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Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress has built-in analytics module. This module is made to collect information from user actions over share buttons and store it for further analysis. It is a real hand in optimizing share buttons presence on your site. The analytics will give you enough information to understand which buttons users really use on your site and narrow them to just used. A usage large number of button may lead to paradox of choice effect which will lead to less shares than you can expect – the lower number of share buttons you are using on site may provide a really better result. The analysis will also help you find the best positions for your site.
What type of information is collected
The analytics is made to collect click over share buttons. When user click on share button anywhere on your site the logger saves position, template, device type and post. The collected data is fully anonymous and does not include any personal or device information from the visitor. The data that appears in analytics is not the data that represent the real shares. The click over share buttons is logged each time a user click over share buttons, no matter is a real share made or not. The nature of social networks work does not allow to provide a prove of share is made and we use a timeout of few seconds to register a possible share.
Why the data inside analytics is different from the share values I see on site?
As the data that you see in analytics is generated with click over share buttons there will be different from the real shares. Here are just a few reasons for this:
- User click a share button on site and close it after a white without making a share
- User click and share a post but that share is private (private shares since latest changes does not appear anymore in the share counter)
- User remove share from social network once it is made
- You have shares that are not made from Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress buttons
- You have past shares before activating the logging function
There are few other reasons but those above are the most common situations causing the difference between share analytics and real shares. If you wish to see a real shares
Activation of built-in analytics
To activate analytics visit Social Sharing -> Analytics -> Share Button Analytics and set to yes option “Activate analytics and collect data for click over buttons”.
Where I can find data that is collected?
When built-in analytics is active you can access data from plugin menu Analytics.
Analytics data is also accessible under post editor
