sandywp / plugins / simple-post-view-counter

Simple Post View Counter

Clean and Fast Post View Analytics

Lightweight post view counter with a widget and shortcodes. Track post views automatically, stop double-counting, and display popular content easily.

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v1.0.1 30+ installs WP 6.7+

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Simple Post View Counter – Clean and Fast Post View Analytics running inside a SandyWP sandbox

What you get inside

3 screens
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About this plugin

Simple Post View Counter is a lightweight yet powerful plugin to track how many times your WordPress posts are viewed.

Key Features

  • ✅ Automatic post view tracking (AJAX-based, works even in incognito mode)
  • ✅ Prevents double-counting on refresh
  • ✅ Built-in bot detection
  • ✅ Display views before content, after content, beside meta, or manually
  • ✅ “Most Viewed Posts” widget with customizable display
  • ✅ Shortcodes for displaying most viewed posts and individual post views
  • ✅ Admin settings page with statistics (total views, average views, top posts, etc.)
  • ✅ Views column in admin post list (sortable by views)
  • ✅ Exclude admin views from tracking
  • ✅ Works with caching plugins

Shortcodes

  • [post_views] → Display view count for current post
    Options: post_id, format="%s views"
  • [most_viewed_posts] → Display a list of most viewed posts
    Options: limit="5", show_count="yes", show_excerpt="no"

Example Usage

  • [most_viewed_posts] → Show top 5 posts
  • [most_viewed_posts limit="10" show_count="yes"] → Show 10 posts with view counts
  • [post_views] → Show current post’s view count

Widgets

Go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Most Viewed Posts widget to your sidebar.

Video Tutorial

Theme Function

`php

Credits

Developed by Sadhan Pal

License

This plugin is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Questions

Does it work with caching plugins?

Yes, view counting is AJAX-based, so it works properly with caching.

Will it count admin views?

By default, admin views are excluded (you can enable/disable this in settings).

Can I show the view counter anywhere manually?

Yes, use the [post_views] shortcode or the spvc_get_post_views() function in your theme.

Does it prevent bots from inflating the count?

Yes, it includes basic bot detection and ignores common crawlers.

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