Stats

[vwblubug]

Hi all-

I was wondering if where the stats-tracking code is placed on your website affects traffic. I rearranged some codes on my site, and ever since then my stats have gone down a lot. The average was about 30-50 per day and I am down to about 4-7 per day. I have been tracking stats since Novemeber of 2003 and stats have always been consistent until now. I never did any type of traffic boost or anything like that, so I was wondering if maybe the fact that I changed the location of my stat-tracking code might have something to do with it.

Any advice or information will be appreciated.

Thanks!

vw

 

[.edu]

no

 

[Redleg]

What tracker do you use??

The placement can indeed affect the counted traffic. (but not the real traffic)

Counters and other visitor trackers should be added as far up on the page (code) as possible.

If it's at the bottom it may actually "miss" some of your visitors of various reasons.
They close the window before it is loaded/activated, or click on a link right away. (some trackers are REAL slow...)

 

[vwblubug]

Thanks for your responses, edu and redleg.

As far as your question, redleg-

I use free-stats. Do you recommend a different tracker that you are familiar with?

I did put the code near the bottom of the page, so maybe that's what happened.

Thanks for your help...

 

[Redleg]

Haven't tried free-stats (or many other counters), but I use addfrestats.com on several sites, and I think it's ok...

The stats are good, but the counter code graphics are a bit too big IMO.
But you can however pay $75 pr year to get it invicible. (up to 1,000,000 pageviews pr month).

You could also use webalizer (or something similiar) to analyse your server log files, much better than free counters..

 

[vwblubug]

Great! Thank you, I will definitely consider those options.


Thank you so much!

 

[kaliboy2g]

Originally posted by Redleg
Haven't tried free-stats (or many other counters), but I use addfrestats.com on several sites, and I think it's ok...

The stats are good, but the counter code graphics are a bit too big IMO.
But you can however pay $75 pr year to get it invicible. (up to 1,000,000 pageviews pr month).

You could also use webalizer (or something similiar) to analyse your server log files, much better that free counters..

I agree with the webalizer part. Its easier to use, and cant be wrong. But it doesn shut down on you once you start getting the large hits.

Im not there yet, but it would be cool.

 

[Anthony]

I haven't noticed anything like this. But webalizer seems like the best bet.

 

[kaliboy2g]

well how much traffic do you deal with?

 

[Wesley]

Really? Webalizer? I like Awstats, because as they saw, it's very pretty xD Anways, some of the numbers on those things tend to get confusing...

But if want a counter, not like anything really accurate, there's a lot of those Aardvark topsites. No matter what your site is about, there's bound to be an Aardvark Topsite related to it ^_^ Counts uniques, totals page views, ec.t

 

[vwblubug]

Thank you all for the very helpful info....

Once again you've all come through for me....

 

[kaliboy2g]

See, most counters, count jst hits.

I want to know how many uniques, how many page visits, etc

 

[Redleg]

Originally posted by kaliboy2g
See, most counters, count jst hits.

I want to know how many uniques, how many page visits, etc

How many monthly page views do you have??

Here's some ok free counters:
www.addfreestats.com : The stats are real good for a free counter, the only drawback is the rather large counter code image you'll have to display on every page..

www.statcounter.com : good stats, invicible. But max 250,000 pageviews a month for the free version.

www.indextools.com is a good one, but it costs from $19 pr month..

If you have access to your server log files, then you can try:
http://www.webalizer.com
http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
Both are free log file analyzers.

Two great paid log analyzers are:
http://www.netiq.com/webtrends/products/webtrends/default.asp?promo=topnav : Webtrends, from $495 for the software

and the best may be:
http://www.urchin.com/products/modules_urchin_5_base.html : Urchin, from $895 for the software..


The general rule is that you get what you pay for..

 

[rb]

for free counters, I like Extreme Tracking: http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/?reg

It counts unique visitors ("hits" is an almost useless term or figure).

Other than that, I would rely on the actual server stats.

www.sitemeter.com also provides some good free stats.

 

[kaliboy2g]

I use awstats or webalizer.

Im getting a few hundred uniques monthly. Its not much yet

 

[Anthony]

Another decent free counter service: www.sitemeter.com

 

[kaliboy2g]

I dont like when it places something on your site

But in that case, go with
http://www.nedstat.com/usa/

 

[vanesaa]

I reccomend www.statcounter.com because it its the easiest counter to use, it has many features and above all it has invisible mode-all this for free.

 

[vwblubug]

Free-stats really isn't so bad- it tracks everything I figure one could need. It only displays a link on your page(s), not all kinds of banners and stuff like that. If one of you guys wants to check it out, PM me and I will let you take a peek at my account with free-stats and you can let me know what you think and if it is worthy or not.

Thanks!

:hearts:

 

[Mike_Wiseman]

the best stats tracker is http://www.mvtracker.com/
i use em and ther great! lots of WebDesign sites i visit use them and its free