Hit counter that counts unique visits
Greetings Experts!
I am putting together a website for a cub-scout troop so this doesn't have to be state of the art. Simply put, I would like to put a counter on their webpages that tracks visitors but not one that continues to go up just by hitting "reload" or going from one page back to another. Not sure if putting together something like that is complex but I can't see explaining to the parents/scout leadership that their website of 30+ scouts has 10k hits just because parents/family went to several pages.
I am in no way a web guy so I am at your mercy as to how this can be implemented. Perhaps if there was a way that only visits that are newer then 24 hours would be counted... I don't know. But I put on counter on there and after checking several pages, I had 13 hits (the site hasn't even be told to anyone yet!!)
Thanks for the help.
I am putting together a website for a cub-scout troop so this doesn't have to be state of the art. Simply put, I would like to put a counter on their webpages that tracks visitors but not one that continues to go up just by hitting "reload" or going from one page back to another. Not sure if putting together something like that is complex but I can't see explaining to the parents/scout leadership that their website of 30+ scouts has 10k hits just because parents/family went to several pages.
I am in no way a web guy so I am at your mercy as to how this can be implemented. Perhaps if there was a way that only visits that are newer then 24 hours would be counted... I don't know. But I put on counter on there and after checking several pages, I had 13 hits (the site hasn't even be told to anyone yet!!)
Thanks for the help.
instead of a hit counter, try a stats service like awstats.
Will only work if you have PHP, apache and MYsql, and may be too complicated, but that stats it'll give you will be excellent
Will only work if you have PHP, apache and MYsql, and may be too complicated, but that stats it'll give you will be excellent
ASKER
@jaxstorm: I'm pretty sure that will be way beyond me and I am pretty sure for what is being donated, their web host doesn't have mysql. : ) I appreciate the post.
@asianandrew: I am completely open to any and all hit counters. I just did a google search to find a free one and copy/pasted that. Cookies sound good.
In the art of full disclosure, besides some help from other experts on here, I am just under a rookie web guy.
@asianandrew: I am completely open to any and all hit counters. I just did a google search to find a free one and copy/pasted that. Cookies sound good.
In the art of full disclosure, besides some help from other experts on here, I am just under a rookie web guy.
You may just want to Google a free hit counter. Usually, they're a simple piece of code that you paste onto your site and they keep count for you. You may need to play around with a couple to see which one recognizes unique versus repeated.
This would be the least amount of work for you.
This would be the least amount of work for you.
Try this one:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
It's a complete and matchless analytics for your pages, and it's free.
http://www.google.com/analytics/
It's a complete and matchless analytics for your pages, and it's free.
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ASKER
Great suggestions! I did pick one from your list (I will confirm which tomorrow morning) and award points. I was kind of hoping to learn something new with cookies. I learned CSS last time and have begun using it frequently.
Thanks Experts!
Thanks Experts!
Cookies can be a very powerful tool, especially when tracking users (which has led to privacy concerns online and such).
If you're interested in learning more about cookies, you'll need a programming language to create and read these cookies. Based on your past comments, I'd recommend using JavaScript, as you didn't indicate any server-side programming knowledge. But you can also set cookies with a server-side language such as PHP or ASP - its just a matter of what you have access to.
As with any programming, there are catches, such as not all browsers/users using JavaScript which can break your code. However, for personal learning and hobby-ing, JavaScript is a great tool which can really snaze up a website. I personally like http://www.w3schools.com/ as a reference.
Best of luck.
If you're interested in learning more about cookies, you'll need a programming language to create and read these cookies. Based on your past comments, I'd recommend using JavaScript, as you didn't indicate any server-side programming knowledge. But you can also set cookies with a server-side language such as PHP or ASP - its just a matter of what you have access to.
As with any programming, there are catches, such as not all browsers/users using JavaScript which can break your code. However, for personal learning and hobby-ing, JavaScript is a great tool which can really snaze up a website. I personally like http://www.w3schools.com/ as a reference.
Best of luck.
Your welcome! Hope you find what you where looking for!
ASKER
Great post. Thanks for all of the suggestions!! Take care.
-Aaron
-Aaron
ASKER
I ended up using -> http://www.websitestatscounter.com/
Thanks for all of the help. Maybe I will learn cookies next time. : )
Thanks for all of the help. Maybe I will learn cookies next time. : )
There are several ways to do this, but a little more detail on how your hit counter is set up would be useful.
How does your hit counter work?
What programming language are you using (if any)?
Where is the count of the hits stored? a database, a text file, etc?