Thank You (2022 Edition)

So, here we are! 2022 was sure a heckuva year as far as transition goes. At this time last year, we were looking ahead at some goals for the upcoming year (which we’ll get to) but wound up joining DigitalOcean. That was a massive sea change (pun intended) and yet you stuck with us the whole way. It really means a lot to me that so many of you come here to read the things that I and a slew of other guest writers publish here. It just ain’t a community (or any fun) without y’all.

Thank you!

This is the last post we’re publishing this year as we hang up our Gone Fishin’ sign for the holidays. We’ll be back January 9 with a spate of content that’s fresh from the oven.

OK, this is where we start digging into the site’s analytics. That’s something we’ve always been transparent about and will continue to do. It’s not like our numbers are in some off-limits black box, and the hope is that sharing them somehow helps you and your business.

Overall, Google Analytics is showing a total of 64m pageviews for the entire year. That’s wayyyyy down from last year’s 88m, which is alarming at first glance. I mean, who wants to see a 27% drop in year-over-year traffic?

A 27% drop in pageviews is a lot less concerning considering we published 43% fewer articles than last year, and a whopping 67% fewer than 2020’s overall total.

Hmm, I don’t feel like I’m working 67% less…

This is what I always look forward to each year! Here are the top ten articles in 2022 that were published in 2022:

Here’s 11-20 for kicks:

If we take a few steps back, then we can see the most-viewed articles from the past year, regardless of when they were published:

Speaking of the properties in the Almanac, I wanna see what y’all referenced most this past year:

It’s been mostly about keeping the ship afloat, if I’m being honest. Other than some minor tweaks and maintenance, the site is pretty much where it was at this time last year.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here are a few comps that our designer, Logan Liffick, put together:

Oy, I’m hesitant to even look. All the effort it’s taken to integrate with DigitalOcean and find a new rhythm dominated everybody’s time, leaving precious little to take a crack at Chris’ goals, which were:

New year, new goals, right? Allow me to put a bunch of words in the team’s mouth and project what I feel are top priorities for us heading into 2023:

This is my dream job and I wouldn’t have it without readers like you. I can’t believe it’s been eight years since my very first article was published and that I’m still here, working with learning from the brightest minds in our field. I could ramble (more than I already have) on how much the CSS-Tricks community means to me, but what it really comes down to is… thank you, thank you, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

And thanks to all the fine folks here at DigitalOcean who have made a great home for CSS-Tricks. Extra special high-fives to Haley Mills, Sydney Rossman Reich, Bradley Kouchi, Karen Digi, David Berg, Matt Crowley, Logan Liffick, and Kirstyn Kellogg for getting me personally up to speed and making me feel so welcome here. It’s a great place to be.

Forward, we go!

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