Blogging as a social phenomenon and blogging as a form of organizing and delivering content have gained widespread popularity, firmly entering the life of the Internet community. Every blogger, like any other webmaster, is usually interested in the attendance of his resource. Therefore, a blogger often decides to insert a counter into a blog to provide an opportunity to quickly obtain information about site visitors.
It is necessary
- - browser;
- - Internet connection;
- - possibly an FTP client;
- - access to the admin panel of the blog.
Instructions
Step 1
Decide on the type of counter to post on your blog. Decide whether this will be a counter of one of the public statistics collection systems, or the resulting data should be stored and processed on your server.
The advantages of your own counter include: the ability to collect any data about visitors, the ability to change any work parameters, full control over the visual aspects of the display. Among the shortcomings, it is worth noting: additional resource consumption and duplication of functionality of server statistics systems based on log analysis (for example, Webalizer).
Third-party counters, as a rule, are reliable, they do not consume the resources of your server, store statistics for a long time, and make it possible to generate reports. Some counters can be provided with guest access. However, information from them cannot be downloaded for your own use, and you cannot control the use of this information by the administration of the service for your own purposes.
Step 2
Select the counter to be installed. Compare the characteristics of several public statistics collection systems if you decide to use a third-party service. Pay attention to the detailing of the data provided by the system, the ability to build arbitrary reports, the availability of tools for analyzing the geographical distribution of users, the presence of its own resource rating, etc.
If you need to install the counter on your server, select and download the appropriate script. Take advantage of large script directories such as hotscripts.com. Search for a counter with suitable functionality implemented in the required programming language. Download the distribution kit of the selected counter to your computer.
Step 3
Review the available documentation, manuals, or installation guidelines for the selected meter. Such documentation, as a rule, is contained on the websites of statistics services, on the websites of counter script developers, or in the archives of downloaded distributions.
Step 4
Prepare and configure the counter for installation on the blog. If you are using a third-party service, create an account on their website. Make the necessary settings. Generate HTML code to add a counter.
If statistics collection will be performed by a script, install it on the server. Unpack the distribution archive to a local disk. Upload the script files to the server using an FTP client. Edit configuration files, create a database, run the installation script if necessary.
Step 5
Insert the counter into your blog. Edit the resource page templates by adding the HTML code obtained on the website of the statistics service, or the code prescribed to add the selected script by the documentation.
Step 6
Test the installed counter. Open several blog pages in your browser. Make sure the counter is working.
