Text Counters

Text counters are a type of website visitor calculator that a website owner may opt to add to his webpage so that the number of visitors of his site is tallied. But unlike graphical counters, the number of hits will be displayed in plain text format only. This means there won’t be any images showing. This type of counter is usually hosted on the server side.

The advantage of text counters over graphical counters is primarily its loading time. Text counters loads and display results faster compared to all webpage counter types. And there won’t be any possibility of broken links or missing images either. Text counters are very easy to setup and it can conveniently blend with the flow of your website in terms of color and overall appearance.

But the primary disadvantage of this type of counter is that it lacks visual impact. And because it is shown in pure text, your visitors might miss it and disregard it along with the other texts appearing in your site. If that happens, they won’t be able to appreciate your website’s popularity at all.

Then again, using a graphic counter or a text counter is highly dependent upon the website owner. Most web masters use text counters for newer sites. And even though text counters are short on visual appeal, it can report as accurately and as completely as graphical counters do. Sometimes, it is even easier to add other statistical information like the number of unique visits and the date and time the counter was last reset.

Most text counters come in scripts that are easily edited. This means you can go ahead and put 1,000 as your starting count if you want your new website to have an old feel, so to speak. This will also show your visitors that your website already has a good relationship base with other internet users. However we advise you not to alter your website digits and show the real score of your website hits!

A lot of text counters are available online. Most of them are pre-crafted and all you have to do is to add it in your site. However, if you know a little programming, you can always create one on your own using the most common scripting tools like php and cgi.