Let’s start out bluntly: Web stats, good — hit counters, bad. So there.
You might have thought it was a great idea, but hit counters are among the things that make you look like an amateur. (Also in this category: anything that looks like a FrontPage template, and clip art….) Why? As a visitor, I don’t care how many other people visited your site. If you’re wasting space showing me things that don’t matter to me, why should I expect any better customer service regarding your services? Furthermore, maybe you’re proud of all those 00003531 visitors — but what does it mean? Since what date? If that’s since noon, that’s decent traffic. If it’s since 1996, you need a marketing overhaul.
Every decent Web host now offers Web statistics packages (I like Urchin). Usually there’s a private link to ’em, so you can analyze the data at your convenience, and some companies will hide the link on an “About us” page so their marketing staff doesn’t have to remember the private URL.
But not on the Home Page. There’s too much else to say that actually matters to your customers.
