See what your audience is reading right now.
A story can be quiet one minute and suddenly become the page everyone is opening. Top Pages helps you spot that moment - and understand what is driving it.
Which stories are moving right now?
Instead of looking at one large traffic number and wondering what is behind it, you get a concrete list of the stories people are reading now. Pages move up and down as readers enter and leave the realtime window.
The rank is useful, but it is not the whole story. A page in fifth place may be growing quickly while the page in first place is already slowing down. Read the rank and the trend together.
| Element | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Rank | The current order by active readers across all matching pages. |
| Image and title | The article image and tracked title. The path, publication information, and author appear when available. |
| Active users | Readers currently active on that page, not the page’s cumulative pageviews. |
| Sparkline | The recent live trend for the page. Use its shape to see whether attention is building, steady, or fading. |
| Traffic spike | A visual signal marks pages attracting unusually strong traffic compared with their recent pattern. |
Start with the bigger picture
Before you open an article, the three numbers at the top answer a simple question: is this a busy moment, or is the whole day performing strongly?
Active users
The number of readers active on the tracker now. Its chart compares today’s realtime curve with the typical curve for the same weekdays.
Pageviews today
All recorded pageviews since midnight in the tracker’s timezone. The chart adds yesterday and the average of comparable weekdays.
Visitors today
The day’s visitor count, shown with historical context so you can distinguish a busy moment from a strong full day.
Historical comparison charts update less frequently than the live article list. A short difference between the latest active-user number and the chart is therefore normal.
Filter out what you do not need
Sometimes the complete newsroom view is exactly what you want. Sometimes you have a more specific question: which stories are moving through Google Discover, what are readers in Zurich opening, or is a topic still active?
Open Filter, choose one or more criteria, and select Apply Filters. The badge shows how many filters are active, and your choices remain saved in this browser.
| Filter | Use it for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Find a word or phrase in an article title or URL. The search is applied across the matching Top Pages result, not only the 25 rows currently visible. | Find all live pages containing “election”. |
| Country | Limit the live view to readers from one country. | Monitor traffic from Switzerland during a regional event. |
| City | Limit the result to one city. Selecting a country first narrows the available city choices. | See what readers in Zurich are opening. |
| Source | Show readers arriving through one traffic source. | Check which stories are currently driven by Google Discover. |
Filters can be combined. Combining country, source, and keyword means a page must match all selected criteria. Choose Clear All to return to the complete tracker view.
Choose the view that works for you
Use the controls beside Filter to switch between the compact list, a four-tile layout, and a five-tile layout. The selected view is stored in your browser. On smaller screens, NowMetrix automatically uses a layout that remains readable.
The dashboard loads 25 pages per result page and can expose up to the first 100 matching live pages. Use Previous, the page numbers, and Next below the ranking. Changing pages does not change your active filters or display mode.
If nobody is currently active on the tracker - or no active page matches the selected filters - the ranking shows an empty state. This is not a tracking error by itself.
Take a closer look at an article
Select a row or tile when a story catches your attention. The detail opens without taking you away from the dashboard and keeps updating while you watch.
- Current active readers and the article’s recent live trend.
- Top traffic sources, countries, and cities for that article.
- Desktop and mobile audience distribution when available.
- Article metadata, publication information, image, and a link to the original page.
Use the detail view to answer questions such as “Is this spike coming from search or social?”, “Is the audience local?”, or “Is the article still growing?”
The context around the ranking
A list of articles tells you what is moving. The panels beside it help explain why.
| Panel | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Responsibilities | Who is currently responsible for configured newsroom roles. Authorized users can take over or end an assignment. |
| How’s it going right now? | Compares live readers, pageviews, and visitors with the median of recent same-name weekdays at the same time. |
| Devices | The current share of desktop and mobile readers. |
| Traffic mix | Live audience grouped into Organic, Google Discover, AI Assistants, Social, Referral, and Direct. |
| Top Sources | The strongest individual referrers. Open Sources for the complete breakdown. |
| Top Countries and Cities | The strongest live locations. Select a location to open it on Maps. |
How fresh is the data?
The realtime list refreshes automatically about every 10 seconds while the tab is visible. When you open an article detail, the detail keeps updating while the background dashboard refreshes less often. Historical comparison charts refresh separately.
If the data source is briefly unavailable, NowMetrix keeps the last usable view where possible and shows that live data is delayed. The dashboard retries automatically; you normally do not need to reload the page.
A simple workflow works well:
- Start with the complete ranking.
- Look for stories moving unusually quickly.
- Use a filter when you have a specific question.
- Open the article detail to understand sources, locations, and trend.
- Use Recap later when you want to evaluate the full day.