Menu
FeaturesHow-ToPrivacy
LoginSign up
Help Center

Strange Metrics How-To

Start with the business-friendly dashboard, then use these instructions when you need deeper analytics, setup help, tracked links, conversions, funnels, reporting, or troubleshooting.

Getting started

  1. 1.Create a free account and confirm your email address.
  2. 2.Choose Start with tracked links if you want immediate click tracking without installing anything.
  3. 3.Choose Connect a website if you want full visitor, journey, event, funnel, conversion, campaign, and geography analytics.
  4. 4.Once a website is connected, Strange Metrics takes you to the Installation Center so you can install and verify tracking.
  5. 5.After the first website event arrives, create a conversion for the business result you care about. For completed forms, choose a success-only event such as contact_form_success; a generic form_submit attempt may include failed submissions.
  6. 6.Tracked links and QR codes can also run without installing the website script. Strange Metrics records link clicks and QR scans from each tracked redirect. Install site tracking when you want to connect that traffic with page views, events, journeys, funnels, and conversions after arrival.
  7. 7.The onboarding checklist shows whether your website is connected, tracking has sent data, and an active conversion goal is configured.

Use the dashboard

  1. 1.The left sidebar is the main dashboard navigation on desktop. On mobile, tap Menu at the top to open the same navigation.
  2. 2.Home contains Overview and Live activity. Start with Overview for the key numbers, then use Live activity when you want to watch incoming events.
  3. 3.Traffic contains Sources, Campaigns, Tracked links, and QR codes.
  4. 4.Audience contains Visitors, Geography, and Devices & browsers.
  5. 5.Behavior contains Journeys, Funnels, and Events.
  6. 6.Results contains Conversions, Ecommerce, Visitor intent, Insights, and Reports.
  7. 7.Settings contains Website, Installation, Tracking, and Data health.
  8. 8.Less frequently used tools such as Paths, Data quality, and Email reports are under Advanced.
  9. 9.Use the project selector at the top of each dashboard page to switch between websites or tracked-link workspaces.
  10. 10.The dashboard keeps the selected project in context as you move between sections.

Read the Overview

  1. 1.Open Home → Overview.
  2. 2.At a glance shows Visitors, Sessions, Conversions, and Conversion rate first so you can understand the main business picture quickly.
  3. 3.What changed compares the current 30 days with the previous 30 days for sessions, page views, conversions, conversion rate, and returning traffic.
  4. 4.Where visitors came from shows the most common traffic sources.
  5. 5.What visitors viewed shows the top pages by page views.
  6. 6.Recent activity shows the latest tracked events and links directly to Live activity.
  7. 7.Use Common next steps when you want to review traffic, create a tracked link, check conversions, or open reports.

Install website analytics

  1. 1.Open Settings → Installation whenever you need to install or verify an existing website.
  2. 2.Choose the installation method that matches the website platform.
  3. 3.WordPress users can download a personalized plugin ZIP. Google Tag Manager users can import a personalized container.
  4. 4.Provider-specific instructions are available for GoDaddy, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Next.js/React, and custom websites.
  5. 5.For GoDaddy, choose the route that matches the actual product: WordPress, Web Hosting/cPanel/custom files, or Websites + Marketing.
  6. 6.GoDaddy Websites + Marketing custom code is section-based, so verify every important page you expect to measure. If the builder does not execute the script reliably, use the site's WordPress/cPanel route when available or have a developer place the snippet in a global template.
  7. 7.If someone else manages the website, download the complete developer handoff kit and send that single ZIP to them.
  8. 8.Strange Metrics analytics runs in the background. The integration does not add a Strange Metrics badge, footer, widget, or other visible branding to the client website.
  9. 9.After installation, open the public website and browse one or two pages. The Installation Center automatically refreshes while waiting and changes to Tracking detected once the first event arrives.
  10. 10.Precise device location is optional. Network geography works without it; enabling precise location can cause the visitor's browser to show its normal location-permission prompt.

Manage websites and project keys

  1. 1.Open Settings → Website to add a site, change its dashboard name, or update its primary website address.
  2. 2.Changing the primary address synchronizes its www/non-www allowed domains. Other allowed domains remain listed, and you can add or remove them on the same page.
  3. 3.The public project key and installation snippet are available on each site card. The key is used by the browser-side tracking installation; do not use it in place of a private server credential.
  4. 4.Regenerating a project key immediately invalidates the old one. Update every website snippet, WordPress plugin, tag manager, or other installation that uses it, then confirm tracking is detected again.
  5. 5.Deleting a site requires typing its exact name. Deletion is permanent and removes related records according to the database deletion rules, so export any data you need to keep first.

Understand traffic sources and campaigns

  1. 1.Open Traffic → Sources to see where sessions came from, including UTM sources, referral domains, tracked links, and direct traffic.
  2. 2.Open Traffic → Campaigns to compare campaign-tagged sessions and attribution.
  3. 3.Use UTM parameters such as utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign when you want campaign reporting to be more specific.
  4. 4.Tracked links can be used in email, social posts, ads, documents, and other places where you want the redirect itself measured.

Create a tracked QR code

  1. 1.Open Traffic → QR codes.
  2. 2.Enter a label and destination URL.
  3. 3.Strange Metrics creates a QR code connected to its own tracked redirect so scans can be measured like tracked-link clicks.
  4. 4.Open the full-size QR image when you need to save or place it in print material.
  5. 5.If a branded tracking domain is configured under Dashboard → Sites, newly generated QR images use that hostname. Configure the hostname in Vercel and DNS before sharing it.

Understand visitors

  1. 1.Open Audience → Visitors to review pseudonymous visitors, session counts, new or returning status, latest location, technology, and last-seen time.
  2. 2.Open Audience → Geography to review country, region, city, and approximate network-coordinate reporting.
  3. 3.Open Audience → Devices & browsers to understand the technology visitors use.
  4. 4.Strange Metrics does not need a person's real identity to recognize a returning browser; visitor records are pseudonymous.

Review visitor journeys

  1. 1.Open Behavior → Journeys.
  2. 2.Each journey groups a website session with the pages and tracked interactions recorded during that visit.
  3. 3.Use the timeline to see the order of actions, time between steps, entry source, location, conversions, and total visit duration.
  4. 4.Journeys are especially useful after a tracked link or campaign sends a visitor into a website because you can see what happened after the click.

Conversions

  1. 1.Open Results → Conversions.
  2. 2.Use conversions to define outcomes that matter to the business, such as a lead, request quote, registration, purchase, or another important event.
  3. 3.Choose an exact event name. For completed forms, use a success-only event such as contact_form_success; the automatic form_submit event records an attempt and does not prove the form succeeded.
  4. 4.The Strange Metrics account form sends account_signup_submitted after Supabase accepts a new email registration. It does not send the email address; email confirmation still has to be completed separately.
  5. 5.When optional matching conditions are available for the project, they can narrow a rule by page path, target URL, button or element details, form ID/name, or event value. If you add more than one condition, every condition must match. Form ID/name are available on automatic form_submit events; custom events must send that metadata to use those filters.
  6. 6.Conversion definitions apply to future events. Once configured, Strange Metrics connects conversions back to sessions, campaigns, tracked links, journeys, and funnels where attribution is available.
  7. 7.Overview and Reports use conversion data to calculate higher-level business metrics such as conversion rate.

Ecommerce events and reporting

  1. 1.Open Results → Ecommerce to review purchases, refunds, revenue, average order value, purchasing sessions, and the item details your store sends.
  2. 2.Install the Strange Metrics tracking script on every store domain that should share visitor sessions. Domains listed for the same project are linked automatically when someone follows a link between them; the short-lived link token is removed from the address bar on arrival.
  3. 3.After a payment provider confirms an order, call window.StrangeMetrics.trackEcommerce("purchase", { transactionId, currency, value, items }). Use a stable non-personal transaction ID, an ISO currency code such as CAD, the confirmed total, and optional item details.
  4. 4.Send a refund event with the original non-personal transaction ID and refunded amount when a refund is confirmed. Refunds are subtracted from gross revenue in the ecommerce report.
  5. 5.Create a conversion rule for the exact purchase event name when you want orders included in conversions, funnels, or Strange Insights.
  6. 6.Do not send customer names, email addresses, payment card details, addresses, or other personal information in event metadata.
  7. 7.Ecommerce reports use data from the last 30 days and group totals by currency. They reflect values sent by the website, not a payment processor reconciliation.

Funnels

  1. 1.Open Behavior → Funnels.
  2. 2.Name the funnel, then choose at least two events or active conversions in the order a visitor should complete them. Event suggestions show recent event counts, and conversion options show how many matching conversions were recorded in the last 30 days.
  3. 3.Choose a starting template for contact forms, quote requests, newsletter signups, ecommerce purchases, or lead generation. Templates use matching recent events and active conversion definitions for this website; review and edit every suggested step before saving.
  4. 4.For a completed form, use its success event or saved conversion as the outcome. The automatic form_submit event records an attempt and may include failures.
  5. 5.Recent data previews show whether each event, conversion, and filter has matching history. Page paths, button text, form IDs/names, and other observed values are suggested while you build. A warning means the step may have no matching visitors yet.
  6. 6.Check the funnel path preview before saving. Steps are counted once per session in the chosen order, and other visitor activity may happen between steps.
  7. 7.Review entries, completion rate, drop-off, and median completion time. When the final step is a saved conversion, Strange Metrics labels it as the conversion outcome.

Understand Strange Insights

  1. 1.Open Results → Insights.
  2. 2.Insights compares the current 30 days with the immediately preceding 30 days and checks completed days for unusually large movement. Findings are descriptive; they do not prove what caused a change or predict what will happen next.
  3. 3.When the available sample is large enough, Strange Metrics can highlight growing traffic sources, tracked-link conversion differences, returning-session performance, campaigns that convert well at lower volume, and mobile versus desktop conversion on contact or quote pages.
  4. 4.Each finding includes the reason it appeared, the counts or rates used, and a link to a related dashboard so you can inspect the supporting data.
  5. 5.Some comparisons need minimum activity before they appear. If a finding is absent, there may not yet be enough sessions or conversions to make that comparison useful.
  6. 6.Insights use transparent rules and sample thresholds rather than opaque AI scores.

Geography and precise location

  1. 1.Open Audience → Geography.
  2. 2.Network geography works automatically for country, region, city, and approximate network-coordinate reporting.
  3. 3.The local visitor heatmap plots activity within countries using approximate network coordinates and automatically prefers precise device coordinates for sessions where browser location permission was granted.
  4. 4.To use the most precise location available, open Settings → Installation and enable Precise device location for the selected website.
  5. 5.The visitor's browser controls the required location-permission request. Strange Metrics cannot bypass it.
  6. 6.When permission is denied or precise location is unavailable, network geography continues normally.
  7. 7.The integration itself remains visually invisible on the client website; the only visible location-related UI is the browser or operating system permission request when precise location is enabled.

Pause or resume tracking

  1. 1.Open Settings → Tracking.
  2. 2.Active means Strange Metrics collects new analytics normally.
  3. 3.Paused is customer-controlled. The website, tracked links, and QR codes continue to work, but new analytics collection stops.
  4. 4.Resume tracking from the same page. The existing website installation remains in place, so no reinstall is required.
  5. 5.Disabled is a platform-controlled state. A customer cannot reactivate a Disabled project from the normal dashboard.

Check data health

  1. 1.Open Settings → Data health when you want to confirm that the website, allowed domains, tracking installation, recent traffic, conversions, links, campaigns, QR codes, and funnels are working as expected.
  2. 2.Use Advanced → Data quality when you need a more technical look at measurement quality or collection issues.
  3. 3.If something is missing, follow the action link shown beside that health item rather than searching through the entire dashboard.

Reports and exports

  1. 1.Open Results → Reports.
  2. 2.Reports summarizes the last 30 days with sessions, visitors, conversions, conversion rate, average duration, returning traffic, top source, top campaign, geography, and device information when available.
  3. 3.CSV exports are available for sessions, events, and conversions when you need to work with the data in Excel, Google Sheets, a client report, or another analysis workflow.

Account and security

  1. 1.Open Account settings from the bottom of the dashboard sidebar or logged-in public navigation.
  2. 2.Account Settings can change the login email, change the password, sign out other devices, or sign out everywhere.
  3. 3.If you forget your password, use Forgot your password? on the login page.
  4. 4.Single-member accounts can permanently delete their account and owned Strange Metrics data from the Account Settings danger zone. The account email, the word DELETE, and a final acknowledgement are required.
  5. 5.If the account belongs to a shared organization, automatic deletion is blocked so shared projects and ownership cannot be orphaned. Contact support to transfer or review shared access first.

Troubleshooting

  1. 1.Start with Settings → Data health. It is designed to show whether the main setup pieces are working.
  2. 2.If website tracking is not detected, confirm the project key and allowed domain match the site you installed.
  3. 3.Open browser DevTools → Network, search for collect, reload the page, and confirm a Strange Metrics collect request is sent successfully.
  4. 4.For precise location testing, also look for a request to /api/location after granting the browser's location permission.
  5. 5.If a tracked link does not redirect, confirm the link is active and the destination URL is still valid.
  6. 6.If you still need help, use Help & how-to or Feedback in the dashboard sidebar, or contact support@strangemetrics.com.

Still need help?

Email support@strangemetrics.com.

Create free accountLogin