Hit counter or google analytics?

Ecoartisan · Posts: 22

Hi, I've read that Google analytics will provide free data on which products of mine are being viewed, and where the hits are coming from, but I can't find where to sign up for this free without having to have a phone to do it on (I just have a laptop computer).

Also, I can't even find where the ecrater hit counters are!

Would someone kindly point me in the right direction? I searched the threads, but didn't find much - I thought I'd look in the sticky threads first, and nothing........ Embarassed

boy, I'm feeling like a dufus, I'm usually good at ferreting out what I want on my own!!

tia!

SammysSupplies · Posts: 1631

Ok, first off, eCrater hits, you will see a number to the left of your item picture. It will probably go up today as people check out your store to help. Those are hits and may also include bots crawling the web looking for new info. Google analytic eliminates a lot of the bots and shows actual views.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

The ecrater hits resets themselves on the first of each month as well so don't worry when they all disappear.

You can sign up for Google Analytics without a phone. I know I did. We aren't into the cell phones at this point at our house. The problem with google analytics is trying to find the right spots to sign up. It is like Google is trying to keep it and Adsense totals a mystery to it's customers. I can't even tell you how to get there, but Sheila will probably be along to tell you. The only 'easy' way for me to find analytics is go through my blog that has direct links to adsense which then has a link to analytics.

cosmicray · Posts: 7286

The eCrater hit count is different from GA, in that it is reporting some page loads. Certain web crawlers are being excluded, based on past comments here. Many page loads picked up by eCrater are not reflected on GA.

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4620

Welcome to eCrater Ecoartisan. The eCrater hit counters are shown in your Admin section when you click on Products. There will be a number to the left of each product title which will be the page loads since the first of the month. It resets to zero at the beginning of each month. When you preview your store and look at an item, your views are counted.

The best way to reach Google Analytics is to go to Options in your Admin section, click on the blue ? mark beside Enable Google Analytics and use the link in the info box. If you already have a Google account (like gmail, G+, YouTube, etc.) you can log in with that account OR you can create a new Google Account for your store's Google Analytics. You will need an email address that is different from any other email you've used on Google. You'll need to fill in your name, email, password and DOB. The phone number is not required. (I just created a new account to test.) Google will sent you an email and you'll need to click on the link in the email to activate your account. You will need to add the address of your "web site", which in your case will be a link to the home page of your eCrater store. http://ecoartisan.ecrater.com/ Google will give you a tracking code that you do not need (just ignore the info about adding the tracking info to each page). Look for the ID code that will be a number that starts with UA- . I didn't add a website to my new account, but when you are logged in the home page should show your store url with a number in ( ) by the side. This will be the ID number that you need to add to the blank on your Admin page in your eCrater store. Once you add the ID number to your admin page, eCrater takes care of all the coding so all your pages (seen in your store and in the marketplace) will report to Google Analytics.

From time to time, Google gets pushy about wanting a mobile phone number. I have never given them my phone number and don't ever plan to do so.

If you use a cable connection for the internet, you can create a filter to prevent you own views from being seen.

AtMemoryLane · Posts: 510

Sheila -

Thank you so very much for the DETAILED instructions. I have been trying to figure this out since October.

Ecoartisan · Posts: 22

Thank you for the instructions - I managed to set up an analytics account, and bookmarked the page, hopefully I will be able to login. The link in my admin page led me to the wrong page, so finally I tried googling "sign up for google analytics". It is so very hard to find, and for some reason, google has become uber-complicated and confusing.

On the analytics reporting page, the dates are November 3rd through December 3rd........I am quite surprised not to be able to see this month already showing since I just set this up (December 4th) - is this normal or do I have to press some button to forward the calendar there? Can't find it (what else is new LOL!!)

Ecoartisan · Posts: 22

Ok, I found the hit counter..........it says 1 beside every product - I thought that meant I had only one of each product - until I saw the word hits at the top of the column - LOL!!

Well that hit number is normal for me at this moment..........hopefully I can do better in the future...maybe at some point have a sale? I would fall out of my chair if I did!

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4620

Ecoartisan · Posts: 22

oh I see, to the top by the right-hand side, thank you!

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

I tried checking my analytics a day or so ago and couldn't get any of them to come up for my store. I do wish google would quit changing things! Evil or Very Mad

I don't bother checking very often since it is such a pain to get to and figure it all out. Seeing the anemic numbers after years of being in the 6-7000 hits a month is discouraging.

dccollectibles · Posts: 2761

6-7,000 views per item, I wish...I think we topped 1,000 for ONE item one month. These days I'm doing cartwheels at a hundred...

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

No, I didn't mean that many hits per item but for the whole store. No my hits for the whole store is about 1/3 of that, if that at this point and that is with over 8000 listings!

I rarely check the analytics for my store since I found it didn't matter how much I checked them, they kept going down, and sales never improved. I've managed to keep getting sales, but Google is like Goliath wanting to devour all the little guys. It is very hard to battle against it, but I haven't given up!

elpereles · Posts: 3430

In the past few months, Google did something to the Analytics. It took a long of time to finally can see the page in any browser. Now they added some feature.