You may remember that almost a week ago I wrote this post in which I noted that there was an unusually high number of views on my blog when I first woke up that morning. By the end of that day, my blog had received 935 views, almost twice the number of daily views my blog normally gets. I figured it was some glitch in the WordPress stats counter, especially since the next day my views were back in my normal range.
Well damned if it didn’t happen again yesterday.
By the end of the day yesterday, my blog had received 1,556 views, or more than three times my average number of views.
I decided to do some digging to find out what might be behind these unusual spikes in my blog’s views. I noticed a strange anomaly deep within my stats. I saw that on May 5th, the day my views spiked to 935, almost half — 456 of them — came from Germany. And of my 1,556 views yesterday, more than 60% — 952 — were from Germany. Huh?
I went back and checked my stats for the first four months of this year and saw that from January through April, my blog had received a total of 440 views from Germany. And for the entire year of 2018, there were just 722 views from Germany.
But so far this month, my blog has had 1,453 views from Germany, 1,408 of which were on just two days, May 5th and yesterday.
So my blog has gotten 1,013 more views from Germany in just ten days in May than in the previous four full months. And more than double the number of German views during all of 2018!
What the hell is going on? Why Germany? I don’t know anyone who lives in Germany or who is even, to the best of my knowledge, visiting Germany.
This is just weird.
This, That, and the Other 
This mystery needs to be solved.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sure would like to know what’s behind it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Detective Fandango at work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same, Fandango. But not as many views as you. I normally get around 150 to 200 views a day. But it has spiked up to 400 on occasions. It dud that recently,nthen dropoed back again to normal. I don’t understand it. But overall my number of vuews is going up. I ysed to get maybe 90 or so. The thing I HAVE noticed isbthatcwhen my views went up, I had 20 from asearch Engines, which syrprused me. Normally I am lucky if I get one lol. All of this is a mystery.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine spiked a couple of hundred a day out of Ireland not long ago. I suspect I touch the Celtic soul.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine were first all Russian. Then, eventually, they were from everywhere. Mine was a Google “plume.” A lot of people have had it happen, but you are also probably get a TON of fake “followers.” That’s why I have just under 15,000 followers of which about 500 are “real,” another few hundred are lurkers and the rest are bots.
I tried to delete them (I had one “carpet cleaner” from Pakistan who showed up hundreds of times as a follower — and why would a Pakistani carpet cleaning company be interested in this site?. Each time he signed in under a slightly different name, just different enough to make his name “unique.”
The security on this platform ain’t great. It’s wonderful to get a lot of hits (like how I got 22,000 hits in November of 2017) … but it isn’t real. It’s BOTS. LOTS of bots. You’re getting whacked by spammers and scammers, but they sign up as followers first, so they can “like” you, which they couldn’t do otherwise.
I tried to go through the list and get rid of a lot of them, but I couldn’t. At a certain point, I couldn’t get any further down the list. WordPress couldn’t handle it. They can’t handle a lot of stuff.
Be very very careful. Whoever is hitting you, it isn’t because everyone in Germany is really fascinated by your posts. It’s a scammer and you are the target. I have been there. Real growth happens gradually over time. Plumes like that are not real growth. IF the scammers can’t get a grip on your site, they will go find another site to try and plunder. Maybe a good time to double up on your security if you haven’t done so already.
I know it looks great but think about it. How many people in Germany are genuinely interested in short fiction and American politics? Really? When thousands of them are hitting your site, someone is playing games.
I eventually complained to WordPress — and eventually, they admitted they had a bug which allowed anyone who used the “outlook.com” email address to slide on through, often without signing in. Now it may be another version of this.
You can lose your whole site to these people and sometimes, a lot more.
Meanwhile, enjoy the bump. If they weren’t all coming from a foreign location (they are as likely really Russian or Pakistani and just bumping off a German tower), I’d say “congratulations, you’ve gotten really popular,” but when they all come from afar where English is not the native language, beware. These are not nice people.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The interesting thing is that on both of the days when I had a spike in views, my number of visitors, likes, and comments didn’t jump up commensurately. In fact, they remained about the same as normal. And I didn’t gain any followers. So it must have been a bot that just kept “viewing” my posts one after the other. I mean 500+ views in an hour!
LikeLike
Yeah, that is a sure sign of bot-ulism.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine, on the other hand, seem to be at half normal rates… it happens. But it usually means WP are up to something again…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you checked to see if you can find your own blog on their database? They lost me last year, so for about five months, I had almost nothing, then slowly it built back up. And WP really IS pretty wonky right now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do still seem to be there… but the stats keep spiking and disappearing as if that isn’t always the case…or as if they are ‘saving up’ and coming all at once for several days past.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A couple of other people have mentioned that and it has happened to me too, like their email gets clogged. For me, they eliminated my blog’s title — I had to retitle it and befuild it. I though we got the title with our original “buy.” Apparently they decided not any more. So I literally disappeared. It took me months to rebuild.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I remember that happening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, and this can actually go on for months at a time, which is why 2017 was a hell of a year! My stats are up too, but they’ve climbed froma more or less standard 300 to about 400 and occasionally, a specific post (usually written by Garry because HE has followiers of his own) spikes to a couple of hundred. I also had one day when i got 700 hits on Owen’s train photographs and another (right before a blizzard) when Garry memories of the blizzard of ’78 go like 600 hits. And a couple of other specific posts. IF you were getting a lot of individual hits on miscellaneous posts, that’s a “google” plume. But when they are all coming from some foreigh country, it’s a whole different matter.
Anyway, you are warned. Don’t think I’m just being a downer. This is a real thing and it can get really scary. People have had their entire site disappear and never found it again (back it up, back it up, back it up!) …
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will definitely do an export to a recoverable file, just in case. Thanks.
LikeLike
Because I write so much, I do intermittent downloads. I have more then 900,000 posts and they require help from engineers. So if you do a download every say — six months? — you at least can’t get wiped out. Backing up is always a good idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yikes, Marilyn, that sounds scary indeed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s just a warning. It may piddle out to nothing, but be very careful that you don’t start to see strange “one word” or “look at my blog” hooks in your comments. Those ARE the hooks they want to grab you with. Just be really careful.
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 Fandango, what if you happen to have a lot of fans from Germany?
Your blog is available to everyone via the world wide web.
By the way, the majority of my incoming views are from the United States of America.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So are mine from the US normally. I think I was attacked by a German not that clicked on my posts one after the other. I mean 500+ views in one hour!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s bots. They send out thousands of them at a time, probably more. Not only you, either. That’s how Trump has such a big feed. Bots. Those spam farms just crank them out, looking for ones they can get into. And sometimes, they do. THAT’s why I say “be careful.” Because in theory, they can’t get in if you have any kind of protection … but they sometimes do anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everything is wonky with wp lately. I have to sign in every time I want you make a comment! 😳🙄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe it is like the Twilight Zone, the WordPress Zone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that might be it.
LikeLiked by 1 person