Hit Counters

I have been meaning to write about hit counters for awhile. I have used a couple in the past, and have recently switched this site and my other one to use Google Analytics. You may also have noticed the feedburner counter on the right side of the index page. That keeps track of the number of current readers on the rss feed.

The hit counters I have experimented with are CQCounter, Sitemeter and Google Analytics. Each service gives you a bit of code to add to the bottom of each of your pages. CQCounter and Sitemeter both put a small logo on your page, though Google Analytics doesn't. Once that is done, Google Analytics checks to see if the code is entered properly, the others just assume it is. From here, the differences between the services are mostly features, though sometimes I think CQCounter and Sitemeter slow down a site's load time. I like CQCounter's interface, in that it gives you options to look at the last 20 visitors (about as many as I get in the average day) in detail or some basic stats. CQCounter does have some irritating popups that can get around FireFox's popup blocker. I don't like SiteMeter very much, though It does work and gives you the option to make your stats public which the other two don't. Google Analytics has the most features by far, offering every stat you could ever want, and maps of were your users are and are coming from. The only thing I don't like about Google Analytics is you can look at the settings of a specific user, just a pie graph of common settings (like video resolution and operating system). All three services have a limit to the number of daily hits they will allow, so if you get several hits per day, you might have to pay. For a small site like this one, any of the services will work, though I prefer CQCounter and Google Analytics. Google Analytics, unfortunately takes several months to get into, so I would give CQcounter a try if you have a blog or website of your own. (if you have a blog, paste the code you are given into the template, Sitemeter can do this for you).

Remember that a hit counter gives you only the most basic idea of how popular your site is.

Back to homework, enjoy your evening.