To Count, or Not To Count….NOT!

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I decided to post about this topic, because I seem to see it too frequently with small business websites–website “counters”.

Yes, you DO want to know how many web surfers visit your site….along with how those visitors arrive there, how frequently they “revisit”, and what they visit when they’re there. You can’t successfully market your website without that information.

HOWEVER…

As a business owner, you DO NOT want your visitors to see or know that information. It looks unprofessional, even if you have tons of visitors. Why? It makes your website look like it was created or designed in 1998. Website counters were very popular back then…it was “cool” to show off your visitors.

Nowadays, unless you have a personal site or blog, it’s considered uncool. The biggest reason: it makes you look “small time”. My first thought when I see one is “How long has that been on here? If it’s been here a week and they have 43,000 visitors, that’s really great…but, if it’s been here 5 years and they have 43,000 visitors…well.” And, when I visit a site that has 22 visitors, but says it was copyrighted in 2000….why would I even want to stay?

A professional company does not have a need to show website visitors how many people have been where they’ve been. So, use the “invisible” version of your stat counter, and track the visitors from the backend, yourself. If you sell advertising, allow interested parties to click through to your stats, or publish your stats in a more proficient way (media kit).

Be hip….be cool….don’t count in public!