Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : What is the Disadvantage of putting a counter?

[Indra]

Hey Friends,

What is the disadvantage of putting a Counter On The index.html page.

I visit so many sites, and they do not use counters. Why is this so?

[diederik]

Many sites have counter you can't see ( hidden in the HTML, you just don't see those big/ugly counters ).
Or can take a look at the stats on your webserver ( like webalizer ).

[tagalaxy.net]

visible counters dont look professional....thats the main reason many sites dont use them

[MattF]

Because they looked very unprofessional. All big sites will run back-end logging and hence do not need a visible counter.

[Abu Mami]

I agree about it not looking professional. The only use would be in the case that you REALLY want to brag about the traffic you're getting on your site. But then again, if your site is getting so much traffic, why do you need to brag?

My first site a bunch of years ago on Tripod used a counter since I didn't know any better. Then I changed the text around the counter to say "My mother has visited this site # times". I was starting to understand that the counter was stupid by my making fun of it, but I thought that it was something that people expected.

Now I'm older, wiser, and spend much too much time on WHT, and have realized that a lot of web gimmicks are stupid. Stuff like scrolling text, animated graphics, counters. Most of the time it looks very unprofessional and is distracting. I now try to keep it simple and clean.

[Indra]

The Other Irony is that, you could be getting a MILLION Hits Per day, and if you do not have a visible counter, Visitors may think you are not getting much Hits.

What do you think of this point?

[JayC]

Originally posted by Indra
The Other Irony is that, you could be getting a MILLION Hits Per day, and if you do not have a visible counter, Visitors may think you are not getting much Hits.

What do you think of this point?

I disagree with it. People visiting a professional-looking site don't expect a counter, and experienced web users don't make judgements based on a counter.

Microsoft.com doesn't have one, cnn.com doesn't have one... does that make you think they aren't getting many visitors?

[Vex]

Yea, I agree. A counter on a page that is trying to be professional is a downfall. It looks tacky - most have a script within their control panel anyways, so they don't need one on their page.