Web Counters

Web counters are perhaps the most basic method of tracking the usage of a website. Typified by the odometer-styled counter at the bottom of some web pages, web counters usually track the total users who have visited a site. They are then heralded by the sponsors of a site as evidence of its popularity and power to reach a wide audience.

However, confusion and disagreement has often arisen over even such a simple statistic as this. Specifically, different web counters count the presented "total users" in different ways: as total unique users in a site's history, as total unique visits, or even as total pages brought up within the site. Because of the different methods, statistics can often give a false impression of a website's popularity. Sites like Alexa or Nielsen Ratings that publish popularity rankings of websites are now very specific about what their numbers represent.

A number of software companies, including webcounter.com, countertracker.com, and hitinspector.com, offer free web counter services. Web counters were once found on nearly all web sites, particularly in the mid- to late 90s. It was around this time that software companies began to offer the tracking service, coinciding with the time that the power of the Internet as a major commercial and informational force was becoming known.

The prevalence of web counters has declined in recent years, as they no longer represent the cutting edge in web analytics or design. This is especially true of the classic odometer reading, which looks a bit old-fashioned nowadays. Simple web counters are now most frequently found on personal web pages and other less heavily trafficked sites. If found at all on a major website, they are usually tucked away near the bottom of the main page.