Website "hit counter" questions?

[EMKoper]

I have made a small family website and am researching the website hit counters out there. Having no web creation experience before last week, I am a little confused regarding website hit counters.

I would like a very non-intrusive webpage hit counter on the main page and there seems to be many free services that do this, but are there any catches? are they as simple as they appear? would anyone have any recommendations on a particular service?

Also, a hit-counter that relies on an outside website for counting seems a little clunky and inefficient. Is it easy/possible to write the HTML code into the webpage that does this on its own? I don't need a fancy counter... plain text is fine with me!

Thanks!

[rainman::|:|]

More than likely you'll want to use the external site. Hit tracking requires scripting, server configuration, and some sort of method of tracking repeat users... Far more than most users want to, or are capable of, handling.

I use statcounter.com, unfortunately there's no way to make the counter invisible (which would be nice), but you can get graphs showing site use, repeat visitors, links in/out, etc etc...

paul

[edesignuk]

I use FastCounter (http://fastcounter.bcentral.com/fc-join) on http://jatrix.edesignuk.net (see what it looks like there), you can select different colours so that it matches your page better.

[Macs R Us]

I use FastCounter (http://fastcounter.bcentral.com/fc-join) on http://jatrix.edesignuk.net (see what it looks like there), you can select different colours so that it matches your page better.

Well I would not ever do that since its from Mircosoft but thats just me... If you need a tep one that would be fine...

[edesignuk]

Well I would not ever do that since its from Mircosoft but thats just me... If you need a tep one that would be fine...Just because it's Microsoft does not make it bad. It works perfectly well.

[Macs R Us]

Just because it's Microsoft does not make it bad. It works perfectly well.

Very ture... I just don't like using MS based products... Since people will see that and think I support MS... That and since the more a person uses a product from a bad corp it supports them and we dont need to support a minoply (unless its the game:))

[andysmith]

Hit counter? How 1997! :D

[Macs R Us]

Hit counter? How 1997! :D

Well very ture:)... But some people think there cool, so we must respect them... Unless there PC People:) :cool: :rolleyes:

[ChicoWeb]

Hit counter? How 1997! :D

Hit counters are just for counting hits, but for seeing where your hits come from, what search engine terms people use to get to your site, their monitor resolution, the browser most used, pretty much anything. Its a very important tool to analyze your traffic.

I use http://extreme-dm.com/tracking/ and make the image 1 x 1 pixels so its not viewable by the naked eye. It shows the statistics I mentioned above and does it as a jscript. It doesn't slow down the site at all.

[ChicoWeb]

More than likely you'll want to use the external site. Hit tracking requires scripting, server configuration, and some sort of method of tracking repeat users... Far more than most users want to, or are capable of, handling.

I use statcounter.com, unfortunately there's no way to make the counter invisible (which would be nice), but you can get graphs showing site use, repeat visitors, links in/out, etc etc...

paul

Try making the image width=1 height = 1 ;) virtually invisable

[Macs R Us]

Well that a good idea:)... And I use a Prosite Counter, and never shows on my site... Its a neat counter to have... :rolleyes: :cool:

[andysmith]

Oh I love stats - it's just funny '13 hits since Feb 17th 2000!'
I use awstats to view server logs.

[Macs R Us]

Oh I love stats - it's just funny '13 hits since Feb 17th 2000!'
I use awstats to view server logs.

Yep that sure is :) ... I don't know how its posable but oh well...

[JLS]

http://www.statcounter.com/

This is the BEST counter.. EVER! You can totally customize it (colours, fonts, size) or make it invisible.

Its totally free, and displays no adverts or text under it like all the other free ones do.

And no.. im not on comission. lol

[iLikeMyiMac]

More than likely you'll want to use the external site. Hit tracking requires scripting, server configuration, and some sort of method of tracking repeat users... Far more than most users want to, or are capable of, handling.

I use statcounter.com, unfortunately there's no way to make the counter invisible (which would be nice), but you can get graphs showing site use, repeat visitors, links in/out, etc etc...

paul
Actually I use statcounter for my website and it is easy to make invisible.
Just go under the configure counter option and click the radio button for invisible.

[EMKoper]

Thanks for the input... I had stumbled across statcounter in my searching and I'm glad others have used it and have had no problems/complaints. I am going to sign up and see how it works.