Chapter 37

ch34 Getting Feedback

Contents

37.1 Pageview Counters................. 296

37.2 User Comments................... 297

37.3 Logfile Analysis................... 298

37.4 External Analytics.................. 298

37.5 Tracking Cookies................... 299

Once your website has gone live and people are viewing it, you want feed-
back. You want to get inside the mind of the user, find the problems with
your website, and fix them for the best possible visiting experience.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for those of us with thin skin), you
cannot get the true feedback you want. The closest you can come is focus
groups or lab-based observation of paid users. Expensive.

37.1 Pageview Counters

The first approximation to the truth is a pageview counter. If it shows a
high number, then the page is being viewed lots of times. If it shows a low
number, you are just not getting noticed.

This is sometimes called ahit counter.

And the pageview counter can be displayed right on the page to reassure
visitors that they are visiting a popular page. There is something here worth

296