How do I see how many people visit my website?

How do I see my visitor numbers?

1. Sign in at analytics.google.com with the Google account that has access to your site’s property. You should see your business name or website at the top.
2. Select Reports in the left-hand menu. The Reports snapshot opens, with a summary of recent visits.
3. Change the date range at the top right to the period you care about, such as the last 28 days. The numbers update to match.
4. Open Realtime to see activity in the last few minutes. This is handy for checking that Analytics is working: open your site on your phone, and you should appear.
5. Open Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition to see where visitors came from, such as Google search, social media or other websites.
6. Open Engagement to see which pages people look at most.

If the reports are empty, Analytics may be installed on the wrong site or not installed at all. That’s a job for whoever looks after your website.

These steps follow Google’s guide to reports in Google Analytics.

The short version

• Visitor numbers come from a tool such as Google Analytics. WordPress has no counter.
• Sign in at analytics.google.com and select Reports. Can’t sign in? Find out why first.

Why does this matter?

Visitor numbers tell you whether your website is pulling its weight. They help you see if a new page, a Google listing update or an ad brought more people in. They also show which pages people read, so you know where to spend your time.

Counts on their own don’t pay the bills, though. Calls and form enquiries matter more. Our answer on tracking calls and forms explains how to measure those.

What are the common mistakes and edge cases?

• Looking in WordPress. WordPress doesn’t track visits itself. Some hosts and plugins show rough counts, but they rarely match Analytics. Pick one source and stick with it.
• The account belongs to someone else. A past web company may have set up Analytics under their own Google account. Your business should own it. See which logins your business should own.
• Comparing short periods. A slow week can be a holiday or the weather. Compare a month with the same month last year where you can.
• Counting yourself. You and your staff visit your own site a lot. On a small site, that can noticeably lift the numbers.
• Privacy tools. Some visitors block tracking, so Analytics shows fewer visits than really happened. Treat the numbers as a trend, not an exact count.

How do I give someone else access?

Add their own Google account as a user. This follows Google’s steps to add users. You need the Administrator role to do it.

1. In Google Analytics, select Admin (the gear icon).
2. Under Account or Property, select Access management. Account access covers every property in the account. Property access covers one site.
3. Select the + button, then Add users.
4. Enter the person’s Google account email. Google won’t accept an address that isn’t a Google account.
5. Choose a role, then select Add. The person now appears in the user list.

Google’s permissions guide describes the roles:

Role	What it allows	Good for
Viewer	Sees reports and settings	Most staff and helpers
Analyst	Viewer, plus sharing explorations	Someone building reports for you
Marketer	Manages audiences and key events	An ads or marketing agency
Editor	Manages property settings, not users	Your web developer
Administrator	Full control, including users	You, and a trusted backup

Keep two administrators who work for your business, so you’re never locked out. To remove someone, open Access management, select their row and remove them.

What if this didn’t work?

• You can’t sign in, or see no properties. Your Google account doesn’t have access. Ask whoever set up Analytics to add you, using the steps above.
• Nobody knows who set it up. Check old emails from your previous web company for “Google Analytics”. If there’s no way back in, a new property can be created under your business account. History from the old one stays behind.
• Realtime shows nothing when you visit. The tracking code may be missing from your site. Ask your web team to check it.
• You don’t see Admin or Access management. You’re not an administrator. Ask an administrator to change your role.

How long does it take, and what does it cost?

Google Analytics is free to use. New data shows in Realtime first and appears in the other reports shortly after, per Google’s guide. A brand new setup has no history, so trends need time to build before they mean much.

How does E-3 handle this?

WordPress doesn’t count visits, so the first check is whether Google Analytics is set up and who owns it. If it isn’t set up, we ask you to create the Analytics account in your own business’s Google account, then add E-3 as a user. We add the tracking to your site. Where visitors must agree to analytics cookies first, under EU or UK rules or your own privacy policy, the tracking should load only after they agree, so tell us which applies. That way the data stays yours, and nobody needs your password.

If E-3 looks after your search work through our SEO and AI search service, tracking what’s working is part of that. To get started, call 814-399-4655 or email support@e3help.me.

Related questions

• How do I verify my site with Google Search Console?
• How can I get my site to show up higher in Google?
• What to check in GA4 each month
• How to share access safely