Tracking pixel

The /count endpoint returns a small 1×1 GIF image on GET requests. You don’t need to use the JavaScript integration and can load this directly:

<img src="https://MYCODE.goatcounter.com/count?p=/test">

Or you can build your own JavaScript integration if you want. Use the API if you want to send data from the backend; /count is only intended to be loaded by the visitor’s browser.

The tracking pixel won’t allow recording the referrer or screen size, and may also increase the number of bot requests (it’s harder to filter them out with just the backend code).

Wrap in a <noscript> tag to use this only for people without JavaScript:

<script data-goatcounter="https://MYCODE.goatcounter.com/count"
        async src="//gc.zgo.at/count.js"></script>
<noscript>
    <img src="https://MYCODE.goatcounter.com/count?p=/INSERT-PAGE-HERE">
</noscript>

You’ll have to set the correct page in the HTML source.

If you have a Content-Security-Policy then you’ll have to add:

img-src https://MYCODE.goatcounter.com/count

This accepts the following query parameters:

Query count.js Description
p path Page path or event name.
t title Page title.
r referrer Referrer value; usually the Referer header.
e event event; as boolean (true, false, 1, 0, on, off).
q - Query parameters, for getting campaigns.
s - screen size, as width,height,scale.
b - Flag this as a “bot request”; number.
rnd - Ignored; intended as a “cache buster”.

These parameters are guaranteed to be stable; any future incompatible changes will use a new endpoint. Building your own JavaScript integration should be safe, although you may need to modify it if new features get added.

rnd is useful as sometimes browsers and proxies have their own opinion about what can or can’t be cached in spite of what the cache headers say.

The b accepts an integer constant from the zgo.at/isbot library and should be >=150. See the count.js source how to detect this. Current values:

  • 150 – Phantom headless browser.
  • 151 – Nightmare headless browser.
  • 152 – Selenium headless browser.
  • 153 – Generic WebDriver-based headless browser.

Questions or problems?

Feel free to get in touch if you’ve got any questions or having any problems; a lot of times they can be resolved without too much problems.

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