How to see where your website visitors come from

Q: Is Connections Analytics free to start?

You can start on the free plan without a card . Analytics has no separate price, because it is part of Connections Pass . Adding your sites costs nothing extra . If you use up your plan, tracking keeps going, but busy sessions are sampled . Check what your plan includes before a busy period, so you know what to expect.

Q: Can a site owner see which city visitors come from?

Traffic reports include a city-level geography view . This helps a local business see whether visitors come from the area it serves or from further away. Compare the city list with the sources list, because a place that sends visits from search may show a different pattern from one that sends visits from social media. Check the view against a few visits you know about before relying on it.

Q: Does a tool show how far down a page people read?

The Pages report shows how far down each page people read . Use it alongside the sources list. If visitors from one source leave before reaching your offer, the landing page may need a clearer top section. Read the pattern across several weeks rather than one day before changing anything on the page.

A plain guide for small business owners on finding where website visitors come from, with the steps, the tools, and the mistakes to avoid.

By Uncommon Comforts · 2026-10-18

Uncommon Comforts is published by the team behind Connections, whose products are compared here alongside other tools.

Find the report that lists where visitors come from, compare the same length of time with the period before it, and check the page that each visitor first reached for each of the top sources. Then compare those sources with the actions that matter, such as enquiries or purchases, and leave out visits you cannot trace.

Option	Price	What it shows
Connections Analytics	Part of Connections Pass; you can start on the free plan without a card ^[1] ^[1]	Traffic reports include a city-level geography view ^[1]
Other tools you are comparing	Not published in the facts for this page; check the tool's own pricing page	Not published in the facts for this page; check its own reports for sources and city-level detail

What you need before you start

Start with the pages you care about most: the homepage, the contact page, and the page where people book, buy, or ask for a quote. Knowing these first makes the sources report easier to read, because you can see at a glance whether visitors reach the pages that bring in sales or messages.

You also need access to the place where your website is run. That might be your website builder, your hosting dashboard, or the file where the site's code lives. You will likely need to add a small piece of code to the site or turn on a setting, so find out who can make that change before you begin.

Choose the time range you want to compare, such as the last month against the month before. A single busy week can look like a trend, so pick a period long enough to smooth out one-off spikes.

Write down a few questions you want answered. Good examples are whether your local listing sends more visitors than social media, or whether a newsletter brought anyone to the shop page. These questions tell you which report to open first.

Finally, decide who should see the numbers and whether they should receive summaries by email. Little technical work is needed. You need to know where your site is run, which pages matter most, and what you want to learn.

Step by step

Work through these steps in order. The steps are general, so check them against your own tool.

Open the report that lists where visitors come from. Look for a section called sources, referrals, or channels.
Set the time range to the period you chose, then set the same length of time right before it so you can compare the two.
Read the list from the top. Note which places send the most visitors, such as search results, social media, other websites, email, and people who typed your address directly.
For each of the top sources, look at the page the visitor landed on. A visitor from a directory listing may arrive on your contact page rather than your homepage, and that changes what you should fix.
Test the setup. Open your own site from a link you post somewhere you control, and check that the visit appears under the source you expect. If it does not, confirm that the tracking code is on every page, not only the homepage.
Compare sources with actions. Ask which source produced phone calls, form fills, or purchases. Count only actions you can connect to a visit, and leave out anything you cannot trace.
Look at unknown or blank sources separately. Visits with no source are often direct visits or links from apps that hide where they came from. Treat them as unknown rather than as a specific place.
Write a short note at the end of each month. Record the top sources, the landing pages that mattered, and anything that changed since last time. Keep the notes, so that over time you see a trend instead of a single snapshot.

Tools that can do it

Several kinds of tools can answer this question. The other tools need checking on their own pages for how much they show and how much setup they need. For this page, the facts available cover one product in detail. Check the other options on their own pages before you decide.

Connections Analytics is made by the team that publishes this site. You add one script to your site, and it records page views and clicks without you tagging anything by hand ^[1]. The Overview has a live tile that refreshes every 30 seconds and shows which pages people are on right now ^[1]. Traffic reports include a city-level geography view, so you can see whether visitors come from your area ^[1]. The same product shows the searches that bring people to your pages on Google, and which of those searches sit close to page one ^[1]. You can also block your own office by IP address and exclude certain paths, so your own visits can be left out of the counts ^[1].

Analytics has no separate price because it is part of Connections Pass ^[1]. You can start on the free plan without a card ^[1], and adding your sites costs nothing extra ^[1]. It is a web app, so you open it in a browser ^[1].

The facts available for this page do not describe the other tools, so do not assume they match this list. For each one, check whether it lists sources, shows which landing page each visit came through, and offers city-level detail. Compare prices on each tool's own pricing page, because this page does not state them.

Common mistakes to avoid

Reading a single busy week as a trend is a common error. Compare the same length of time before and after a change, and wait until the pattern repeats before acting on it.

Counting visits alone can mislead. A source with many visits and no enquiries is not necessarily a good source, and a small source may bring the most valuable enquiries. Compare sources with what they lead to, not only with how many people they send.

Ignoring the unknown group is another trap. A large blank share may hide a real source. Check the landing pages and the timing before you decide what it means.

Forgetting your own visits is easy. Staff checking the website, testing a form, or updating pages all create visits. Block those addresses so the counts reflect customers.

Installing the tracking code on the homepage only can leave gaps in the report. Visitors often arrive on product, contact, or booking pages, so confirm that every page is measured, or the report will miss the visits that matter most.

Changing the setup halfway through a comparison breaks it. If you move the tracking code, rename a page, or switch tools, note the date and avoid comparing before and after as if nothing changed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Connections Analytics free to start?

You can start on the free plan without a card ^[1]. Analytics has no separate price, because it is part of Connections Pass ^[1]. Adding your sites costs nothing extra ^[1]. If you use up your plan, tracking keeps going, but busy sessions are sampled ^[1]. Check what your plan includes before a busy period, so you know what to expect.

How does a site owner add a tracking script to a website?

You add one script to your site, and it records page views and clicks without you tagging anything by hand ^[1]. To start, add the site in the tool and copy the tracking snippet it gives you ^[1]. If no data arrives, the tool looks at your homepage once and says why ^[1]. Place the code in a site-wide area such as the page header or template so that every page is counted.

Can a site owner see which city visitors come from?

Traffic reports include a city-level geography view ^[1]. This helps a local business see whether visitors come from the area it serves or from further away. Compare the city list with the sources list, because a place that sends visits from search may show a different pattern from one that sends visits from social media. Check the view against a few visits you know about before relying on it.

Does a tool show how far down a page people read?

The Pages report shows how far down each page people read ^[1]. Use it alongside the sources list. If visitors from one source leave before reaching your offer, the landing page may need a clearer top section. Read the pattern across several weeks rather than one day before changing anything on the page.

Can a weekly summary be emailed to a team member?

It can email a weekly or monthly summary to the addresses you add ^[1]. Add the addresses of people who need the sources list, such as a manager or an office assistant, and keep the list short so the emails stay useful. Check that the summaries arrive in the inbox you expect before relying on them, since a summary that lands in spam helps no one.

You can start on the free plan without a card. ^[1] Analytics has no separate price; it is part of Connections Pass. ^[1]

Try Connections Analytics

Sources

Connections Analytics' own description of itself (the product of this site's publisher)