Open Web Analytics is a free and open source website visitor tracking software program. This tool requires that you copy and paste either JavaScript or hypertext preprocessor PHP code into your website's index.html or index.php file. For example if you are using WordPress content management system then you would need to add this code to your index.php file.
One problem with this scenario is that if you are editing a WordPress core file, this file will get over written each time you upgrade WordPress content management system software. Also, you may not want to get into the habit of editing WordPress core files. I searched for an Open Web Analytics plugin that would inject code into each WordPress post or page so that I could track website visitors.
I found such a plugin called Open Web Analytics plugin by Christian Schmidt. However, this plugin was developed nearly seven years ago. This plugin may or may not work with newer WordPress content management system versions.
It looks as if this Wordpress Open Web Analytics plugin was abandoned years ago. You may want to proceed with caution and AnetComputers.com is not responsible for any problems with your website. I will now give you instructions on how to install and configure this Wordpress content management system plugin.
You will want to login into your WordPress dashboard. Then you will want to click on “Plugins”. Now you can click on “Add New”.
Then you will want to type in “owa” without quotations into a search box. You will want to look for “Open Web Analytics Plugin” by Christian Schmidt. Then you can click on “Install Now”.
Now you will need to click on OK at the “Are you sure you want to install this plugin now” warning pop up window. This Wordpress Open Web Analytics plugin should download and install. Finally, you will want to choose “Activate” in order to to make this plugin live.
Under the “Settings” section, there will be an option titled apropos “Open Web Analytics”. You can choose that option and you will be taken to this plugins settings. This is where you configure this plugin to grab data from open web analytics software program that you already installed on your web server.
You have to enter your open web analytics site identification into the first field. You must login with your admininstrator account into the open web analytics tracking system. You can click on “Edit Profile” for the website that you want to integrate with in WordPress.
You will see your “Site ID” under “Site Profile”. This is a lengthy alphanumerical string. You will want to copy and paste this site identification into the first configuration field in the Open Web Analytics WordPress plugin configuration screen. Also, one feature allows this plugin to track “Downloads” on your website.
You can add in the host name of the server where you installed open web analytics. This is entirely optional information. For example you could enter in www.anetcomputers.com as an example and you would want to replace www.anetcomputers.com with your domain name.
The “Base URL of installation” should already be filled in with /owa/. For example if you installed open web analytics into the owa directory under your webserver root folder, then you should see /owa/. However, if you changed the installation folder on your web server from /owa/ to say /stats/ then you want to change /owa/ to /stats/ in this field. You can optionally track the administrator user with this tool.
You will want to place a check into a box next to “Track the admin user too”. Now you can click on “Update Settings”. Finally, you get to test if this plugin is working or not. You can browse to your website so that this open web analytics detects a visitor.
In the open web analytics plugin administrator back end you should see:
0 Visits 0 Page Views 0.00 % Bounce Rate
Now that you just visited your website, you should see some statistics for your website. You can click on “Tracked Sites” from the main administrator dashboard. Your domain.com as an example should show at least this:
1 Visits 1 Page Views 100.00 % Bounce Rate
If you were to click on an additional page you should see this:
1 Visits 2 Page Views 0.00 % Bounce Rate
This plugin injects tracking code into each WordPress post and page that you create. You should begin to see more website statistics now that you have properly configured this plugin. This saves you the time from having to manually copy JavaScript or hypertext preprocessor PHP code into your website index.html or index.php file.
Open Web Analytics – How to Install OWA WordPress Plugin Video Transcript
0:02
this is aaron with anetcomputers
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.com
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this video is going to cover how to
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install
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open web analytics owa for a short
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acronym
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wordpress plugin
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so i'm logged into back into one of my
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wordpress websites
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i'm already at the plugins category i'm
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just going to click
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add new you want to type in owa into a
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search box
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click search plugins there's two of them
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i haven't tested version 1.4 by peter
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adams but i have
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tested open web analytics plug-in for
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wordpress version 1.3
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by christian schmidt i'm going to click
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on install now
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are you sure you want to install this
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plug-in click ok
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plug-in has already been installed
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now i'm going to activate it
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plug-in has been activated go to your
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left hand side
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under settings there's an option for
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open web analytics those are
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configuration settings for
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the plugin i will need
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an open web analytics site id for this
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website this wordpress website
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that i am going to track visitor traffic
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so i'm logged into the back end of my
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open web analytics software that's
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installed on my web server
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i already have my website reality
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unknown that i'm gonna
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start tracking stats for i click on edit
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profile
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under site profile is your site id i
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just highlight it on linux
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is easy i highlight it one click and
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then i go back to
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the web analytics configuration and
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paste it in there track downloads yes
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hostname of the owa server
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which is on this website my a net
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services dot biz
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linux is easy i just highlight it and
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paste it's gonna be a www.yourdomain.com
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the base url
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is the default which is already
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pre-filled on your installation might be
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different slash
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owa slash and this is
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optional track
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the admin user to that's not set by
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default i
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select that i click update settings
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now owa web analytics
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wordpress plugin has been configured now
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i want to track
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stats so let me go back to my sites as
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you can see there's zero visit zero page
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view zero
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bounce rate i'm going to quickly go to
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my reality unknown.com domain
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and show you that stats are now being
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recorded
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so i went to a home page real quick and
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then i'm gonna
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just click on a category blog that i
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have
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and pull up that and then
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now i'm going to go to my owa
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install back-end and i'm going to do a
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refresh
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there you have it one visit two-page
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view zero percent bounce rate
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if you just click on the domain it takes
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you to
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the dashboard and then i'll just scroll
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down to show you that
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there we go so the main page
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was obviously viewed by me and it
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tracked it
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and then alternative energy which if you
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notice up here
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is the page i clicked on it's just a
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subcategory of my web
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site which is also which is obviously
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wordpress
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so there you have it only takes a couple
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of minutes to
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install the wordpress plugin for openweb
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analytics
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you can browse to anet services.biz
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to download and listen to previous
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broadcasts
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or you can go go to my youtube channel
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and subscribe
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i have 10 minute preview videos are my
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reality pc broadcast
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and i have a 11 minute video
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showing you how to install openweb
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analytics
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software in about 10 minutes
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thank you for listening and see you next
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time