Do you want to know how to track website traffic with Google Analytics? If you use Google Analytics to see your website traffic, you’ll get to see all kinds of data like how your visitors found your site, how long they spent on your site, and what pages they viewed.
When you know how your visitors found you, whether through Google search, social media, or another channel, you can make impactful decisions to help you grow your traffic.
In this article, we’ll show you how to track website traffic using Google Analytics.
Jump to a section:
MonsterInsights is the best WordPress Analytics plugin. Get it for free!
- Why Track Website Traffic?
- How to Track Your Traffic in WordPress
- How to Track Website Traffic in Google Analytics
- Website Traffic Tracking Quick Tips
- How to See Website Traffic on a Competitor’s Site
Start Tracking Website Traffic Today!
Tracking Website Traffic: Video Walkthrough
Why Track Website Traffic with Google Analytics?
As a marketer, there are many benefits to being able to see your website traffic and where it came from. Here are some reasons for tracking your traffic:
- Better Understand Your Visitors – Tracking your traffic sources in Google Analytics can help you identify your unique visitors’ geographic location and which channels they use, so you can better understand them and their user behavior, provide targeted messages, and make improvements to your SEO strategies
- Measure Your Marketing Campaigns – If a campaign is built around driving traffic or completing actions on your website (called conversions), then you can measure its effectiveness
- Focus on Channels for Best Results – By identifying which channel performed the best in getting visitors to your site, you can focus on it more to get even better results
- Find New Content Topics – People from different channels might be interested in specific topics, so you can discover new content ideas by checking your traffic sources and engagement rate for each page, then using that traffic data to perform keyword research
- Identify Traffic Gaps on Your Site – You can identify which channel doesn’t perform well in attracting visitors, then optimize it to perform better
Now, are you ready to learn how to see website traffic statistics in Google Analytics and WordPress?
How to Track Your Website Traffic in WordPress
(Don’t have a WordPress site? Skip down to the next section.)
Many users find Google Analytics overwhelming. Setting it up on WordPress requires installing code, which is pretty intimidating for a lot of people.
Plus, you’ll have to be an Analytics expert to set up the tracking that you need, find the right reports inside the Google Analytics dashboard, and get the traffic data that you need for making decisions.
A much easier way of installing Google Analytics, setting up the tracking features you need, and viewing your traffic sources, page views, and other engagement metrics in WordPress is with MonsterInsights.
MonsterInsights is the best WordPress plugin for Google Analytics, and it makes using Analytics very easy. You don’t have to worry about hiring a developer or someone who knows analytics.
The plugin helps you quickly and easily add Google Analytics to your website without touching any code, set up advanced tracking, and then see the most important reports right inside your WordPress dashboard.
Although you’ll get more tracking features and reports with a MonsterInsights license, you can also check out the free Lite version if you’re just starting out. Once you’ve installed MonsterInsights on your website, you can see where your traffic is coming from.
For a full tutorial on getting set up with MonsterInsights, check out How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress the Right Way.
Track Your Website Traffic Now!
Now, let’s look at a few of the Google Analytics reports inside MonsterInsights that you can use to track website traffic.
Overview Report
To start, go to Insights » Reports » Overview. Here you’ll find a traffic overview report and the overall performance of your website.
If you scroll down, you can see your New vs. Returning Visitors and Device Breakdown reports. These show you how many of your visitors are new vs. returning and which type of device they use.
In the Overview report, you can also view the Top 10 Countries that your users are from. Using this report, you can create campaigns, messages, and content according to different regions.
And next to countries, you can see the Top 10 Referrals report. This shows websites that send the most traffic to your site, including social media networks. You can form partnerships with these sites and continue to grow your traffic.
Wondering how to see pageviews on Google Analytics? At the bottom of the Overview report, you’ll find your top posts and pages.
Source/Medium Report
Where exactly is your traffic coming from? With the Source/Medium report inside MonsterInsights Plus or above, you can see which channels are sending visitors your way. Plus, you’ll see data for each channel like engaged sessions, conversion rate, and revenue.
Search Console Report
Now, if your site gets some organic traffic, you should know which keywords your site is ranking for. MonsterInsights Plus and above offers a Search Console Report to help you find that out.
It shows the top 50 Google search terms for your website, along with clicks, impressions, CTR (click-through rate), and average position (keyword ranking).
Since these are keywords that bring you the most organic traffic, you can do some keyword research and find similar search terms to optimize for on your site. You can even use them to think of new content ideas to boost your organic traffic and improve your overall marketing strategy.
For more details, check out our guide on how to configure your WordPress site with Google Search Console.
eCommerce Report
Do you have an eCommerce store and want to know what your shoppers are doing on your site? If yes, then the MonsterInsights eCommerce report can help you out.
The MonsterInsights eCommerce report is available in MonsterInsights Pro.
Beyond basic eCommerce metrics, it shows you the Top Conversion Sources for your website. You can see which websites send traffic that converts the best in your online store. Since people arriving from these websites buy your products, you can offer exclusive discounts and deals to make more money.
Related: How to Set Up Google Analytics eCommerce Tracking on WordPress
Realtime Report
Another report you can view for traffic stats is the realtime report. It shows you where your visitors are coming from in real-time. You can see web traffic analytics for referral sources, countries, and cities for users that are currently or have very recently been on your WordPress site.
This report is useful for checking website traffic statistics if you’ve just launched a new product or a marketing campaign and want to see where visitors are coming from.
There’s more! You’ll also find multiple different Traffic reports, a Publishers report, a Forms report, a Site Speed report, and even more.
For all the details on what you’ll find in MonsterInsights, check out Your Ultimate Guide to MonsterInsights Dashboard Reports.
With that, let’s see how to find traffic sources in Google Analytics.
How to Track Website Traffic in Google Analytics
MonsterInsights offers user-friendly reports inside your dashboard, so you don’t have to leave your site. But what if you want to see where traffic is coming from in Google Analytics?
There are many reports that you can use to see website traffic statistics in Analytics. Having said that, it’s very easy to get lost.
To help you find the data that matters, you can start by logging in to your Google Analytics account.
You can start by navigating to Acquisition » Traffic Acquisition:
In this Google Analytics web traffic report, you can see which channels are driving the most traffic to your website. For instance, you can see the number of visitors from organic searches.
You’ll also be able to see how much traffic is getting referred from other sites, how much direct traffic you’re getting, and more.
To get a deeper look at exactly where your traffic is coming from, click the Session default channel group dropdown:
From there, select Session source/medium:
Now, you can see which search engines contributed to your organic traffic, which sites sent you referral traffic, and more.
Now that you know how to see where traffic is coming from for your overall website, what if you want to use Google Analytics to find traffic for specific pages?
Google Analytics Traffic Sources for a Specific Page
To find site traffic sources and other web traffic analytics for a specific page in Google Analytics 4, navigate to Engagement »Pages and Screens. In the table, you’ll see both Views and Users, so you can see how many views each page got, and how many users completed those views.
To add source/medium to the report, click the plus icon above the Totals column. In the dropdown, choose Traffic sourcethen Session source / medium.
Now, you have a table of your pages by source/medium and views:
To change this table to view your landing pages by source/medium, scroll over to the Event count column. Click the down arrow next to All Events and select first_visit.
Then, click the Event count column title to sort by landing page visit events. Now you have your landing page visits report by source/medium.
For more ways to track website traffic in Google Analytics, check out the Top 11 Important Google Analytics Metrics to Track.
How to Track Website Traffic: Quick Tracking Tips
- Use Google Search Console. It gives you awesome keyword insights!
- Decide which Google Analytics reports and metrics are the most important to your website and keep track of them.
- Set up conversion tracking wherever you can. Conversions are what tell you if you’re reaching your goals.
How to See Website Traffic on a Competitor’s Site
Now that you know how to see your own website traffic, are you wondering how to see a competitor’s website traffic? Here are a few tools you can use for that!
- Semrush: A popular SEO tool used for keyword research, competitor tracking, backlink tracking, organic keyword position tracking, and more.
- Ahrefs: A set of SEO tools similar in popularity to Semrush with a whole suite of tools for tracking website visitors and SEO effectiveness.
- SimilarWeb: Another popular website traffic checker tool for SEO professionals with a really handy Chrome extension and other SEO tools.
For more tools to track the amount of traffic your competitors are getting (including a couple of free website traffic checker tools), read 7 Website Traffic Checkers: How Much Traffic Does a Website Get?.
How to Track Website Traffic: FAQ
How can I check traffic on my website?
To track traffic on your website, install Google Analytics and view your Acquisition and Engagement reports there. You’ll see what sources your traffic came from and what pages they visited.
If you’re using WordPress, install MonsterInsights to make setting up and viewing your Google Analytics data a breeze!
How do I get traffic to my website?
To get traffic to your website, make sure to publish great content, optimize it for SEO, publicize your site on social media, and track your traffic in Google Analytics for more growth ideas.
For more ideas, check out 32 Marketing Hacks Guaranteed to Grow Your Traffic.
How do I find out how many visits a website has?
If you’re looking for traffic data for your own website, install Google Analytics to find out how many visits you get. If you’re looking for traffic data for a website you don’t own, use a website traffic checker tool.
Can you see how many people clicked on your website?
You can see how many people clicked on your website using Google Analytics. There you’ll see who clicked on your site from search results, other websites, social media, and more.
And that’s it!
Start Tracking Website Traffic Today!
We hope you liked our article on how to track website traffic using Google Analytics. You might also want to check out:
A Complete Guide to GA4 Conversion Tracking for WordPress
7 Website Traffic Checkers: How Much Traffic Does a Website Get?
How to Increase Organic Traffic This Year (12 Best Ways)
How to Track Competitor Website Traffic and Ethically Steal It
Don’t forget to follow us onX, Facebook, and YouTube for more reviews, tutorials, and Google Analytics tips.
