page counters

are they really that bad?

main page

• back to articles
• colors and uniformity
  • counter controversy
  • the look
  • why use them
  • counter options

counter controversy

Just how bad are page counters on a homepage? According to most articles discussing baddesign ideas, they're really bad. Really bad. CNET has an article entitled Stupid Web Tricks that states counters are, well, stupid. Is a page counter really that bad?

Many big sites use them. Most big sites though rely on their server logs or traffic analysis software to determine their number of visitors. Counting visitors is done in the background, and the difference between page views and unique page views are discovered.

the look

Page counters are now considered amateurish. They scream homepage! A page about you, your hobbies, and your cat. They are associated with sites made with HTML editors supplied by ISPs, like AOL and GeoCities. But there is another reason why small sites use them.

why use them

Because they have to. AOL members do not have access to logs, and there are no other site tools offered to count visitors. An on-the-page counter is the only option available to the small site owner.

Whether you're a giant site full of all sorts of programming, or a small site, you need to analyze traffic to see if anyone is visiting. Small sites are looking to get into the banner game, and need to see, just like large ones, whether their promotional efforts are paying off.

Of course, a small site could just get its own domain name. The owner would then become the webmaster, and be able to run any kind of cgi scripts to count visitors or analyze traffic. However, that may cost money. Counters hosted on someone else's server are usually free for low traffic sites (as long as you link back).

counter options

AOL does offer invisible numbers, which is pretty cool if you think about it. It's a way to count visitors and yet avoid having a counter on your page. Just upload a version of your page with the code for visible numbers, write down the stat, and then upload the regular version right over it. Neat use of a page counter without the clutter of the counter.

There's another problem with counters. They may be considered bad design, but they can definitely work against you if you're trying to look cool. Just like you never put your GPA down on a resume unless it's above 3.5, maybe you shouldn't put a counter on your start page unless you're hitting over a thousand visitors a month.

Recently I signed up with Hitometer. Hitometer offers visible counters as well as an invisible one, analogous to AOL. However, Hitometer gives you the added benefit of traffic analysis on a weekly basis. It's just like being able to review server logs. And, of course, it's free. The granularity of the analysis is one day, which may or may not be useful to the small site owner. We'll see how it goes.