A look under the hood of website traffic data and how it is collected using javascripts and cookies
Technically, Opentracker works like this:
- You add the Opentracker javascript to the source code or template of the website pages for which you want to collect visitor statistics.
- A user visits your web page(s) for the first time.Depending on your site and the user’s preferences, a JavaScript is generated and sent to the user’s browser to collect the data you need. A unique cookie is generated for the user and stored on their computer. This is a standard procedure on the internet, utilized by every site that needs to identify a user as a unique person, for example, Amazon.com or Gmail.The Opentracker cookie is tracked over long periods of time, which means unique visitors to your site can be identified when they return.
When a visitor clicks on your site, Opentracker looks for a cookie. If a cookie is found the user is identified as a ‘returning visitor’ and their clicks are recorded along with any previous visits to show their lifetime clickpath through your website.
- The information collected in step 2 is pre-processed.
- The statistics are updated with the processed data.
- All this information is stored in a database on our servers.Your statistics are non-public and password protected. You can access them through any internet connection.
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