2023 sees an increase in the number of visitors to the blog...

Before we get too far into the new year, this post is about 2023 and the level of traffic to the blog. At the end of 2023, I had a look at the level of traffic to the site and I noted a rise in the number of pageviews.

The number of monthly pageviews changes a lot over the course of the year but the stats for each December for the last few years gives a good overview of what it's been like.

Back in December of 2020, we were in some form of lockdown and there were no races. There were a few virtual runs with people doing their own thing but there's only so much you can write about when there's nothing really happening. The number of pageviews for December 2020 was down around the 31,000 mark.

I should add that 'pageviews' isn't the same as the number of people. If someone visits the blog every day then they'd generate about 30 pageviews for the month. If they visit once a week then it's 4 pageviews for the month.

By December 2021, some of the races had resumed and the blog shot up to 61,000 pageviews for the month.

By December 2022, most of the races had resumed but the race numbers were down on what they were. The number of pageviews to the site stayed around the same level with 56,000.

2023 saw a real recovery in the number of people doing races, parkruns and running in general. The figure for December 2023 was around 90,000 pageviews, a significant jump on the previous year.

For the year as a whole, the blog got 1.34 million pageviews. Again, that's not 1.34 million people but it's still a huge number of pageviews for a site about running in Cork.

The number of followers to the Running in Cork Facebook page continues to grow. At the moment, it has 19,259 followers and it reached 98,805 Facebook accounts in the last 28 days.

Some of the most popular Facebook posts in the last 90 days were...

• Post about the new Greenway from Frankfield to Tramore Valley Park - this one reached 280,547 Facebook accounts.
• Post about the lead women in the Clonmel 4-mile over Christmas - this reached 67,760 accounts.
• Post about the first three women in the Newmarket 5k - this reached 37,373 accounts.
• Post about the Clonakilty marathon moving location - this reached 37,016 accounts.
• Post about Cork runner Ryan Creech finishing second in the Dublin marathon - this reached 28,489 accounts.
• Post about Michelle Kenny winning the Rebel Run 10k - this reached 21,820 accounts.
• Post about Paul Hartnett finishing 3rd in the Clonmel 4m at Christmas - 18,658 accounts.
• Post about the Dungarvan to Mallow Greenway - 18,658 accounts

...and so on.

The thing about Facebook is that size really matters. If a page has say 1000 followers then a post reaching 5000 might be considered 'viral'. When a page has over 19,000 followers, the same 'viral' post is up over 90,000 accounts.

Twitter & Instagram... The Running in Cork Twitter / X account now has 3,492 followers. The Running in Cork Instagram account has 1,455 followers.

I guess if I was just starting off now, I'd probably be making more noise about these stats but I've been at this since late 2006. I hardly ever check the stats now and I just post away.

Looking at the stats got me thinking about how much of an impact does the blog have on the running scene in Cork? It's impossible to know for sure but 1.3 million pageviews per annum and reaching tens of thousands of accounts on Facebook must have some impact.

When I update the calendar on a regular basis, I'm often reminded that the running scene in Cork is not replicated in places like Limerick, Galway or Waterford. The number of races there is only a fraction of what happens in Cork.

Traffic Chaos at the 2017 Dublin Half-Marathon

The Half-Marathon in Dublin this year moved from the Phoenix Park near the city centre out to Donabate in North County Dublin and the result seems to have been traffic carnage on the M1. The race was originally planned to start at 9am and had to be postponed as runners couldn't get to the start line.

The runners finally got underway at 10am. However, some runners turned back such was the volume of traffic. The race had 9,200 entries.

The organisers issued this statement....“On behalf of the wider team, our race director Jim Aughney would like to extend his sincere apologies for the Dublin Half Marathon today. A full traffic management review will be underway with all stakeholders present,”.

Blog hits new traffic peak in May...

In May 2012, the blog hit a new peak for the number of hits to the site. With just two hours to go, the new record of 44,906 hits was set. It already looks likely that June 2012 will top this again.

The above figures are from a tracker I have on the site since just after it started. If I look at the numbers via Google Analytics (another tracker), it gives 48,766 Visits for May so it's roughly close. It also gives a figure of 82, 076 Pageviews but I tend not to use that figure as it can be very misleading. A website with say a photo gallery can have a huge number of Pageviews but in reality, the number of visitors might be pretty small.

So where is everyone coming from? Looking at May 2012, it's obviously mainly from Ireland with a lot of the traffic coming from Dublin and Cork and to a smaller extent Limerick. The site still got visits from 103 countries though with the UK and the USA making up the bulk. Still though, some of the hits can be from unusual places. Like say the 41 hits from Ethiopia just after I put up a piece about Haile Gebrselaissie. You never know who's watching ;o)

Record traffic for blog...Record numbers at races....a connection???

I'm a bit behind putting up this post but better late than never ;o)

With all of the interest in the Cork City Marathon, the Running in Cork blog received a record number of hits in the month of May. The new record of 15,631 hits exceeded the old record set last March around the time of the Ballycotton 10. That's a 25% increase in traffic which is a huge amount. Already with around a week to go, it looks as if June will be even higher. Just to put that in context, 15k hits per month would almost certainly make it the biggest running related website in Munster and probably in the top 5-10 on a national basis.

It also raises the question if the blog is partly responsible for the record numbers at the recent road races? Take for example the record turnout of nearly 700 runners for the John Buckley Sports 5 km road race. At the end of the day, this is just another local 5 km road race in a busy summer season. Why so many? No doubt, there is a big influx from the Marathon relay runners but how did they find out about the race?........and about the Glanmire race with another record number?

Of course, it's impossible to tell. It's a bit like the 'chicken and egg conundrum'....which came first! Looking at the age profile of all the new runners, it's probably fair to say that the majority are under 40 and as such, would be more 'Internet savvy'. As time goes on, more people are using the Internet to source information. Interested in local running..........go to Google....type in Cork running....and hey presto, up pops this blog on the 1st page of listings.

Chicken or Egg??....looking at the blog traffic and considering the following...

1) If there is a record level of traffic to the blog, this might well result in record numbers at the local races....

2) Record numbers at the races would not necessarily result in record traffic to the blog....after all, how would they know the blog even exists?

Perhaps it's a little bit more Chicken than Egg ;o)

Comments....???

Another new traffic record in June 2008 for the Running in Cork blog...

Traffic to this website hit another new high in June as the number of hits to the site almost reached the 10,000 mark. A lot of that activity was no doubt due to the Cork City Marathon but 10,000 hits in a month is still a serious figure. It's pretty amazing how fast the traffic has grown with the level roughly quadrupling since last December.

So, where are all the new visitors coming from?? I presume a lot are coming through to the site as a result of the Ballycotton 10 in March and the Cork City Marathon in June? All I can really say for certain is that the vast majority of the visitors (~90%) are from Ireland and most of them are probably in Cork and the surrounding counties.

Where to next?? I presume the traffic will drop a bit and level out? I've thought that before and was way off the mark. We'll see....