What to Look for in a Hit Counter

Written by Glenn Haertlein


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Popular pages are exactly whatrepparttar name suggests. This statistic will tell you what pages on your site are attratcingrepparttar 131523 most attention -- and which ones are not. Having this information will help you to fine tune your site, and can help you determine what your visitors are looking for when they come to visit. It could very well be that what you are trying to give your visitors and what they actually want, are two different things. It may be that you need to change your site's approach in order to attract and hold visitors. Remember, marketing isn't about what you like; it's about what your customers like.

Entry/Exit pages. Like popular pages they can be a pretty good indicator as to what yur visitors are looking for when they come to your website. If they're leaving fromrepparttar 131524 same pages they are entering, it could be that your site isn't "sticky" enough. In other words, your site isn't doing enough to hold your visitors' interest and getting them to stay and look around. It's like having a store that everyone drives by, but never enters.

Visit length. This is a record of how long a visitor has stayed at your site. Let's say you've signed up for several hits-for-clicks programs. Your visits are numbering inrepparttar 131525 hundreds, but people are only staying for about a second (or less). That's a problem. Again it's an indication that your site isn't "sticky" enough. The pages and offers you present in a hits-for-clicks program are entirely different from what you might use in a search engine or e-zine. Once more, you need to reconsider your tactics/strategies if visitors are coming but not staying.

One final thing in this section: You should get a stat counter that allows you torepparttar 131526 option of hiding your stats fromrepparttar 131527 general public. Why? Because when you're first starting out, your visitor count isn't going to be very high and most people aren't going to be impressed that they are visitor number 52. They'll see that and assume that what you have to offer isn't that great and leave. A stat counter that let's you hide your numbers fromrepparttar 131528 public until you're ready to unveil them is a definite plus. Wait untill you can boast several hundred visitors and then allow your stat counter to make that public.

:::Where Should Hit Counters be Placed on Your Website?::: You should put your hit counter code on every page you plan to have visitors see. If you only haverepparttar 131529 code on your welcome page, how will you know if any other page is being viewed? It may take some time to putrepparttar 131530 code on every page your visitors might potentially view, but it is well worthrepparttar 131531 effort.

:::What I Recommend::: A hit counter that I have used for a long time and that offers all of these features for free is StatCounter, available at http://www.statcounter.com. And no, I am not being paid to say that. It's just my own humble opinion. Whatever hit counter you decide to use for your site (and I strongly recommend you use something), make sure it gives yourepparttar 131532 statistics you need to give yourepparttar 131533 most accurate information about your site.

Glenn Haertlein is webmaster of Everyman's Computer Page located at http://www.juvio210.com


Does your website need an IP Address?? Does it really matter?

Written by Domenic Macchione


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Sorepparttar above paragraph does not really say which is better, even though I would prefer my own dedicated IP for my Website. Other advantages to having a unique IP for your site is if you change servers, you can point your users to a new IP, so they don't have to wait forrepparttar 131521 domain name change to propagate. With a dedicated static IP, it can also be simpler to upload and test your site before transferringrepparttar 131522 domain name to a new server. Setting up Secure sockets (SSL) is also much simpler. You may also not want to share your IP with some sites that could lead to your site being banned by search engines or spam lists. It’s more stable having your own dedicated IP for your Website.

Nowrepparttar 131523 debate is always about search engines optimization but here is my belief; if you get added benefits of search engine optimization that would be great as well. Don’t be fooled by hosting companies that do not want to provide you a static IP for you site, or charge extra for it. Don’t listen to excuses aboutrepparttar 131524 shortage of IP’s and that they are not needed. My company ( www.Rebelnetworks.com ) offers dedicated static IP for every website, and dedicated server we host. The reality is it costs them more money to provide this type of service with a static dedicated IP’s per site and thus they most hosting companies don’t provide them. When your ready to host you business, or if you already have a business on line but want extra benefits ask for a dedicated IP address for your website.

Domenic is co-founder of Rebel Networks. Rebel Networks is a leading provider of outsourced Internet infrastructure and related managed web solutions. Rebel Networks services include the provision of managed dedicated servers, unmanaged collocation services, domain names services, & shared web hosting solutions. All backed by a 100% SLA visit www.rebelnetworks.com


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