Before you start

A smooth setup starts with four small things. Have these ready and the rest is straightforward:

Item	What it means
Dashboard account	An active NowMetrix user account with access to the relevant tracker.
Tracker ID	The internal identifier for the website, for example `TRACKER_ID`.
Website access	Permission to add the NowMetrix tracking snippet to the website template or tag manager.
Production domain	The final hostname that should appear in NowMetrix, for example `example-news.com`.

1. Sign in to the dashboard

Open dash.nowmetrix.com and sign in. You will land on the realtime view for the tracker you used most recently.

If your organization uses single sign-on, use the sign-in method provided by your account owner. If you cannot access a tracker after login, ask an admin to add your user to the correct tracker list.

2. Find your tracker

Every website has its own tracker ID. Think of it as the label that tells NowMetrix where an incoming pageview belongs. You will use the same ID for tracking, API requests, and troubleshooting.

Use neutral IDs in examples and test scripts. In production, replace TRACKER_ID with the tracker ID assigned to your website.

3. Install tracking

Add the snippet to every page you want to see in NowMetrix. For a newsroom, that usually means article pages, section fronts, landing pages, and the homepage.

<script src="https://ua.realtimely.io/script.js" data-site="TRACKER_ID" defer></script>

Recommended placement:

Place the snippet in the shared page template, somewhere inside the <head> section.
Load it only once per page.
Keep it active on both desktop and mobile page variants.
Do not block it behind cookie-consent logic unless your legal setup requires that.

Google Tag Manager

In Google Tag Manager, create a Custom HTML tag and paste the standard NowMetrix snippet. Trigger it on all pages that should be tracked.

<script src="https://ua.realtimely.io/script.js" data-site="TRACKER_ID" defer></script>

Enable Support document.write for the Custom HTML tag. Without that setting, the tracker may not initialize correctly in Google Tag Manager.

Manual tracking

For most websites, automatic tracking is the right choice. If you run a single-page app or need full control over route changes, disable it with data-auto="false" and send the pageview yourself.

<script src="https://ua.realtimely.io/script.js" data-site="TRACKER_ID" data-auto="false" defer></script>

Send a pageview manually

<script>
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
    realtimely.trackPageview();
});
</script>

Send custom page data

You can optionally pass your own URL, title, or referrer. This is useful for single-page apps, custom routing, or pages where the visible URL should be normalized before tracking.

<script>
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
    realtimely.trackPageview("TRACKER_ID", {
        url: "https://example-news.com/about",
        title: "About our publication",
        referrer: "https://google.com"
    });
});
</script>

AMP tracking

If your website still serves AMP pages, add the AMP analytics component first:

<script async custom-element="amp-analytics" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-analytics-0.1.js"></script>

Then add the NowMetrix AMP configuration:

<amp-analytics config="https://ua.realtimely.io/amp/amp.v1.json" data-credentials="include">
    <script type="application/json">
        {"vars": {"accountId": "TRACKER_ID"}}
    </script>
</amp-analytics>

4. Verify incoming data

Now comes the satisfying part: publish the snippet, open a real page, and switch to Top Pages. Your visit should appear within a few seconds.

Check	Expected result
Realtime users	The active user count increases when pages are opened.
Top pages	The opened page appears with its path, title, and active user count.
Sources	Direct, referrer, search, social, or UTM sources are grouped in the sources view.
Overview	Daily pageviews and visits start accumulating for the tracker.

Privacy model

NowMetrix works without cookies or local storage. It uses anonymized hashes for a 24-hour period, so you can measure daily unique visitors without building a long-lived visitor profile.

Anonymized user data is kept for 24 hours only. After that, the hashed salts are removed, so monthly visits are calculated from daily unique visitor totals.

5. Configure your first workflow

Dashboard monitoring

Use the realtime and dashboard views to monitor active users, top pages, sources, devices, countries, and today's pulse.

API access

Account admins can create API keys under Settings -> API. See the REST API reference for endpoints and examples.

Team access

Once the data is flowing, invite the people who should work with it. Give each person access only to the trackers they need; admins can manage API keys and account settings, while regular members focus on the dashboard.

If a team member cannot see a tracker, check their assigned tracker list before changing the tracking installation.

If data does not appear

Confirm that the snippet is present in the rendered HTML of the live page.
Check that the tracker ID matches the tracker selected in the dashboard.
Open the browser developer tools and look for blocked network requests.
Verify that the page is not served from a cached template that misses the snippet.
Ask NowMetrix support to check whether the tracker is receiving events.

Get your first website live in NowMetrix.