This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Statistics are available for the pageviews, or traffic, that articles receive. For a broad introduction, see Wikipedia:Pageview statistics. The focus here will be on applications of these statistics in determining a primary topic.
Several important tools are:
Factors to bear in mind when analyzing pageviews include:
Two major aspects of a primary topic are long-term significance and usage. Pageviews have some, indirect, relevance for both: sustained high views over many years could be a result of greater long-term significance, and big differences in views may also indicate differences in usage. However, pageviews contain no direct information about what readers search for. One reason is that they show what readers get, not what they look for. For example, if one of the articles is at the base title, then some proportion of the traffic it receives will come from readers looking for other topics with the name. Another reason is that a substantial proportion of views come from readers who arrive by following internal or external links. Typically, traffic coming from such links is much greater than traffic coming from readers searching directly from within Wikipedia. The overall traffic is dependent on results from Google and other external search engines, as well as how well integrated an article is with the rest of the encyclopedia and how popular the pages are that link to it. This has the following implications:
Care should be taken when evaluating terms that are not identical to those of the articles concerned. For example, in deciding the primary topic for "MSG", the choice might be between Monosodium glutamate and Madison Square Garden. Although those two articles receive a similar number of views, Monosodium glutamate may be referred to primarily as MSG, while Madison Square Garden is usually referred to by its full name and is much less frequently known as "MSG". The relevant question when looking at usage in these type of cases is not which of the articles is more popular, but which one is more likely to be sought by readers searching for "MSG". If there is a primary topic for "MSG" it can become a " primary redirect"; otherwise it can be a dab page; but pageview statistics might not be helpful in making that decision. Readership usage in such cases can be inferred from the Clickstream data (or from its visual frontend the Wikinav).
This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Statistics are available for the pageviews, or traffic, that articles receive. For a broad introduction, see Wikipedia:Pageview statistics. The focus here will be on applications of these statistics in determining a primary topic.
Several important tools are:
Factors to bear in mind when analyzing pageviews include:
Two major aspects of a primary topic are long-term significance and usage. Pageviews have some, indirect, relevance for both: sustained high views over many years could be a result of greater long-term significance, and big differences in views may also indicate differences in usage. However, pageviews contain no direct information about what readers search for. One reason is that they show what readers get, not what they look for. For example, if one of the articles is at the base title, then some proportion of the traffic it receives will come from readers looking for other topics with the name. Another reason is that a substantial proportion of views come from readers who arrive by following internal or external links. Typically, traffic coming from such links is much greater than traffic coming from readers searching directly from within Wikipedia. The overall traffic is dependent on results from Google and other external search engines, as well as how well integrated an article is with the rest of the encyclopedia and how popular the pages are that link to it. This has the following implications:
Care should be taken when evaluating terms that are not identical to those of the articles concerned. For example, in deciding the primary topic for "MSG", the choice might be between Monosodium glutamate and Madison Square Garden. Although those two articles receive a similar number of views, Monosodium glutamate may be referred to primarily as MSG, while Madison Square Garden is usually referred to by its full name and is much less frequently known as "MSG". The relevant question when looking at usage in these type of cases is not which of the articles is more popular, but which one is more likely to be sought by readers searching for "MSG". If there is a primary topic for "MSG" it can become a " primary redirect"; otherwise it can be a dab page; but pageview statistics might not be helpful in making that decision. Readership usage in such cases can be inferred from the Clickstream data (or from its visual frontend the Wikinav).