Website hit counters are tools that track online visitors to your site. An HTML hit counter is easy to insert into your website and will provide you with valuable insight on your website traffic. You can copy a web page hit counter for free from one of the many providers offering this service and paste the hit counter script into your webpage code.

What a web site hit counter tracks can vary greatly. Some hit counters will only reflect the number of visits your site has received. There are more complex web page counters that are able to track where your visitors have come from and how much time your visitors have spent on each page. Before adding a web page counter, determine the following:

1. Information to track

2. Visible or invisible hit counter script

3. Style of your web hit counter

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Incorporate hit counter script immediately

Monitoring traffic to your website from day one will provide you with valuable information. You can evaluate web traffic trends such as the day and time your website receives the most hits. Knowing where your traffic is originating from will allow you to adjust your sales and advertising strategies accordingly.

I recommend: Google Analytics and WebStat provide you with free website hit counters and statistics.

Decide whether your site access counters will be visible

You may insert a hit counter on every page of your website, but do you want your visitors to see the counter on each page? Some pages will not be as popular as others and showing a low hit counter number may negatively affect your visitor's perception of your website. You may want to monitor traffic on every page, but only show the web hit counter on your main page.

I recommend: Free invisible web hit counters can be obtained from StatCounter and MyWebstats.

Determine the style of your web page counter

Will your web page counter be whimsical or serious? The style that you choose will depend upon what image you are trying to project to your visitors. If you sell pet products then an animal-type hit counter would be appropriate, but if your website offers financial services then it would be best to stick with a professional style web hit counter.

I recommend: Amazing Counters and Free Hit Counters offer a variety of web counters that range from business-like to fanciful.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Monitor your website traffic frequently and pay attention to traffic patterns. Your hit counters will identify what information on your site is most important to your users.
• •  If your site is brand new consider starting your hit counter at number other than zero. It will give the perception to visitors that your site is a popular one, but make sure you use a believable number.