Is it smart to show it on frontpage? Do You think it would improve traffic? I am sure most of it is fake... please share Your experiences
I've never been a believer in showing visitors on the frontpage. Just my personal preference as I don't think it plays a role in people hanging around the site. Most might think it's fake anyways - like you said.
There are no studies I am aware of that show announcing number of visitors improve site traffic. I don't see bug site that shows number of visitors. If advertisers want to find out, there are other ways. Of course, if you are running a blog, you can display Technorati authority or feedburner readership.
I have seen some big sites do that. If your site is doing well, I would suggest not to show that. Since it will slow down your page load.
I like to show the number of visitors for my own curiosity. Check out my signature if you're looking for an easy way to do it.
It would seem more professional if you didn't post your statistics publicly. It really doesn't have an importance unless someone's wants to purchase ad space. And I can't see how it would make you increase your visitors..
The only traffic stats that major sites post is number of people subscribed to their RSS feed. Other than that, no.
agreed with 8everything. having a hit counter on your site takes away from a professional image. although if it's more of a personal site than a hit counter wouldn't necessarily a bad idea.
Probably wont have any benefit in showing visitors. However, showing the amount of active users on the site currently may help. As for slowing down the page load..Use memcached for this type of thing
Most of the people I saw posting the counter were trying to sell the site. Or at least they put it on sell at sedo.com Some of those sites have more then 20000 daily.
i wouldnt bother myself - as if there is no other users on the site, it will look quite poor to someone looking at it - people like to feel they are not alone!!
It depends on what the site is about. Like if it was just an email service I wouldn't care, but if it's supposed to be a social network or maybe a forum, I'd like to see the amount of visitors on the frontpage. Most people won't agree with me, but I do think that listing the amount of visitors can have an effect on traffic. People DO want to know if someone else's on the website with them and how popular it is. Sure, you can say there are plenty of other sources to go to, to find that information, but why trouble potential advertisers and visitors with more work to get that information??? It all depends on your website though. My site PS3Tag.com is doing well and I list pretty much everything and its become extremely popular, so it won't hurt .
The only benefit is on forums. You can tell by teh amount of visitors and posts how active the forums likely are. From a front actual website, there is no use. It is the content that will actually matter to the visitor.