For as long as I can remember, I have always used analytic software on my website projects.

This began with using Google Analytics, however, as I got more privacy conscious, I switched to using Fathom Analytics.

However, as much as I love Fathom Analytics as a privacy-focused Web Analytics service, I have decided not to use analytics on Tech&Life.

My issue with Analytics

I have nothing against using analytics on a website. In fact, for future projects, I may use them again.

But, there is a major issue I have with website analytics that I feel will hinder this blog.

I get obsessed with optimization.

As someone who has created multiple blogs in the past, I always get caught up with "Search Engine Optimization" and making sure the content of my blogs relate to things that people would be more interested in.

This ended up being tutorial posts that I didn't enjoy writing, or listicles that made me feel like I was writing an article for Buzzfeed.

All in all, Website Analytics pulled me away from writing what I wanted to write, and instead pushed me to write articles that I felt would gain more traffic.

My choice not to include analytics

Tech&Life is my personal blog. It is a place I go too to write about what I want to write about.

If I include website analytics, I feel like I am going to end up going down the same rabbit hole that I did with all my previous websites.

I already know that any technical writing, tutorial, or review article I write will likely end up with more page visits than articles such as this one, or posts such as My IT Journey or Why I no longer use Windows on my personal computer.

However, what I do know, is that without those numbers sitting around in the back of my mind, I will be able to write what I want to write.

So what if something I write does not get a lot of viewership? If I enjoyed writing the article, then that is all that matters!

Will this change?

Honestly, I am not sure. Fighting the urge to put analytics on this blog will likely be a reoccurring occurrence.

I love looking at the numbers, and although this is my personal blog, it would be interesting to see how much traffic this website is getting.

Currently, I will continue to fight those urges. Although, technically I haven't removed all analytics from this blog. I still have membership statistics for those that find interest in my posts and decide to subscribe.

I still have comments on each and every one of my posts.

However, unlike a page view, which only tells me that a person looked at a page on my website, membership statistics and comment statistics show engagement, and I feel that is a better metric to look at than a page view!