Adding StatCounter Stats Tracking

Websites built on a WordPress platform may be modified by the owner including the actual templates for things like adding StatCounter stats tracking. Use caution because if unfamiliar with html or php code you could ruin the look of your website with a single punctuation error.

The illustration above for this tutorial displays a portion of the backend admin section of the WordPress Road Test website. Use the graphic to locate the Editor under Appearance in your admin navigation to see where to insert code for tracking statistics

Steps to Add StatCounter Stats Tracking

1. Visit www.StatCounter.com to sign up for a free account.
2. Follow the steps to get their unique code for your website.
3. Copy and paste the code into your NotePad word processor.
4. Log in to your WordPress website backend admin.
5. In the left navigation select Appearance and then Editor.
6. Find file footer.php in the file list at the far right side.
7. View the code that opens up and slide down to the bottom.
8. Paste your StatCounter code ABOVE the </body> tag.
9. Select the Update File button at the bottom of the page.

Now after people go to your site you may now visit the StatCounter website to view visitor behavior including pages visited, length of stay, and key words or search phrases used to find you.

Note: You may want to listen to my podcast on Tracking Website Statistics (16:17 min/sec) tutorial to quickly complete steps 1 and 2 above. That audio lesson includes a 9 page illustrated pdf tutorial of the podcast episode to make getting started really easy.

Of all the options available to analyze your statistics once done adding StatCounter stats tracking, I always look at the Visitor Path to view landing pages and how the person explored my site. That’s all it takes to add tracking and analyze ways to improve your content based on visitor behavior.