Super Stalker - A Tutorial

Have y'all been wondering how I get my google keywords each week? OK, I know you have, because I've been asked (more than once, even!).

Here's how:

I use StatCounter.

Setting your project up is a breeze with them, and it tracks all the information I need for my little corner of the web.

First step: register an account. StatCounter is free for the basic service, which is probably all the average blogger needs. The pay services are geared more towards serious websites looking to make more profit.

Once registered, it's time to create your project. Your project is your website. If you have more than one blog, you would create a project for each blog. Creating a project is easy and pretty self-explanatory.

After your project is all set up, you need to add the StatCounter code to your website. They have a couple versions to choose from, including an invisible tracker, which is what I have. Once you've selected your tracker, you copy the html code and put it on your site.

For those of us who use blogspot, you will use the "Template" tab. Choose "Add a Page Element" and then add an "html/java script" element. Paste the code into the element, and then hit save. You can then rearrange where that element sits on your page. If you've chosen the invisible tracker, it doesn't really matter where you put it, but if you have the button tracker, then you'll want to decide where you feel it fits in best with your page.

StatCounter is now all set up to track visitors to your blog! By going to their website and selecting the project you want to see stats for, you can see how many visitors you have, where they came from, how long they stayed, what they looked at and whether or not they're a repeat offender. If someone gets to you by way of a search engine, it will show you what keywords they used to get there. It also provides a link to the search, so you can see where your page ranked among the searches.

StatCounter results are instant, so if someone checks your blog while you're looking at your stats, refreshing the page will show the new information.

Happy stalking!