Analytics

Analytics gives you visits, heatmaps, scroll depth and real-visitor performance data for a site, all from a single script you add once. There is no separate account to create and nothing is sent to a third party such as Google Analytics.

What you need before you start

Analytics only works once the tracking snippet is live on the site, because every figure it shows comes from the snippet running in a visitor's own browser, not from a check TLDTrack runs on your behalf:

• The Analytics module switched on in Settings > Modules. It is off by default, since not every account needs it.
• The tracking snippet installed on the site. One script, tied to the site by a unique key, pasted once into a shared template. See finding and installing the snippet for the exact steps; it is the same snippet used for error tracking.

Until the snippet is installed and a visitor has loaded a page, the Heatmaps tab has nothing to show. There is no historical data to import and no way to back-fill it, because the numbers only exist from the moment the snippet starts running.

Visits, visitors and referrers

Every page load the snippet sees is counted as a view, and TLDTrack also works out roughly how many separate people that represents:

• Page views, per page, per day.
• Unique visitors, worked out from a hash that combines the visitor's IP address, browser and the site, and changes every day. Nobody is tracked across days, and the raw IP address and browser string are not stored for analytics, only that day's hash.
• Referrers, the external sites people arrived from, so you can see what is sending traffic.
• Device split, mobile, tablet or desktop, based on the width of the visitor's browser window.

Heatmaps and scroll depth

On top of raw numbers, TLDTrack builds a picture of how people actually use a page:

• Click heatmap. Every click is placed on a grid over the page, so you can see which areas get the most attention.
• Movement heatmap. A lighter sample of pointer movement, taken on roughly one in ten page loads to keep the overhead low, gives a sense of how visitors scan the page.
• Scroll depth. How far down the page visitors get, in bands, so you can tell whether people are reaching your content below the fold, or leaving before they get there.
• Top clicked elements. The links and buttons that get clicked most, named using their visible text or label, not just a raw selector.
• Time on page. How long a visit lasts, capped at 30 minutes so a tab left open overnight does not distort the figure.

Real-visitor performance and JavaScript errors

The same snippet also measures Core Web Vitals, Google's speed and stability metrics, from real visits rather than a lab test, and watches for JavaScript errors that happen in a visitor's browser. Both appear on the domain's Heatmaps and Error Tracking areas, and both are documented in full, including the exact thresholds and how alerts work, in tracking code, errors and Core Web Vitals. In short: Vitals are reported as the typical (p75) figure over the last 30 days, split mobile versus desktop, and a JavaScript error that breaks a form or a checkout gets grouped and named in an alert rather than going unnoticed.

Setting it up, step by step

1. 1
   Turn the Analytics module on in Settings > Modules, if it is not already.
2. 2
   Open the website from your Domains list. If you have not added it yet, see Add your first website.
3. 3
   Copy the tracking snippet from the site's Heatmaps tab, and paste it once into a shared template, just before </head>.
4. 4
   Wait for a real visitor to load a page. Figures start appearing from that first visit, with heatmap and scroll detail filling in as more visits arrive.

Where to see this

Good to know

• Analytics is off by default and needs turning on in Settings > Modules, then the tracking snippet needs installing on the site itself. Both steps are needed before anything appears.
• There is no cookie involved. Visitors are told apart using a hash that rotates every day, and the underlying IP address and browser string are not kept for analytics.
• Your plan sets a monthly page-view allowance for your whole account: 10,000 on Starter, 100,000 on Pro and 500,000 on Agency. If the account goes over it in a month, TLDTrack keeps counting page views but stops recording new heatmap, scroll and time-on-page detail until the next month starts.
• Because the numbers only exist from the moment the snippet runs, there is nothing to back-fill for time before it was installed.
• To watch specific words or elements on a page for changes, rather than how visitors behave, see content checks instead.