Guide · Get found & promote
Free website analytics: what to track and what to ignore
Use Cloudflare Web Analytics for five useful numbers, add Search Console context, and avoid a reporting project nobody needs.
Updated 2026-07-28
A small-business website does not need a wall of charts. It needs enough evidence to answer whether the right people arrive and complete the next step.
| Tool | Free allowance | Limits | Upgrade only when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Web Analytics Free · CA/US Checked 2026-09-12· Recheck due; confirm with provider | Privacy-first website traffic reporting without a paid plan | It is intentionally simpler than product analytics suites. | You need event funnels, user-level product analysis, or warehouse exports. |
| Microsoft Clarity Free · CA/US Checked 2026-09-12· Recheck due; confirm with provider | Session recordings, heatmaps, and behavioral insights | Recordings create additional privacy and masking responsibilities. | Do not upgrade by default; add it temporarily when diagnosing a specific page problem. |
Five useful numbers
Review these once a month:
- Visits: Is qualified traffic growing or falling?
- Top landing pages: Which page starts the visit?
- Referrers: Did the visitor come from search, a map listing, social media, or another site?
- Country or broad geography: Are visits coming from the market you serve?
- Completed actions: How many forms, calls, bookings, or payment starts happened?
The first four describe traffic. The fifth describes business value. A page-view increase without enquiries is not automatically progress.
Cloudflare Web Analytics
Cloudflare Web Analytics is the default recommendation for a brochure site because it provides simple, privacy-first traffic reporting without building individual visitor profiles.
If the site uses Cloudflare Pages, enable Web Analytics in the Cloudflare dashboard and confirm the site or token appears. If Cloudflare provides a beacon snippet, add it once in the shared site layout. Visit the site from a private window, then confirm a recent visit appears after processing.
This site uses Cloudflare’s automatic edge injection rather than a source-code snippet. Dashboard recording was confirmed on July 27, 2026. Treat that as a deployment check, not a reason to assume another site is recording correctly.
Search Console is different
Google Search Console shows how Google sees the site: search queries, impressions, clicks, indexing, and crawl problems. Web analytics shows visits after someone arrives. Use both, but do not add their numbers together.
Follow the Google and Bing submission guide for verification.
Use Clarity only for a specific problem
Microsoft Clarity can show heatmaps and session recordings. Add it temporarily when a form, navigation path, or mobile page is failing and ordinary metrics cannot explain why.
Recordings require more care:
- mask form fields and sensitive page areas
- exclude authenticated or private pages
- update the privacy policy
- restrict access and set a review deadline
- remove the tool when the diagnosis is finished
Why not GA4 by default
GA4 is capable and free, but the setup, consent decisions, event model, and reports exceed what most brochure-site owners need. Use it when advertising attribution, ecommerce funnels, or a trained analyst makes the extra complexity worthwhile.
The free route is Cloudflare Web Analytics plus Search Console and a monthly count of real enquiries. Upgrade only when a named decision requires data those tools cannot provide.