Keeping Track
One of the real pluses of the web is the ability to keep track of how many people visit your web site. If you are a business this can be a positive thing but it also has its downside. I'm not sure if you want something on the page that tells visitors that not too many people have visited your site. Therefore, if you are going to have a counter you should keep it tucked away solely for your own use. I usually hide a counter way down at the bottom of the first page, out of sight, out of mind.
Counters are actually something called "CGI scripts". It's not a script you have to come up with. You only have to provide reference to it. The script resides on the server. When someone visits your page the reference line in your script sends a message to the server's CGI script. The CGI script makes note of the change in the counter graphic and sends the picture of it back to your page. Simple, n'est ce pas?
Be forewarned that it may take a while for your page to be discovered on the web. Therefore the counter will not be turning over as rapidly as you would like to anticipate. However as your site is visited by more and more people the counter will reflect that. Especially if you have something unique to offer.
Here is the line of script.
And here's what it looks like
There are a few things you have to change to customize it for your page.
First, you have to change a file reference.
In the script I refer to "tutor.ndx". You should change that to a file name that suits you ie. whatever your project name is, "project.ndx". This is for internal purposes at the server.
Next, you may want to position the counter on the page. In this instance it is positioned on the left by default. If you want to centre it then you would have to put the <CENTER></CENTER> tags around it. If you want it on the right then you use the
<P ALIGN=RIGHT></P> tags.
As you can see, this script gives you a green counter. There are other scripts available at Jetstream's Counter Page. Check it out.
There are also some commercial counters available on the web. One I use is at www.sitemeter.com. As well as providing a counter for your page, they will also keep track of all sorts of data about your web site; how many visits, how many per day, how many per week, where did they come from, etc. The site is worth a visit.