the month of August, the blogs received 12,606 pageviews, which is a +.8% increase over the 12,509 pageviews of July.

The most popular posts on the Read Intel blog were:

  • EXPERT ADVICE: WRITING A PHOTOGRAPHER BIO, written by Varun Raghupathi, published 15 April 2021
  • PRICING & NEGOTIATING: SOCIAL MEDIA SHOOT FOR INTERNATIONAL BEVERAGE BRAND, written by Bryan Sheffield, published 20 July 2021
  • SPECIALTY: WHAT IS FOOD & DRINK PHOTOGRAPHY?, written by Shannon Stewart, published 1 July 2021

The most popular posts on the Read Published blog were:

  • THE GAMER DOC: EDGAR ARTIGA’S COLORFUL PORTRAITS FOR WIRED, written by Stephanie Avilés, published 4 August 2021
  • ALL SMILES: KEVIN TITUS PHOTO FOR LIGHT WAVE DENTAL, written by Stephanie Avilés, published 9 August 2021
  • DHANRAJ EMANUEL SETS THE TONE FOR KETO BBQ COOKBOOK, written by Stephanie Avilés, published 5 August 2021

Questions about interpreting your analytics? Reach out and let us help.
< PREVIOUS
INTEL
NEXT >
×
1 610 260 0200
[email protected]
260 Haverford Ave. Narberth, PA 19072