How to View GA4 Hourly Traffic Report (2024)

Ever wonder how your website traffic fluctuates throughout the day? In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps for viewing the GA4 hourly traffic report and discuss the importance of this metric for understanding real-time website performance. 

This guide is helpful for website owners, digital marketers, and anyone looking to learn about their website’s traffic patterns. You can identify peak times, analyze user behavior, and optimize your content by tracking hourly traffic. 

Let’s explore how to view and use the GA4 hourly traffic report!

What is Google Analytics 4 Hourly Traffic Report?

The  GA4 hourly traffic report is a feature that allows users to monitor and analyze the flow of website visitors hourly. This report provides a detailed understanding of when users are most active on a site, showing traffic patterns across different hours of the day. 

By understanding these hourly trends, you can better optimize your content, marketing efforts, and resource allocation to align with peak traffic times. This will ultimately improve user engagement and conversion rates.

Why is Google Analytics Hourly Traffic Report Necessary?

The Google Analytics Hourly Traffic Report provides an understanding of how your website performs occasionally. By tracking Google Analytics traffic by hour, you can:

• Real-time Data Overview: Understand how your website performs in real time, allowing for immediate adjustments to marketing strategies.
• Identify Peak Traffic Times: Determine the busiest hours of your website to optimize content scheduling and promotional activities.
• Analyze User Behavior: This will help you understand how users interact with your website at different times of the day and improve user experience.
• Optimize Marketing Campaigns: These hourly reports help tailor your marketing efforts to reach your target audience at optimal times.
• Monitor Website Performance: Track changes in traffic patterns over time to identify trends and potential issues.
• Modify Your Strategy: Utilize hourly traffic data to decide on resource allocation, content creation, and marketing efforts.

How to View Website Traffic Hourly in GA4?

Now that we understand the importance of tracking traffic by hour in Google Analytics 4. let’s explore how to access and analyze this valuable data. Follow the steps outlined in two methods for viewing the GA4 hourly traffic report: 

Method 1: Using GA4 Exploration Report 

• Open GA4 and click the “Explore” tab below the Reports section.
• Start a new blank report.

• Name the exploration report.
• Adjust the time period to the desired timeframe.

• Click on the “+” sign in front of the Dimensions tab and select Date + Hour, Hour, Date, and Nth hour to import them. 

• Click on the “+” sign in front of the metrics tab and select  Metrics such as New users, Total users, Active users, returning users, key events, Conversions, Transactions, and E-commerce purchases to import them. 
• Add “Date + Hour” to the “Rows.”

• Add all metrics to the “Values” section.

• If you followed all the steps correctly, you should receive a report like the one below.

Note: Google Analytics 4 cannot apply an average to your variables; it can only sum your metric statistics. Therefore, we use “Date + Hour,” not “Hour” dimensions. If you are interested in the average traffic amount, click on the “Export” data button at the top right corner and export the data into Google Sheets, where you can aggregate the data appropriately.  

Method 2: Using Line Chart Visualization in Explorations

1. Open GA4 and go to the GA4 Explore section.
2. Click on the blank canvas to start a new report.

3. Add a name for this exploration report.
4. Adjust the time period to the desired timeframe.

5. Add dimensions like date + hour, hour, date, and nth hour.
6. Select the metric you want to see (e.g., New Users, Conversions, New users, Total users, Active users, returning users, key events, Conversions).

7. Select the “Line chart” visualization.
8. Choose “Hour” granularity.
9. Select the value you want to add, like new users added here.
10. You should receive a report similar to the one in the screenshot below.

Note: This method can only show one metric at a time.

How to Monitor Hourly Website Traffic Automatically in Google Analytics 4? 

You can create a custom alert to monitor hourly website traffic automatically in Google Analytics 4. During alert configuration, you must set the evaluation frequency hourly. This is a highly efficient solution. You’ll receive real-time updates every hour on traffic fluctuations, allowing you to react quickly to any significant changes in user activity. 

Here’s a simplified guide to creating an alert for hourly traffic reports:

• Log in to your Google Analytics 4 account.
• Click on the “Home“ tab.

• Scroll down the home page and Click on View all insights.

• Choose the “Create” tab.

• Evaluation frequency: Choose the evaluation frequency of “Hourly.”

• Segment: choose a segment according to your requirements. 
• Metric: Select the metric you want to track (e.g., AUsers, Sessions, Bounce Rate).
• Condition: Choose how you want the metric to change (e.g., Has anomaly).
• Alert Name: Choose a descriptive name that reflects what the alert is monitoring (e.g., “Hourly website Traffic”).

• Manage notifications: You must enter the email address to which you want to receive notifications.

• Once you’ve configured everything, Click the Create button to save your new custom alert.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully created a GA4 Custom Alert to check hourly traffic Google Analytics.

You will get regular website traffic updates without manual checks. This can be particularly useful for tracking campaign performance, identifying traffic spikes, or detecting sudden drops in visits. For detailed guidance on creating, editing, and deleting custom alerts, visit this guide: How to create GA4 Custom Alerts.

Enhance GA4 Hourly Traffic Reports with Analytify

Analytify is a powerful WordPress analytics plugin that integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to simplify tracking your website’s data. GA4 provides in-depth analytics, including viewing traffic by hour, but Analytify enhances this experience by offering an intuitive dashboard directly within your WordPress site. 

Analytify allows users to generate easy-to-read reports without needing heavy customization, providing hourly traffic details at a glance.

Here are the features of Analytify associated with hourly traffic reports:

1. Real-Time Traffic Overview: Analytify provides real-time analytics that shows hourly website traffic directly on your WordPress dashboard, offering quick details without needing to navigate GA4.

2. Simplified Data Presentation: Instead of navigating through multiple steps in GA4, Analytify provides a more straightforward view of important metrics, including traffic trends by various timeframes, all from your WordPress dashboard.
3. User Engagement: Track user interactions on your website, such as page views and session duration. This data helps optimize engagement.
4. Customizable Reports: Analytify allows you to generate and customize traffic reports, allowing you to track key metrics like bounce rates, session counts, and conversions at specific times.

5. Notification and Alerts: You can set up alerts within Analytify to notify you when traffic patterns significantly change, especially during critical hours. Analytify offers a compelling alternative to GA4 Custom Alerts. With Email Notifications Addon (available in Analytify PRO), you can set up automated reports delivered straight to your inbox.

These features streamline the process of monitoring hourly traffic directly from WordPress, making it easier to keep track of trends without navigating GA4’s detailed interface.

GA4 Hourly Traffic Report FAQs

Final Thoughts: Google Analytics Traffic by Hour

Understanding the GA4 hourly traffic report is essential for optimizing your website’s performance and user engagement. Analyzing Google Analytics traffic by hour can pinpoint when visitors are most active, allowing for better content scheduling and marketing strategies. This report helps to track Google Analytics hourly traffic accurately, revealing peak and low-traffic periods. This information lets you adjust your approach to meet user needs and refine your strategy. 

To view website traffic hourly in GA4, use the Exploration reports or line chart visualizations to analyze patterns. Analytify further simplifies this process by providing a straightforward interface within WordPress, making it easy to manage and review hourly traffic data.

For further insights, check out our dedicated articles on How to Use Google Analytics Email Reports (2024) and Traffic Acquisition Report GA4. These resources provide additional guidance on managing and leveraging your Google Analytics data.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please comment below if you have any questions or need further clarification on using GA4 for tracking hourly traffic.