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By Amelia Pilsch
I really enjoy looking at our Tuscaloosa County Master Gardener website statistics regularly. As webmaster, I am able to view overall statistics, visits, visitors and page statistics. I can view what search engines visitors are using and what search terms visitors use to find us.
Although, we only have a little over 100 members, we have had up to 2,000 unique visitors in one month. Amazing!
The largest numbers of visitors always occur when we publish personal experiences about gardening. The article written and illustrated by Fran and Les Duncan about the Butterfly Garden they constructed at Oakhill School with Pam Adams, drew some of the most significant hits (numbers) that we have had on our site. The following graph shows the big jump in visitors when “A Garden Make-over” by Anita Smelley was recently published.
One stat that I often take note of comes from the website IP tracker that shows the unique address of a computer that has visited our site. It doesn’t identify a visitor by name or actual street address, but I can see the location of the city where the visitor lives, the date, and how often they have visited our site.
People from cities all over Alabama have checked us out and visited more than one time! Most surprising are the numbers of visitors from across the United States that have “stumbled” upon our site, and frequently, we have visitors from other countries; perhaps they googled “Sansevieria Trifasciata” or even, “Mother-in-Law’s tongue”!
What does this mean to our organization?
It means that we can make a difference in our community. We need to recognize that our website has an important role in perpetuating Tuscaloosa County Master Gardeners. Potential new members will learn the most about us through our website. We can show off, share with our viewers and take pride in what we do. Our site provides a 24/7 communication tool for members and a way to connect with other gardeners.
It also means that our website and the organization that we are associated with, Alabama Cooperative Extension Services, and other state extension services, have important roles in educating the public. A web presence increases our reach, giving master gardeners a voice beyond the scope of our communities.
At no other time, in my life, can I recall so much interest in environmental awareness, health and nutrition and how this relates to gardening. It’s being taught in schools and it’s on the news daily. People of all ages care about these issues. We have the potential to influence current thought and practices about gardening.
How can you help to spread our image, increase our public profile, and earn good will?
Contribute an article. ( your knowledge, your interests, your opinions matter)
Take pictures (at meetings or during volunteer service) and send them to me, please.
Comment on articles using the “Leave a reply” button.
Share information curated from other sites…if you are interested in the information, others will be too.
Call attention to our site(http://mg.aces.edu/tuscaloosa/) or specific articles from our site, on Facebook, Twitter or other social media or simply talk about us with your friends.
The greatest strength of Master Gardeners is the strong sense of community we offer one another. We each have something unique that we can teach or an experience we can share that could help other people. Please, help me add relevant content to our website, your ideas and contributions have great value to me. You can contact me, Amelia Pilsch, at ampil2010@gmail.com.
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Thank you everyone!
True. A strong sense of community is very important. I also believe that we each have something unique that we can teach or an experience we can share that could help other people.Thank you for the share!