How to Measure Your Website Traffic and Performance

Let’s be honest—most people look at website traffic metrics the way a cat looks at a vacuum cleaner: suspiciously, with no clue what’s going on, and ready to run. But if you’re serious about growing your business, digital products, or online empire, you need to understand what’s happening under the hood.

So let’s ditch the surface-level “Just check your pageviews!” fluff and get into the real metrics that matter, the tools you need, how to access them, and how to interpret data like a digital Sherlock Holmes.

First, what are we measuring (and why)?

We’re not here just to measure traffic for ego points. The goal is to understand:

• Who’s visiting your site

• What they’re doing while they’re there

• How they’re finding you

• What’s making them bounce, convert, or ghost you like a bad Hinge date

Also read: 38 Conversion Optimization Tips For Your Online Course Landing Page

Core metrics that actually mean something

Let’s start with the MVPs. If you’re only looking at pageviews, you’re basically checking the odometer without knowing if your car is going in reverse.

1. Sessions vs users

• Users = unique visitors.

• Sessions = total visits. One person can trigger multiple sessions.

Where to see this in GA4:
Go to Reports > Life cycle > Engagement > Overview. You’ll see “Users,” “Sessions,” and “Average engagement time.”

👉 If you have 1,000 users and 2,000 sessions, congrats—you’re engaging people enough to bring them back.

2. Bounce rate

Bounce rate tells you the percentage of people who land on a page and leave without interacting.

Not all bounces are bad. For blog posts, it’s natural. But for sales pages? Big yikes.

Where to see this in GA4:
GA4 doesn’t show “bounce rate” by default — but it’s hidden in plain sight.

Go to Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens
→ Click the pencil icon (top-right) to customize report
→ Add Bounce rate as a metric from the library.

👉 Anything over 70% on a landing or product page? Time to optimize.

3. Average session duration

This shows how long users stay during a session. If your content is binge-worthy, this number should be solid.

Where to find it:
In GA4, session duration is folded into Average Engagement Time.
Go to Reports > Engagement > Overview.

👉 Pro tip: Aim for 2–3 minutes+ for core content pages.

4. Pages per session

This metric shows how many pages users explore per visit. It’s great for judging your internal linking, content flow, and overall stickiness.

Where to see it in GA4:
It’s not directly labeled “Pages/Session” anymore. Instead:

Go to Explore > Blank Report > Add Dimensions: Page path + Session start
→ Add metric: Views per session

Or shortcut it with:
Reports > Engagement > Pages and Screens
→ Analyze how many pages are viewed during sessions by comparing Views and Sessions manually.

What tools should you be using?

Here’s your digital toolbox. Don’t worry, you don’t need them all—but you need at least two.

1. Google analytics 4 (GA4)

Still the industry standard. It’s gotten smarter—and also more confusing. GA4 tracks users across platforms and uses events, not pageviews, as the core model.

👉 Advanced Tip:
Use Exploration reports to set up funnels:
Explore > Blank > Funnel exploration
→ Add steps like Homepage → Product Page → Checkout → Purchase
→ Analyze where users drop off.

2. Google search console

Want to know what people typed into Google to find you? Or which pages are tanking in rankings? This is the place.

Where to look in Search Console:

• Performance > Search results
  → See clicks, impressions, CTR, and keyword rankings

• Pages tab under “Performance”
  → See which URLs are ranking, and how they’re performing

• Coverage
  → Any pages with indexing issues will show up here

Example: You might discover you’re getting clicks for “awkward yoga fail” instead of “online yoga course.”

3. Hotjar / Microsoft Clarity

These tools give you visual data: scroll heatmaps, rage clicks, recordings.

How to use:
Just install a single script on your site. No complicated setup.
Then head to Heatmaps to see what parts of your page are hot (engaging) or cold (ignored).

4. Ahrefs / SEMrush / Ubersuggest

These are your competitor-stalking, SEO-scouting, backlink-finding Swiss Army knives.

How to use:

• Plug in your domain
  → See traffic estimates, keyword rankings, top pages

• Use Site Explorer to compare competitors
  → What content is driving them traffic?

Advanced metrics you should care about

Now that we’ve moved past the kiddie pool…

1. Traffic by source/medium

Find out where your traffic is coming from—and whether it’s converting.

In GA4:
Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition
→ You’ll see “source / medium” (e.g., google/organic, instagram/referral, email/direct)

👉 If your traffic is all “direct,” and you didn’t go viral—something’s tracking wrong.

2. Conversion rate (CR)

You’re not running a charity—you want your visitors to take action.

Where to see in GA4:
First, set up your conversions:
Admin > Events > Mark relevant events as ‘Conversions’
(Think: purchase, lead form submit, signup)

Then go to Reports > Engagement > Conversions
→ You’ll see conversion events + their rates.

Stat: The average conversion rate is 2.35%. Elite marketers? 11%+ (Wordstream).

3. Exit rate vs bounce rate

• Exit Rate: Where people left your site

• Bounce Rate: When people only saw one page

In GA4:
Reports > Engagement > Pages and Screens
→ Add Exits as a metric (via customization)
→ Compare it to views

If your “About” page has 80% exit rate, it might mean dead-end design or content fatigue.

Also read: 9 Ways AI Website Builders Can Transform Your Course Business

A/B testing: Because vibes aren’t data

Testing headlines, CTAs, or even form fields can change everything.

Tools to use:

• VWO, Convert, or even Notion + GA combo

• (RIP Google Optimize, sunset in 2023)

Example: Changing “Get Access” to “Start Learning Now” bumped one creator’s conversions by 38%. Wild.

Attribution: Who deserves the credit?

GA4 uses data-driven attribution—which uses machine learning to assign conversion credit to touchpoints that actually mattered.

Where to see it in GA4:
Advertising > Model comparison
→ Compare First-click vs Last-click vs Data-driven models

Useful for knowing if Instagram really deserves the praise—or if your welcome email did all the heavy lifting.

How often should you check?

• Weekly:
  Traffic spikes, top content, funnel leaks
  → Go to Reports > Snapshot

• Monthly:
  Keyword changes, conversion rate shifts
  → Use Search Console + GA4 Trends

• Quarterly:
  Deep SEO audits using deep SEO audit tools, competitor analysis, page speed

Technical performance = Traffic health

You can’t grow traffic on a clunky, slow site.

Tools to check:

• PageSpeed Insights (Google)

• Lighthouse (via Chrome DevTools → Audits)

• GTmetrix for load time breakdown

👉 Fact: A 1-second delay = 7% dip in conversions (Akamai)

Sample workflow: A day in the life

1. GA4 → Traffic & Conversion overview

2. Search Console → Keyword + Page issues

3. Hotjar → User behavior heatmaps

4. Ahrefs → Competitor page tracking

5. GTmetrix → Speed check

6. Your brain → Strategic improvements

Takes 30–45 min a week once you’ve built the habit.

Next Steps

The online course industry is booming, but here’s the hard truth—most courses don’t make it.

Over 85% of online courses fail to retain students, and a major reason is poor platform usability and lack of engagement.

Research shows that the average completion rate for online courses hovers around 15%, with some dropping as low as 3-5%.

The solution? An intuitive platform, interactive content, and a smart marketing strategy.

And Graphy solves exactly this.

Graphy has helped over 150K creators launch and sell their AI-first courses, webinars, memberships and other digital products.

Get your free consultation today!