How can I count unique visitors to my site without using Google Analytics?

How do I count unique visitors to my site?

You want to implement a visitor counting system for user posts to showcase the most viewed posts on the homepage. While you already have a system in place, it records every page refresh as a view. You can't use Google Analytics, so you need a solution that will ensure only unique visitors are counted.

Solution

To achieve your goal, you can implement the following steps:

1. Upon page load, check if the visitor is new: This can be accomplished by checking for a unique identifier associated with the visitor. This identifier could be stored in a cookie or session.
2. If the visitor is a repeat visitor, ignore them: If the identifier matches an existing record in your database, disregard this visitor.
3. For new visitors, increment the views count in your database: If the visitor is new, update your database to increment the view count for the specific post.

An example of how this solution can be implemented in PHP using MySQL:

<?php

// Establish a connection to your MySQL database
$conn = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database_name");

// Get the current timestamp
$timestamp = time();

// Check if the visitor has a unique identifier in a cookie
$cookie_name = "visitor_id";
if (isset($_COOKIE[$cookie_name])) {
    // Visitor has a unique identifier
    $visitor_id = $_COOKIE[$cookie_name];
} else {
    // Visitor does not have a unique identifier, create one and store it in a cookie
    $visitor_id = uniqid();
    setcookie($cookie_name, $visitor_id, time() + (60 * 60 * 24 * 30)); // Expires in 30 days
}

// Check if the visitor already exists in your database
$sql = "SELECT id FROM visitors WHERE visitor_id = ?";
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bind_param("s", $visitor_id);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

// If the visitor already exists, do not count them again
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // Visitor is already in the database, ignore them
} else {
    // Visitor is new, insert them into the database and increment the view count
    $sql = "INSERT INTO visitors (visitor_id, first_visit) VALUES (?, ?)";
    $stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
    $stmt->bind_param("ss", $visitor_id, $timestamp);
    $stmt->execute();

    // Increment the view count for the specific post
    $post_id = 1; // Replace this with the actual post ID
    $sql = "UPDATE posts SET views = views + 1 WHERE id = ?";
    $stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
    $stmt->bind_param("i", $post_id);
    $stmt->execute();
}

// Close the database connection
$conn->close();

?>

By implementing this method, you can count unique visitors and accurately track the popularity of your posts. Remember to replace the $post_id variable with the actual ID of the post you want to track views for.

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