Ted's Blog

The counter I use on my website added a new feature today (at least I just noticed it today) called "out clicks". Site Meter has always been great because it tells me how (most) visitors get to my site: Since the referring URL usually contains the search terms, I also can see what words they used in their search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask Jeeves. They also supply the entry page, exit page, total pages viewed, local time, browser, operating system, etc. But I never knew where they went when they were done. Now, apparently, I will sometimes find that out.

The "out click" field shows the link on my page they clicked on and where that link leads to. For instance, in the example below a guy in Oregon, working for Xerox, used Google at 10:46 AM local time to search for "ipod aa battery," and visited 7 pages before finally clicking on the "$14" link for the Griffin PowerPod iPod car power adapter (I'll find out tomorrow if anybody bought one of those). However, it doesn't track everyone, maybe 10% of visitors. That may be because either they didn't click on a link on my page or they had javascript turned off (most of the stats require javascript).

Pretty neat. Also amazing how much you can find out about a visitor when they come to your web site.