Why Website Counters Count for Nothing

It is quite surprising how many websites that claim to be "professional" still have website counters visible on their home page. Responding to page views, these numbers proudly presented often give a bad impression of both website success and its popularity.

Often these counters are used by people who have either built the website themselves and are ignorant of professional ways of tracking visitors to their website. For a customer, being visitor 56 to a website would suggest that not many people visit. How would you feel about going into a shop that nobody ever seems to go into? It's not a good start to the customer relationship.

Professional solutions are provided by companies such as Google with their Analytics programme. However, almost all website hosting packages allow for statistics to be generated which include things like visits, bounce rates etc.