Do you know how people use your website?

As developers, we tend to pour our energy into design and performance, yet we sometimes overlook the importance of analytics.

Web analytics isn’t just for marketing teams. It’s a feedback loop for developers, helping us understand how people actually use what we build. Every click, scroll, and abandoned form tells a story about usability, performance, and real-world value.

That said, I’ve noticed two common realities:

Traffic expectations are usually much higher than reality

Launching a new product or feature often feels like “everyone will use it,” but analytics quickly reveal how small the actual audience is — and that’s okay. It’s a humbling reminder that value and visibility are earned over time.

Analytics in reactive web apps (like React, Vue, or Next.js) is more complex

Traditional websites rely on simple page reloads that tools like Google Analytics handle easily. But in modern SPAs, route changes happen client-side, so we have to manually track navigation events, state transitions, and custom interactions to get accurate data.

As developers, understanding these nuances helps us build not just beautiful or fast applications, but measurable ones.

Here are traffic statistics screenshots for a niche dictionary website I built. I’m sharing them both for transparency and as a historical reference.

Traffic is currently well below the median for the Dictionaries & Encyclopedias category, but I’m curious to see how much I can grow it sustainably over time.

I’ve come to value high-quality, human traffic over automated or bot traffic. That’s why I’m shifting my focus toward serving registered users rather than anonymous visitors.