Analytics
Reading click data: five numbers that matter
A short guide to the figures a link dashboard shows, what each one can and cannot tell you, and how to avoid reading too much into them.
By Lumara Links Team
4 min read
Click data is easy to collect and easy to misread. A dashboard gives you a handful of numbers, and each answers a slightly different question. Knowing which question goes with which number is most of the skill.
1. Total clicks
The number of times the link was opened. It is the simplest measure of reach, and the best one for comparing two links you shared in a similar way.
It is not a count of people. One person opening a link three times is three clicks. Some automated systems, such as link previews in messaging apps, also open links, and good analytics tools try to leave those out.
2. Unique visitors
An estimate of how many different people clicked. It is always an estimate, because the same person on a phone and a laptop looks like two visitors, and privacy-friendly tools deliberately avoid identifying individuals. Use it as a rough guide to audience size, and expect it to be lower than total clicks.
3. Clicks over time
The shape of the line tells you more than any single figure. A sharp spike followed by silence is typical of a post or an email. A slow, steady line suggests a link people keep finding, such as one on a sign or in a profile.
Compare a period with the one before it, not just with zero. “Up 20 percent on last month” is a statement you can act on.
4. Devices and browsers
Whether people arrive on phones or computers should shape the page they land on. If most clicks are mobile, check the destination on a phone first: the loading time, the size of the buttons, the length of the form.
5. Referrers
The site the click came from, when the browser shares it. Many clicks arrive with no referrer at all, for example from apps, email programs, QR codes and typed links, and are grouped as direct. A large direct share is normal and does not mean something is broken.
If you need to tell channels apart reliably, do not rely on referrers. Create one short link per channel and compare their totals.
Try it yourself
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