The video is in the works. Until then, the guide will get you there.
Step-by-step guide
Where to find the Real-time report
In the side menu, click "Visitors".
A submenu opens. Choose "Real-time" there.
The Real-time report opens.
When you should check here
Most reports in Trustlytics show the past: yesterday, last week, last month. The Real-time report does the opposite. It shows this moment.
That is worth its weight in gold when you have just launched something. Newsletter out? LinkedIn post published? Promotion started? Instead of waiting until tomorrow, you simply look and see whether people are really showing up. Live. Right at the moment it happens.
And one more thing: this is the only report that counts instantly. All the others are processed overnight and appear the next morning. If you have just added the tracking code and want to know whether it works at all, this is exactly the place to check.
The four metrics at the top
Four boxes sit side by side at the very top. Three show numbers, the fourth a small chart. Together they tell you whether things are running as usual or something special is going on.
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Active now | How many visitors are on your website at this exact moment. The pulsing dot shows that this is truly live. |
| Last 30 min. | How many visits and actions there were in the last half hour. Your measure of the immediate pulse. |
| Last 24 hrs. | The same numbers, but for the last 24 hours. Gives you a feel for the pace of the day. |
| 60 min. trend | A small chart showing visits per minute over the last hour. |
The 60 min. trend is your best friend when you want to follow the effect of a promotion live. If the curve rises, more people are pouring in right now. If it flattens, the first wave is over.
Comparing "Last 30 min." with "Last 24 hrs." is worthwhile too. If the half hour holds almost as many visits as a whole day usually does, something unusual is happening. That is the moment to look at the live stream and find out where the surge is coming from.
The live stream
The live stream runs below that. Every new visit shows up at the top of the list, with the newest always first. For each visitor you can see at a glance where they came from, what device they are using, and when they were here, from right now to a few hours ago.
Two things that help when you read the list:
- You can spot visitors who are active at this very moment by the pulsing "Active" badge. They are on your site right now.
- The list refreshes automatically, as the "Auto-refresh: 15 sec." note shows. So you don't need to reload anything, and you can leave the page open while you work on something else.
What makes this list appealing is that statistics suddenly turn into individual visitors. Not "340 visits today," but someone from Denver on a phone, right now, on your pricing page.
As long as nobody has visited yet, you simply see "No visits yet". That is not an error, it just means nothing is going on yet. As soon as someone stops by, an entry appears immediately.
Clicking a visitor
This is where it gets really interesting. When you click a visitor in the live stream, the visitor profile opens with the whole story of that one visit:
- Which pages were viewed, and in what order
- How long the visit lasted
- Which device and browser were used
- Where the visitor came from
That way you learn not only how many visitors are here, but what one of them actually did on your site. Sometimes that one path through your site is exactly the answer the big numbers never give you.
An example: you see a visit that starts on the home page, then jumps to pricing, back to the home page, to pricing again, and then leaves. This person was interested in what you offer and became unsure about the price. A line in a statistic turns into a hunch you can work with.
Aha moments you will recognize
A few situations in which the Real-time report suddenly becomes really useful:
- Newsletter out, and the curve shoots up. You send your newsletter and watch the trend. If the line climbs in the minutes afterward, you know right away: the subject line worked, people are clicking. There is hardly a better feeling.
- Twenty "Active now" out of nowhere. Usually two or three people are on your site at the same time. Suddenly it is twenty? Then someone linked to you, shared you, or mentioned you. Check the live stream for where they came from, and you will know where the surge is coming from.
- Everyone leaves from the same page. You click a few visitor profiles and notice that everyone lands on the same page and leaves from there. A clear sign that something is wrong with that page.
- A single visitor viewing ten pages. That is not a random click, that is real interest. Take a close look at this path. It shows you which sequence through your website actually works.
- Seeing live that your promotion does nothing. That is valuable too. Post published and the trend stays flat? Then the post reached nobody, and you save yourself the hoping until tomorrow.
What is in it for me?
The Real-time report is your live window onto your website. It answers the questions of the moment:
- Is my promotion working right now? Newsletter or post out, and you immediately see whether visitors are coming.
- Is something unusual going on? An unusually high number of "Active now" stands out right away.
- Who is moving around on my site right now? The live stream turns statistics into real people.
- Is my tracking working at all? Open your own website in another window. If an entry shows up here within a few seconds, the code is set up correctly.
A word of honesty: this report is addictive. Watching visitors come in is entertaining, but it is no substitute for analysis. For decisions you need weeks and months, not minutes. Use the Real-time report for the moment after a promotion and to check that everything is running.
Common questions
I just added Trustlytics. Will I see anything here right away?
Yes. The Real-time report counts from the very first second. All the other reports are processed overnight and only appear the next morning. So if you want to check whether the tracking code works, visit your website yourself and look here. An entry should appear after a few seconds.
How often does the Real-time report update?
Every 15 seconds, all on its own. You don't need to reload the page.
Why does Real-time show different numbers than the Visitors overview?
Real-time shows what is happening right now. The overview shows the period after it has been fully processed. For the current day, the numbers can therefore differ slightly until the overnight processing is done.
What exactly does "Active" mean for a visitor?
It means that this person did something on your site in the last few moments and is very likely still there. As soon as they stop doing anything for a while or leave the site, the "Active" badge disappears.
How long does a visit stay visible in the live stream?
A few hours. After that it drops off the list. For a look back over days and weeks, use the Visitor log, where visits are kept.
Are bots shown in the live stream?
No. We filter out search engine crawlers and bots automatically. In the live stream you see real people.
It says "No visits yet". Is something broken?
No. Most of the time there is simply nobody on your site at the moment. As soon as someone stops by, an entry appears immediately. If you want to be sure, open your own website in another window. If an entry then appears, everything is fine, and it was just quiet.
There is almost never anyone on my site. Does that make the report useless?
For smaller websites an empty live stream is the normal case, and it is not a bad sign. The report shows its strength in the minutes after a promotion: after the newsletter, after a post, after a mention. For everyday use, the Visitors overview is the better page.
Can I identify an individual visitor personally?
No, and that is on purpose. You see origin, device, and the path through your site, but no names, no email addresses, nothing personal. You count visits, you don't track people. That is exactly why we exist.