To check traffic on a blog you own, use Google Analytics 4 for total visits and Google Search Console for search traffic. For a blog you don't own, you can only estimate — third-party tools guess from keyword rankings and are routinely off by 50% or more.
Here are the five methods, ranked by how much you can trust the number.
1. Google Analytics 4 (your own blog, most accurate)
GA4 is the only tool that counts real sessions on your site.
- Sign in at analytics.google.com and pick your property.
- Go to Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens.
- In the search box above the table, type
/blog(or/blogs/newsfor Shopify) to filter to blog URLs only. - Set your date range in the top right, then compare against the previous period.
Watch Views, Active users and Average engagement time. Views inflate easily; active users is the honest number. Our step-by-step walkthrough is in How to Check Blog Traffic on Google Analytics 4.
2. Google Search Console (search traffic only)
GA4 tells you how many people arrived. Search Console tells you why.
- Open Search Console and select your property.
- Go to Performance → Search results.
- Turn on all four metrics: clicks, impressions, CTR, average position.
- Click + New → Page and filter to URLs containing
/blog.
Search Console clicks will always be lower than GA4 sessions, because GA4 counts direct, social and email traffic too. That gap is normal, not a tracking bug.
3. Blogger's built-in Stats (Blogger/Blogspot only)
Blogger ships its own counter. In the Blogger dashboard, click Stats in the left menu for pageviews by day, month and all time, plus a per-post breakdown and referring URLs.
The catch: Blogger's pageview count includes bots and your own visits, so it typically reads higher than GA4. Open the Stats page, click the three-dot menu, and turn on "Don't track your own pageviews" before you trust any of it. More on the discrepancy in How to Check Unique Visitors on Blogger.
4. Third-party traffic estimators (competitors — treat as directional)
Similarweb, Ahrefs, Semrush and Ubersuggest all publish a "monthly traffic" figure for any domain. None of them can see the site's analytics. They model traffic from keyword rankings and clickstream panels.
In practice these estimates run anywhere from 30% to 300% of the real number. Small blogs are worst — under roughly 5,000 visits a month, the sample is too thin to model. Use them to compare two competitors against each other, never as an absolute figure.
5. Free blog potential analyzer
If the question behind "how much traffic does this blog get" is really "how much traffic could it get", run the URL through our Blog Potential Analyzer. It looks at what you've published, the topics you're covering, and where the gaps are, then emails a report.
Which number should you report?
Pick one source and stick with it. Mixing GA4 sessions in January with Search Console clicks in February produces a fake trend. I use GA4 active users for the headline number and Search Console for diagnosing which posts moved.
Once you know your baseline, the next job is moving it. Start with How to Increase Blog Traffic.
FAQ
Why does Google Analytics show fewer visits than my blog's own counter?
Most built-in counters (Blogger, older WordPress plugins) count every request, including bots, feed readers and your own admin visits. GA4 runs JavaScript in a real browser and drops most bot traffic, so its number is lower and closer to reality. Trust the lower number.
Can I check another website's blog traffic accurately?
No. Only the site owner sees real data. Third-party estimators infer traffic from keyword rankings and browser panels, and their margin of error is large on small sites. They're useful for ranking competitors against one another, not for stating a specific visit count.
How long does GA4 take to start showing blog traffic?
Real-time data appears within seconds of installing the tag, but standard reports take 24 to 48 hours to populate. Don't judge the setup on day one. Check the Realtime report immediately to confirm the tag fires, then come back after two days.
Is Search Console traffic the same as total blog traffic?
No. Search Console only counts clicks from Google Search. It excludes Bing, direct visits, social referrals, email and AI assistants. On a healthy blog, Google typically accounts for 50 to 80% of total traffic, so expect your GA4 number to be meaningfully higher.