How to Use StatCounter Instead of Google Analytics
Monitoring website visitor statistics helps publishers and webmasters to track visitor numbers, identify popular content and assess the success of online advertising and marketing campaigns. Many publishers use the free Google Analytics online statistics service, while others use the similar StatCounter service. StatCounter offers a basic free account and more advanced paid accounts that provide a greater level of statistical detail and a bigger data allowance. To use StatCounter instead of Google Analytics, first sign up for a StatCounter account and then set up a new project for the website you want to track.
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Instructions
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Sign in to your StatCounter account.
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Click the "My Projects" button on the StatCounter home page, and then click "Add Project" on the top navigation menu.
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Type the full Uniform Resource Locator address for the website you want to monitor into the "Project URL" input field. Enter a name for the project into the "Project Title" field. Select your country or territory location and time zone from the drop-down lists. Click the "Make Statistics Public" check box if you want your websites stats to be visible publicly.
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Click the radio button beside "Visible Counter" if you want a StatCounter logo and visitor number counter on your website. Alternatively, click the button beside "Invisible Tracking." Click the "Add Project" button.
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Select "Default" from the installations page. Copy the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tracker code for StatCounter from the "Standard" text box. Highlight the code and press "Ctrl" and "C" on your computer keyboard to copy the code.
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Launch Microsoft Notepad, or your usual text editor or Web design program.
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Open the Web page on which you want install the StatCounter tracking code. Scroll to the correct position on the Web page. You should place the code immediately before the "</body>" tag at the bottom of the page. Paste the code into this position by pressing "Ctrl" and "V" on your computer keyboard.
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Upload the Web page to your host's server via the content management system or with your usual File Transfer Protocol tool. Repeat this process for each Web page that you want to monitor with StatCounter.
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Tips & Warnings
To check the statistics for your website, log in to StatCounter and click the project name on the "My Projects" page.
Leaving Google Analytics tracking code in place on your Web pages won't interfere with StatCounter. However, if you'd prefer to remove the code, open the Web pages in your design or text editor program and delete the block of code starting with "<text/script> var gaJsHost" and ending with "</script>".
References
Resources
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