A Handy Tool to Keep Track of Your Site’s Statistics
Recently I came across a smart tool that can track your site’s visitors which, in my opinion, is better than Google Analytics. Don’t get me wrong but Google Analytics can provide extremely detailed site statistics however this information is not being presented in real time. There is about a 3-4 hour delay and the other stats provided are just too much to digest.
On the other hand this tool that I am talking about, the StatCounter which quickly became one of the best javascript-based web statistics program available, is a free yet reliable web tracker. Chief among its features would be the ability to count the number of visitors coming in your site, display detailed information about your visitors, provide a list of link referrals, and many more.
I have used this tool on my blog and all it takes are four simple steps: register an account, create your project, insert the generated code into your site, login to StatCounter and analyze your stats. The only drawback of the free account is that you are only given a space of 500 log entries that can show a “rolling” 500 visitors’ information. This means, it keeps on saving the last 500 visitor log entries for you to analyze. The free service is targeted for sites with approximately 250,000 pageloads per month and having a 500 log-size is pretty decent for beginners as they do have a good set of records to analyze. StatCounter offers paid services for advance site owners based on log-size and pageloads per month.
The one thing that I truly love about StatCounter is its drill-down functionality which is available in many of its reports. Example, I can track which pages are most heavily visited and what are those that are not that fascinating to my viewers. When I click the preview icon (magnifying glass) on a particular blog post I will be shown a list of my visitors’ location, hostname, referring link, Operating System used, and screen resolution of their system.
The most common reports that I use for my analysis are:
- Summary which shows a graph of unique, first time, and returning visits
- Popular pages
- Recent Visitor Activity
- Recent Exit Link Activity to know if my visitors are clicking the sites I refer them to
- Came From that displays a list of referring links
- Visit Length
- Recent Keyword Activity
To wrap it up, StatCounter is a great addition to your site if you are looking for a web statistics tool that is easy-to-use, real time, reliable, and offers a descent free service for beginners.
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