Measuring website traffic isn’t about installing a counter and forgetting about it. It requires deciding which tool to use, placing the code correctly, verifying that data is coming in, and understanding what you’re looking at. If you want to know the visits to your own website, this is the process I follow when I set up measurement from scratch.
Step 1: choose the data source before touching any code
There are three main routes, and they are not interchangeable:
- Your own analytics (GA4, Matomo, Plausible): measures behavior, sources, and conversions, but depends on JavaScript and cookie consent.
- Search Console: click and impression data from Google, without cookies, but only for organic search.
- Server logs: record every request, including bots and blockers. It’s the technical reference when you suspect analytics is undercounting.
The usual approach is to combine GA4 with Search Console. If you only have access to a CMS dashboard (WordPress, Shopify), many already offer built-in statistics, although they tend to be less reliable than a dedicated tool.
Step 2: install the tag and check that it fires
In GA4 you need the measurement ID (format G-XXXXXXX). You can install it with the official WordPress plugin, with Google Tag Manager, or by pasting the snippet into the <head>. Then:
- Open the website in an incognito window and browse two or three pages.
- In GA4, go to Reports → Realtime and confirm that your visit appears.
- Install the official Tag Assistant extension to verify that the tag isn’t duplicated.
A common mistake: pasting the GA4 code and also leaving an old plugin with Universal Analytics active. Two tags are generated and the metrics get inflated. Always check the source code with Ctrl+U before considering the installation done.
Step 3: define what counts as a visit
GA4 doesn’t use the classic Universal Analytics concept of a “session”; it talks about users, sessions, and events. If your question is “how many visits do I have,” first decide which metric answers your need: active users, sessions, or page views. For a blog, views per article are more informative than the site total.
Mark the events that matter as conversions (form submission, WhatsApp click, purchase) from Admin → Events. Without this, analytics only tells you how many people pass through, not what they do.
Step 4: connect Search Console to see real organic traffic
Verify the domain in Search Console (a full domain property via DNS is preferable) and link it to GA4 from Admin → Search Console links. This way you’ll see queries, CTR, and position alongside sessions. Keep in mind that Search Console delays data by 2 to 3 days and limits history to 16 months; it doesn’t work as a permanent record.
Limitations you should accept
No tool gives the exact number of people. Ad blockers, cookie banner rejections, and browsers that limit tracking cut the figures, sometimes notably so among technical audiences. According to Google’s official documentation, GA4 applies consent modeling in some cases, but not in all countries or configurations.
It also doesn’t work well for measuring traffic from mobile apps or emails opened in clients that block images. And if your website is a client-rendered SPA, check that the tag fires on every route change: it’s a common bug that only records the first page viewed.
Step 5: document the setup
Write down which tool you’re measuring with, which events are conversions, who has access, and when the tag was changed. When someone asks “why did visits drop?”, that record saves hours of troubleshooting. Measurement doesn’t end when you install the code: it starts there.