After disabling StatCounter for quite sometimes, I have decided to use back their service after receiving an email from them recently about their recent service enhancement. What make me attracted, is because StatCounter has increased the numbers of log from 100 to 500 for each project (your website) which means you can track down the last 500 page loads.

When I disable StatCounter script last time, it is not because of their service is bad, but it is due to the slow loading times on my website, which I suspect because of too many Javascript running on the backed. But after my web hosting moved to the new and more powerful server, the page loading times has reduced drastically. But since then, I have forgotten about my StatCounter, and their email has remind me back about them

Currently I am using Google Analytics to get the basic statistic about my website such as the number of visitor, page loads, main content and etc. I’m not good in manipulating or utilizing any tool, but so far it serves me well. But I think it’s time now to get more than 1 statistic tool for the purpose of comparisons.

Quick look into Statcounter

After getting the script installed in my website, it works immediately gathering informations

Popular pages, entry pages, exit pages

The name suggest what this menu are doing

Email Report

Ability to send the statistic report to you on weekly or monthly basis which i think is lack on Google Analytics (if I’m not mistaken)

Keyword analysis

Provide statistic what keywords your visitors used to reach your website. This menu has ‘keyword drill down’ features which allow you to view the visitors detail such as IP address, browser version and etc

Recent keyword activity

The old version of ‘Keyword analysis’. In my opinion this version has more detail than ‘Keyword analysis’ menu above. I put some screen shot for more details

Recent Came from

Provide information how the latest visitors reach your website excluding the search engine results. In my simple word, it track from where your visitors came from minus search engine. Another great feature if you want to track down how effective your involvement in internet communities such as MyBlogLog, link exchanges, web directory, commenting other blog and etc

Search Engines War

The screen shot tell you from which search engine your visitor mostly comes from. Huh, none came from MSN??

Recent Visitor Activity

Another great features if you have plan to market your website worldwide It displays from where your visitors came from in the big map.

Tips : What I did before is, if I have less or no visitor from certain country, I will searching for main local web directory available there, and submitting my website to it.

System Stat.

Provide statistic about your visitor’s system statistic such as screen resolution, operating system and Javascript. Great info to optimize your website according to what you visitor use

Thats is some of the great features available on StatCounter that I manage to try it out. You can try the free version but it is limited only to preview the last 500 page loads.

In overall, the best feature that makes it stand out compared to Google Analytics would be the ‘drilldown tool’ which give you ability to get the detail about your visitors. The page navigation also is convenient with all menus are located on the left pane

What I missed
Goal - This is the features it is lacking of. I use this features a lot in Google Analytics to track down campaigns that I have.

After spending about an hours digging StatCounter features and writing this blog, I regret for ignoring StatCounter service back then. If you haven’t use it, trust me, go get it now. If it’s not better than Google Analytics at least it is on par with it