One of the advantages of running industrial-strength blogging software like WordPress is the variety of plugins available for customization and control. For example, with the addition of one or more plugins, it’s possible to get a variety of stats about your WordPress blog without having to leave the WordPress Dashboard. In this post, I briefly describe two WordPress plugins for tracking blog stats, as well as a free hosted stat tracking tool from SiteMeter.

Earlier this week, I installed the WP-ShortStat plugin. Getting it working is as easy as uploading a file to the plugins directory and then activating the plugin. It reports hits, uniques, browser, recent referrers, search strings, page requests, and countries, to name a few. The block below shows this blog’s repeat referrers, and here is a 1280×800 jpg showing 80% of the report.

I also downloaded and installed BAStats, also a plugin, which provides similar information but with selectable date ranges as shown in this 1280×800 jpg. I find myself using the WP-ShortStat report to get a snapshot of what’s been going on and BAStats for deeper inquiry into patterns.

Lastly, after seeing Jean-Claude’s write-up, I have just installed SiteMeter and will be comparing its reports to those of WP-ShortStat, particularly for referrals and geographic location of visitors. SiteMeter adds some helpful information, including visitors by entry page and exit page.