How often do you check your stats? I hope that you’ve been checking them often or you could be missing some really valuable bits of information! Learning how people find you can really help you to increase your traffic.

This three-part series will help you to:

• Install a real-time stat counter. (Part One)
  
• Learn how to check your stats and what you should be looking for when you analyze your stats. (Part Two)
• Learn how to improve your site’s performance using statistical data. (Part Three – the most important part of the lesson)

Today, of course is part one of the series, let’s get a free, real-time statcounter installed for you! Here are the steps:

1. Go to Statcounter.com.

2. Click the link that says ‘Register’. It looks like this, in the upper left hand corner:

3. Fill out the information form. You have to fill out both the account details and personal details. All they’re asking for is your name, country, and email – no biggie.

4. Accept the terms and conditions.

5. Click ‘Register My Account’, it looks like this:

6. Select your time zone. This step simply will allow Statcounter to show you your stats with the correct times.

7. Click ‘Proceed And Add A Project’, it looks like this:

8. Select ‘Standard Statcounter Project’ and the click next:

9. Type in the title and URL of your site, and choose the most appropriate category. The category actually doesn’t really matter, I choose business every time I do this.

10. Leave ‘Maximum Visit Length’ on 30 minutes, and leave ‘Log Size’ on 500.

11. Type your IP address into the ‘IP Blocking’ box. If you look closely, you can find your IP address on the Statcounter screen here:

12. Click ‘Next’, it’s in the lower, right-hand corner.

13. Click ‘Configure And Install Code’:

14. Choose the type of counter you want to use and click ‘Next’. I use the invisible counter. If you want to go with the invisible one, select it and click ‘Next’.

15. Statcounter will then ask you a few more details about your website. I would use the following options, if you’re using a WordPress blog:

15. Statcounter will then ask you if you use a web page editor. You are going to select ‘No, I want the default install guide’ and the click ‘Next’.

16. Statcounter will then give you some code on your screen. Copy the entire piece of code:

17. We’re now going to paste that code into the footer file of your WordPress theme. Log in to your WordPress admin. Go to ‘Presentation’, and then ‘Theme Editor’. On the right side of the screen that comes up, click ‘Footer’. If you use Blogger, you can still paste the code into your template.

18. Paste the code you copied directly to the left of the </body> tag:

19. Click ‘Update File’ in the lower, right-hand corner and you’re all set!

20. Watch for Part Two of the lesson tomorrow. I will show you how to check your stats and go over what you should be looking for when you check them.

Did anyone run into problems anywhere? If you did, let me know! I can help you to figure out where it went wrong if you give me enough details.