Using Offsite Services to Track Web Traffic
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Introduction
Basic Counters
Button Tracking
Free Vs. Paid
Good Free Services
Introduction
A simple and easy way to track, record, or monitor your website’s traffic is to use an offsite service. With hundreds if not thousands of unique services to choose from it’s not hard to find exactly what you need and want. And most of the time all you have to do to start getting stats to come in is simply paste some code on your website.
Basic Counters
What?
A basic counter just counts the number of times the page has been loaded. They aren’t especially accurate or professional looking.
Example:
Where do I get one?
I suggest you sign up for a Pphlogger counter Because not only can you make it invisible or visible, you also get basic web tracking info that you would get from button tracking like who referred the visitor to your site, # of visitors, what type of browser they’re using, and a whole lot more info that you probably don’t need.
Button Tracking
For lack of a better term I just call it button tracking. It’s a step above a basic counter in terms of how in-depth the information you get is. Instead of a counter usually you display a nice little button.
Example:
An example of Button Tracking
Free Vs Paid
Many services are free while others require you to pay a recurring fee. For the most part, free services require you to put a little tiny button, which is included in the tracking code that you put on your website/page to track your traffic, while paid services only need you to add the code they give you, the button is usually invisible. Along with that most free services only offer you basic information, which for most people is more than enough. While some paid services offer you extremely detailed charts and graphs, page by page performance, all the basic numbers, a breakdown of how long a visitor stayed on the page, show which pages each visitor visited, and a lot more info. I really don’t recommend paying for a web traffic anaylzing/monitoring service unelss you’re running some sort of business and have a lot of time on your hands.