In my post, I show you how to check traffic to your WordPress site using a completely free tool, that tool is Statcounter. You can see what country your visitor is from, how long they spend on your site, what posts they visited, and what links they clicked on.
In my guide, I take you step by step on how to set up and use Statcounter. I use it on all my sites and love how easy it is to view the data.
When I started blogging, I wanted to know who was visiting my site and what they were doing. I found Google Analytics complicated to use so searched for something simpler.
Let’s begin.
S et up an account with Statcounter
First, go to Statcounter.com and sign up for a free account. This is their homepage.
To start, click on the ‘Try for free’ link, then you come to this page.
Statcounter wants you to start with you having access to all features for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, you need to pay to retain full access. The free option has all the features
On this page, fill in your details, accept the terms and conditions. Once your account is created, go to step 2.
On this page, enter your website’s URL, your project name, the country where you are based, your timezone, how often you would like email reports, and if you would like a visitor counter on your site or not.
There is also an option to share your data publicly through a special URL. When you have finished entering all your details, hit the ‘Add project’ link.
The final step is to put code on your website. With WordPress sites, download the Statcounter plugin. Keep this page open in another tab because you will need your project ID and security code later.
How to install the Statcounter plugin
To install the Statcounter, go to your WordPress dashboard.
To install a new plugin, hover your mouse over ‘Plugins’ in the menu on the left. In the popup menu, select ‘Add new’.
Then you come to the WordPress plugin library.
Type ‘Statcounter’ into the search box on the top-right of the screen. Like this.
The plugin is on the left of this screenshot, select ‘Install Now’, then ‘Activate’.
How to input your codes into the Statcounter Plugin
Once you have the plugin installed you will have an extra option in ‘Settings’ on your WordPress menu. Hover your mouse over ‘Settings’ and you will see ‘Statcounter’ in the popup menu. Like this.
Select ‘Statcounter’. This your settings dashboard.
On this page enter your project ID and your security code. You got these when you created your project at Stacounter.com.
Enter these codes into these two boxes, then click on ‘Update options’.
How to track your visitors on Statcounter
Once you have completed this, log into your account at Statcounter.
There are many data options on Statcounter, my favorite is ‘Visitor Paths’. The visitor paths data page looks like this.
You can see where your visitor came from, how long they stayed on your website and what they did when they were on the website.
If you would like to see more details about a visitor, click on the magnifying glass icon next to the flag.
If I view more details about the visitor from Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States, I get this.
I can see that this visitor spent 1 minute and 2 seconds on my post about action cameras. The blue exit link tells me this visitor clicked on one of my Amazon affiliate links.
How to check your Statcounter installation
To check to make sure your code is working, log into your Statcounter account. Select the project you want to check
From the menu on the left, click on ‘Project Config’. Then you have these options.
From this menu, select the ‘Reinstall Code’ option. Once you click on that option, there is a short delay while Statcounter checks what platform you are using.
From here, click on the ‘Continue’ link. Then you come to this page.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page.
At the bottom of the page, there is a ‘Verify Installation’ link. Click on that and Statcounter will check they are getting data from your website.
If everything is okay, you get this message.
What to do if you can not verify the installation
If you are sure you have installed the plugin and inserted the codes correctly but can not verify your installation. Contact Statcounter support, the link is at the top of each page on Statcounter.com.
Statcounter introduction video
Conclusion
Now you have an excellent new tool to check website traffic to your blog. Statcounter takes only a few minutes to set up and use. I use it on all my sites and love how I can get an in-depth view of how my visitors are engaging with my blog.
Before you head over to Statcounter.com to open your free account to check traffic to your site, please spare one minute to let me know if I helped you with my post. I look forward to reading your comments.
Did you know you can use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to check keyword ranking positions? Find out how in my ‘How to find out what keywords your site is ranking for on Google and Bing‘ post.
