Counting Unique Visitors

Introduction

By default, a counter increments for every access to a page. If the current counter value is 547, that number could represent 547 unique visitors, one person accessing the page 547 times or some combination of the two. To increase your likelihood of counting unique visitors, set the "ignoreClientIPAddress" parameter in your mgiCounter tag to "No". The mgiCounter tag will not ignore the current visitor's IP address and will compare the current visitor's IP address to the previous visitor's IP address. If the two IP addresses match, the counter will not increment. If the two IP addresses differ, the counter will increment. Notice that the "igonoreClientIPAddress" parameter of mgiCounter does not prevent the count of repeat visitors that do not occur sequentially.

In this brief example, the ignoreClientIPAddress parameter is used on a software download page.

MGI Tags

Steps

  1. Open the software download page in a text editor.
  2. Insert the mgiCounter tag, name parameter and ignoreClientIPAddress parameter.
  3. Save the software download page.
  4. FTP the software download page to the web server running MGI.
  5. View the software download page in a web browser.

Step 1: Open the software download page in a text editor.

Open the software download page in a text editing program that allows you to view and modify the HTML and code of the page.

Step 2: Insert the mgiCounter tag, name parameter and ignoreClientIPAddress parameter.

Insert your cursor in the HTML of the software download page page where you want the counter to display. Enter the mgiCounter tag, name parameter and ignoreClientIPAddress parameter. In the name parameter, enter a unique counter name. In the ignoreClientIPAddress parameter, enter "No". 
<mgiCounter name="download" ignoreClientIPAddress="No">

Step 3: Save the software download page.

Save the changes you have made to the software download page.

Step 4: FTP the software download page to the web server running MGI.

Upload the software download page from your local computer to the web server using an FTP program.

Step 5: View the software download page in a web browser.

View the software download page in a web browser. The counter increments and displays on the page. If you quickly reload the software download page, the counter will not increment and will display the same value.

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