Looking through Google Analytics today, satisfying my curiosity about the makeup of my audience, I am surprised by where my readers come from. Out of roughly 30,000 returning visitors in the past month, they come from the following states:
| State | Visits | Percentage |
| Pennsylvania | 3,385 | 11.40% |
| Virginia | 2,315 | 7.80% |
| Texas | 2,218 | 7.47% |
| California | 1,837 | 6.19% |
| New York | 1,609 | 5.42% |
| Ohio | 1,293 | 4.36% |
What’s more interesting is that if you look at my top locales for those top states:
| Locale | Visits | Percentage (of state visitors) |
| Philadelphia, PA | 407 | 12.02% |
| Fairfax, VA | 327 | 14.43% |
| Austin, TX | 286 | 1.80% |
| Los Angeles, CA | 310 | 16.88% |
| New York, NY | 795 | 49.41% |
| Columbus, OH | 323 | 24.98% |
This is just a small example. But I was surprised to find the city of my largest readership is actually New York City, representing half of my total traffic from the State of New York. Philadelphia is the number two overall city. The number two city in California for readership is none other than San Francisco. Austin won in Texas, but all the big Texas cities were pretty well represented. Number three city overall? Wasington D.C. Not too surprising, really, considering how much I blog about politics. Traffic is mostly from federal government sources, defense contractors, and the Brady Campaign.
A lot of my readership is urban. Considerably more so than I would have expected. How’s that for breaking down stereotypes? We’re talking about return visits here too, not just people who happened across the site on a Google search, so these visits can be reasonably called readers. I’m not complaining. People in New York City, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia are exactly the kinds of folks we need to be reaching.
Just a guess – I’m reading your blog from work – not my more suburban / rural home.
I visit your cite from both work and home, both in or near a major city.
Err cite should be site
As my e-mail address etc. would indicate NYS but I’m not in NY but my provider is. I’m sure I’m not the only one. This might be pushing your numbers off.
I grew up in rural east Texas and consider myself country, but there’s a distinct lack of good UNIX administration jobs out there.
I hear you. I wouldn’t stay around here if it wasn’t for the work being around here. My dad just retired and is headed to rural Pennsylvania.
A lot of your readership is urban…
Well, a lot of the population is urban. It’s likely that you are seeing “urban” hits simply because more people live in urban areas. If 100 random Illinoians visited your blog, 65 or so of them would be clustered in Chicagoland. But that’s not because urban people are more likely to read second amendment blogs.
I suspect that if you corrected for in population density, this pattern of an urban readership would either be diluted or disappear.
I’d like to know how much of the Brady Blog traffic is generated by 2A supporters … I bet the number would be astonishing.
Geolocation of Internet users is not 100% accurate. E.g. my connection is a DSL line from AT&T, but it’s done as an ATM circuit from my more rural home city to a bigger city 70 miles. That latter city gets the credit for a surrounding population in the 100s of thousands in addition to its own 6 figure population.
Do the sitemeter stats also reflect RSS feeds?
Well, let’s correct the statistics.
Hello from Atlanta.
Urban +1
Atlanta +1
Georgia +1
USA +1
Doesn’t count RSS. I have other ways I track that. But Atlanta is another one of my big urban areas. I think number 4, if I recall.
New York is just Mayor Bloomberg. San Francisco is me.
I always wondered how blackberry’s are recorded. I access you mostly from DC but also mostly from my blackberry.
I suspect the blackberry traffic is all routed through their server in Toronto. Qonder where that ranks, or if you can tell
What’s Mo.s ranking. And am I the only rual one visiting because when I notice the few Mo. commentors they may claim rual but they sound like their from around a more urban setting.
I read you from both Manhattan and Jersey City.