In order to see the number of people visiting your web site, you need to install a stats tracking script to your page. The most popular ones that we've personally used, and still use are HitBoxProfessional, Web Trends, and Google Analytics. We like Google because it's free. HitBoxPro: http://www.websidestory.com WebTrends: http://www.webtrends.com Google Analytics : http://www.google.com/analytics Just recently Google launched the new "Google Analytics" service which is a very robust FREE stats tracking system that works in conjunction with your Google AdWords account. It's not necessary to have an Adwords account though. You can use the Google Analytics service on ANY web site. Even one you don't have access to, like an affiliate page. http://roirevolution.com/builder/ Through the stats tracking services you can get data on visitor activity including page views, number of unique visitors and referrer links.
When you use the stats tracking software, what you get in exchange for the monthly fee is access to stats and graphs that show you what your traffic numbers are. That includes how many unique visitors, page views, hits, and shows you who the referrers are. Here is a screen capture from our "1in102.com" web site that shows the total number of Visitors I've had to my websites:
This shows the type of graphs you can see for other data, including the total number of visitors, number of repeat visitors, average number of visits and so forth:
It's vital you be able to track your visitors, so you need to get a stats tracking script on your page right away. Here's how to get your stats tracking script embedded into your page:
Once you've found a stats tracking service you want to use, the next step is to install the script to your web page. This is relatively simple and is usually done in less than a minute. For our example, I will show you how to use the tracking code from Google Analytics. It's pretty darn robust and since it's free, it's the ideal choice for those on a budget or who are just starting out. Step 2.1: Login to your Google Analytics account. Find the "Add Website Profile" button on the very front page. It will prompt you for the URL of the web site you'd like to track. Enter it and click submit. Google will give you some HTML code to paste on your page. Step 2.2: Open your HTML editor, such as Evrsoft Firstpage (it's free! And good software I might add), Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage (or even Microsoft Word) and choose FILE: OPEN to open your .html page. Step 2.3: Look at the source code that makes up your .html page and right near the end of the code you will see this tag: </body> That's the "end body" tag and you paste the script JUST BEFORE that. So it should look like: SCRIPT FROM GOOGLE ANALYTICS HERE When the code is added to your page just upload the .html pages back to your server and later that day or the next day you can login and check your statistics.
Advanced Stats Tracking for Your Blog: What you may want though, are stats on more than just your web traffic. How about your RSS Feeds, blog posts and podcasts? Is there a way to track that? You bet. And, best of all... It's free. W3Counter: http://www.w3counter.com W3Counter's statistics are live. See who's on your site while they're on your site, plus 15 other panels of fresh, useful data. They offer several different account types, but to start out with why not try the free version and see if you like the way the service works. Then you can go on to consider a paid account. With W3Counter's array of stats, live views and graphs, you'll see your site like never before. Know where your visitors are coming from, what systems they're using, and what they're viewing.
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