Click reports About 3 min read
Understand unexpected numbers in click reports
Learn why clicks, unique visitors, bot labels, and other reports may not match your expectations.
A click is not always a person
Click reports describe requests received by a short link. A recorded request does not prove the destination finished loading or that someone read the page. Returning to a link, refreshing, or trying it on another device can add activity.
Messaging apps and social websites may fetch a link to create a preview before anyone taps it. Search crawlers and security scanners can also request addresses automatically. If a link gets activity immediately after you share it, consider these checks before treating every request as a new reader.
Use unique visitors as an estimate
Unique visitors are estimated from a protected identifier based on the visitor's network address. The service does not verify a person's identity for this count. Several people on an office network may share one address, while one person may use different addresses on home Wi-Fi, mobile data, or a VPN.
This means unique counts are not exact counts of people or accounts. Counts across several links can include the same network address, so adding them together can count the same visitor more than once. Compare the same link over similar periods when looking for a trend.
Unknown sources and bot labels are normal
A visit without a referring page is shown as direct. It might be a typed address, but it can also come from an app or a browser that does not share the source. Direct therefore does not prove that someone typed your address or bookmarked it.
Bot detection recognizes familiar patterns in browser information. It can identify some automated requests, but a request labeled human only means it did not match those patterns. Device and browser labels can also be missing or approximate. Location depends on information supplied by the hosting service; an unknown location does not mean the link failed.
Compare the same thing in both reports
Check that you are comparing the same link, date range, and type of event. Daily groups use UTC dates, which may differ from your local day. Seven-day and thirty-day figures are rolling periods, rather than necessarily a calendar week or month.
A waiting-page view and a continuation are different steps. A view means the first page was shown; a continuation means a request followed the link with completed access. Repeated requests can affect both figures. The destination's own reports may measure page loads or actions instead, so the totals need not match.
- Choose one link and a clear time period.
- Note when and where you shared it.
- Compare like-for-like totals and check detected bot activity.
- Use the destination's reporting for actions that happen after the redirect.
Report a specific mismatch
In a support ticket, include the link, report name, period, number you saw, and number you expected. Explain any recent sharing or tests. Avoid posting visitor network addresses or a full traffic export when a short description will identify the issue.