Here is another interesting insight: I'm now able to estimate, that #traffic from #Mastodon to @heiseonline could be roughly 40% bigger, than we are "seeing". This would confirm, that since the middle of 2023 we got as many visits from here, as from #Twitter.
Let me explain
As you know by now, I am tracking traffic coming via our posts from @heiseonline (and the other accounts) with the help of an UTM-parameter added to our shared URLs. I don't know, how much traffic is coming via URLs, that others are sharing (because they lack the parameter).
But, for some weeks now, mastodon.social is sending a referrer (thx @gargron). That's why I can compare traffic coming from there via our links and traffic coming from there without our parameter. And that's how I know that we get roughly 40% more visits from #Mastodon than we "see".
I made a new graph to illustrate that. The total traffic (here "≈ Mastodon") is a bit fuzzy, to make clear, that that that can only be an estimate (maybe people are sharing more on mastodon.social than elsewhere, for example).
Interestingly, there is a similar phenomenon on #Bluesky because they don't send a referrer on mobile. If I extrapolate the rate of visits from other posts on PC, I get a rate of 20% of "extra traffic". I added that to the graph, too.
Oh, and keep in mind: Between the fall of 2023 and the fall of 2024 the UTM-parameter didn't work correctly on #Mastodon, and we missed some traffic from there. But that doesn't explain the big bump at the end of 2024. I can only guess, what's that about.
@mho
Maybe because plug-ins or apps, that automatically “clean” URLs became more common? For sharing, I always delete everything after the question mark.
@mho nice. Die beiden Peaks in 2023 machen die Grafik allerdings schwer lesbar (zumindest auf nem Smartphone).
@mho Ich leih mir mal die Grafik aus, um in meiner Firma nochmal Werbung für ein Mastodon Account zu machen, vielleicht klappt es ja diesmal.