Who visits Brickset and what do they view?
Posted by Huw,
Following on from the traffic review of the year that I posted recently I thought I'd delve a bit deeper into Google Analytics and present more information about who visits the site and what they look at when they are here.
If you're curious, find out after the break...
Does everyone log in?
Given the manifold advantages of having an account here and logging in you might expect most visitors to do so but that is not the case at all. In fact the percentage of users that log in is staggeringly small: it's just 3.5%!
However, those that do account for viewing about one-third of all the pages served.
How do visitors get here?
Over half of visitors arrive here via organic search, that is, by typing something in at Google, Bing, Yahoo or wherever and clicking on a search result, as opposed to a paid-for link (of which we have none anyway)
A large proportion arrive here directly, via bookmark or similar, while social media accounts for most of the other referrals.
Here's a breakdown of referrers, excluding search engines. The main social media platforms are at the top, as you'd expect, followed by the big LEGO fan sites.
Where do visitors live?
Unsurprisingly, the USA and the UK account for around 50% of visitors, followed by the larger European countries and Canada and Australia.
What devices/browsers do visitors use?
Mobile phones now account for over 50% devices users to access the site, a figure that increases every year:
Unsurprisingly, Chrome accounts for the lion's-share of browsers, followed by Safari, on account of the iPhone being the most popular mobile device.
What areas of the site are the most visited?
Our sets database -- the search results, listings, and individual set details pages -- accounts for almost half of all page views.
It's difficult to produce a list showing definitively which pages within it are the most popular due to the way the URLs are structured but, as you'd expect, the listing of this year's sets and Star Wars are at the top of it.
The home page is the single most visited page, while our news and reviews account for just 10% of total page views. This is good, because it means we are not reliant on posting every tidbit of news and circulating rumour to generate our income, unlike many sites that rely on a large throughput of articles for theirs.
There is some variation between what logged in and not logged in users view. 'My collection' is a popular page for those logged in but not so much for those that aren't!
More people who are not logged in look at sets database than those that are, suggesting that many of them are doing so by directly accessing it via organic search.
I hope you found that informative. If there's anything else you'd like to know let me know in the comments.
On News Year's Eve I will post an article listing the most read/liked/commented articles and reviews of the year.
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40 comments on this article
How many times has 70505 Temple of Light been viewed this year, in comparison with other sets? :)
Poland STRONK :D
Thank you for all that nerdy information! I pour over anything like that! ??
I wonder how much of Brickset's traffic comes from LEGO stores. Half of my visits to the store I'll spot Brickset on the point-of-sale machine and it's often the employees looking up sets or discussing them (when not serving a customer).
Huw, interesting article! Really surprised such a small percentage log in, sounds like you are too.
Would be interesting to know how many new users created a new collection over Christmas this year compared to previous years. Any way to find out the top 10 sets added over Christmas?
Nice to see the UK rank second for most members on the site, I use both mobile phone and desktop to browse the site though its much easier on the desktop imo. I'm always logged in. I view on Safari, most the time I am coming to the site by searching instead of being directed by links, Brickset is on of my most visited sites along with LEGO Shop, BBC iPlayer, YouTube and hotukdeals.
When visiting the site I check the latest news, browse my collection and when I've got a new set I always add it instantly, when I buy a PAB or BAM I try to add all the parts into my collection though sometimes a lot of the exclusive prints for the BAM aren't always in the system or easy to find. If you could I would love the BAM parts to be added and have a separate tab to make it easier to add the parts into peoples collections.
I think the question everyone’s wondering is, where does the traffic from temple of light come from?
Interesting article.
I read the forums on most visits but I didn't see them included in the stats.
I was also surprised that US visitors outnumber UK - I always thought there was a high UK readership.
I can't comment for other, but to clarify my spot in the statistics: I visit multiple times per day, and only log in when i want to comment, follow the comments on a news topic, or edit my collection. Everything else such as reading news or browsing the database goes without logging in.
@windjammer - No, but pro rata the Brits are bigger visitors, seeing as the US has about five times the population and less than three times the Brickset users.
I always use the site whilst logged in, and I can't understand why you wouldn't, seeing as the ads were an utter nuisance before I had an account.
Is there any chance those of us who are automatically logged in via our bookmark, somehow don’t show up in your stats? IM always logged in and usually use a bookmark, often more than once a day (yup)...sometimes it has me log in again, but rarely?? Great info! I find this site invaluable for keeping track of inventory, collections, prices, etc. thanks for the data!
Nice detailed statics!
Regarding the log-in %, I just created an account recently after visiting the site for years. I guess I'm not alone :) But I just had to comment on the great article regarding the wheelsize of the new Speed Champions!
Good stuff...thanks @HUW !
Just curious, what percent of people with accounts use BS for storing their LEGO information. For example, keeping track of loose minifigures and/or sets they have purchased. Thanks!
I look at BS daily. I will update wanted list or just browse sets every day. I’m always logged in, so I don’t know what that does to stats.
The ads are very disruptive so I’m surprised more wouldn’t make an account/log in to avoid them.
With the numbers for the countries I would like to see a comparison of the numbers of visitors in relation to the number of residents in this country. Which small country would outnumber much larger countries then? ;-)
@Sethro don't people just use ad blockers? Not sure as I just log in as well for the same reason.
Very interesting Statistics! So, I amn the only logged in user from Austria??
Interesting article. I'm also very surprised so few people are logging in. When I tried looking up something on my phone while not being logged in the ads drove me insane within seconds. Never trying that again.
I just have Bricket open in my browser on my desktop at all times. Just refresh the page every day to catch up on the news. Thanks for a great website!
Very interesting article/stats. I'm not surprised that not logged in outnumbers logged in, but I'm very surprised by how much. Ads can be very annoying especially on mobile. I know immediately when I'm not logged in on mobile because as @Alatariel says they drive me insane. I have to login in quickly or I'll simply give up and wait to do whatever it is later.
I do tend to use my desktop more because the experience is just...better. Primarily use Firefox followed by Chrome and occasionally Edge. IE is pretty much dead and it should be.
I would be curious to see some stats related to the forum. For one how many/percent are on BS and link over to forum.
I am always logged in. Once in a while the phone or laptop dies, and then i am not logged in anymore. If you go to BS again you get all the really annoying adds, I am logged in again within 10 seconds.
I have 5 Lego fan sites bookmarked, Brickset is always the first site I check, and I check it several times a day!
Same as a lot of others, I can’t believe so many people put up with those f%$£!! adverts and don’t just log in, I’m always logged in.
Keep doing what your doing, its a great friendly website and I love it!!
Huw, thanks for the stats. This is one of the sites I permanently log in to, as the ads do not enhance my personal experience. I find your sets, and parts database invaluable in research that I do for my own investigations. Without it, my world would be a sadder place.
Interesting researches and data again. Thank you. For my part I am logged in continuously, it's so much more easy so.
3.5% is very surprising.
Excellent article.
Since I discovered you in 2014, I am permanently logged in. Working for sorting parts and uploading them on a website made me working with your site 7-20 hours per day. Building big Dioramas for a toys store I realized I couldn't have done it without Brickset, so thank you!
Some new visitors are coming in the old fashion way: me writing on a piece of paper brickset.com, at least 3 times a week.
Thank you !
Bricklink didn’t make the referral list? That’s surprising.
Also it appears I may be the only one who intentionally browses logged out. For some reason I find pages take a lot longer to load when I’m logged in. And I never notice the ads so they don’t bother me.
Seeing how high Australia is on that list, I'd really like to see AUD RRP added to the database
what the hell is wrong with you
before when you visit this page you could look for any piece or brick and or anything like animals or characters but
but later when you search the aforementioned
s a thing or character only the message appears please start a log in to see this list
I already made an account tell me why you did it to me and
even to unlog in people
I’m always logged in when I access via safari. Not if I visit from a Facebook article or my RSS feed though.
@maxplays said:
"what the hell is wrong with you
before when you visit this page you could look for any piece or brick and or anything like animals or characters but
but later when you search the aforementioned
s a thing or character only the message appears please start a log in to see this list
I already made an account tell me why you did it to me and
even to unlog in people"
That's not at all normal behavior. It sounds like you're experiencing site cookie issues, or perhaps a browser plugin is interfering with your Brickset session?
@Huw thank you for the article and data. If users signing up is a valuable KPI, it could be an interesting experiment to change the Sign up label to include the notion that it‘s free, like “Free sign up“ or something to that extent. Visual visibility and promotion of the feature could also help, although I wouldn‘t do all all the changes at once, to better understand which intervention had an impact or not. Cheers
Interesting data. I'm permanently logged in and have brickset bookmark open all the time.
" @windjammer - No, but pro rata the Brits are bigger visitors, seeing as the US has about five times the population and less than three times the Brickset users."
In fact, it appears UK is number one pro rata with Denmark a close second.
I mean I *technically* get to Brickset through an organic search, but only because I've been on the site so many times that if I just type the letter 'B' in the search bar, it pops up Brickset :)
I almost always access Brickset through a bookmark (though sometimes I'll come through a hyperlink on The Brothers Brick). I try to stay logged in all the time (I automatically get logged out if I clear cookies), but if I'm not, I'll log in to comment or add a set to my collection (I have AdBlock, so the ads aren't a big deal). Again, thanks to the Brickset crew for the awesome website!
@Sethro3:
You might want to consider not abbreviating Brickset as "BS." Just a tip. :)
Pie charts bad mmkay
I love! Statistics. So great, really!
But, my English isn't so good to understand everything. Maybe.....maybe..... Sometimes you great page does exist in a german version....... ??
I'm here every day but only logged in for leaving a comment (right now) or update my setlist.
Otherwise - thank you for all those reviews of the sets (especially the old ones which i don't know) and the fantastic database.
Wow, The Netherlands on place 6 visitor wise. Surprising as we're one of the smaller countries, but then again, we're such big LEGO fans!
Great data! The inner nerd came through looking at the charts and graphs to come up with my own conclusions. I had a thought I would like to share:
Being from the US, reading through the site, I figured the majority of users were from the UK. The reason I state this is because many of the articles are overwhelmingly biased for the UK market. (I know I am responding to this a week late but...) An example article I saw this morning was https://brickset.com/article/48120/orange-classic-space-minifigure-coming-soon! It was clearly UK because that book does not show up on the US Amazon page.
So, while the page is based upon the UK (thought based upon the misspelled words such as authorisation which is really authorization (just being sarcastic, just sarcasm and not serious, although this is where I figured it out), and I truly get a lot out of it, it would be nice to have more US articles of similar type.
I read another comment regarding adding the Australian currency, adding to what you have truly achieved. You are reaching a worldwide audience, something that the statistics clearly shows. The top 5 countries account for nearly 2/3's of your site visits and number three is not a predominately English speaking nation. I didn't spend time to add all those below the fifth position, but presumably, you have greater than 1/3 of viewers in non-English speaking countries, where you have to take Germany back out of the top 2/3's.
Great job!