You’ve built a portfolio. You’ve shared the link. But is anyone actually looking at it? And if they are, what are they doing once they get there?

Most professionals never look at their portfolio analytics, which means they’re flying blind. You wouldn’t run a business without looking at the numbers, and your portfolio — which is essentially a marketing tool for your career — deserves the same attention.

Setting Up Tracking

If you haven’t already, add analytics to your portfolio. The options range from simple to comprehensive:

Google Analytics 4 is the most common choice. It’s free, powerful, and widely understood. The setup takes about 15 minutes for most portfolio platforms — you’ll need to add a tracking snippet to your site’s header.

Plausible or Fathom are privacy-focused alternatives that give you cleaner, simpler dashboards. They’re paid tools (around $10-15/month) but worth it if you find Google Analytics overwhelming.

Built-in platform analytics from tools like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress give you basic visitor data without any extra setup. They’re limited but better than nothing.

Link tracking using tools like Bitly or UTM parameters lets you track which specific channels drive traffic to your portfolio. This is especially useful if you share your portfolio link across multiple platforms.

The Metrics That Matter

Here’s where most people go wrong: they track vanity metrics instead of useful ones. Let me cut through the noise.

Metrics worth tracking:

• Unique visitors per month. This tells you how many individual people are finding your portfolio. A steady increase means your visibility is growing.
• Traffic sources. Where are visitors coming from? LinkedIn? Google search? Direct links? A recruiter’s email? This tells you where your marketing efforts are paying off.
• Most-viewed pages. Which case studies or projects get the most attention? This reveals what resonates with your audience and where to invest more effort.
• Time on page. If someone spends three minutes on a case study, they’re genuinely reading it. If they bounce after five seconds, something’s wrong — the content, the design, or the relevance.
• Contact actions. If your portfolio has a contact form, email link, or call-to-action, track how often people use them. This is your conversion metric — the ultimate measure of portfolio effectiveness.

Metrics to ignore:

• Total page views. This number is inflated by your own visits and bots. Focus on unique visitors instead.
• Bounce rate in isolation. A high bounce rate on your homepage might be bad, but a high bounce rate on a specific case study might just mean someone found what they needed and moved on.
• Session duration averages. These are distorted by outliers. One person leaving a tab open for four hours skews the entire number.

What the Data Tells You

Once you have a month or two of data, patterns emerge. Here’s how to interpret and act on them:

If traffic is low overall: Your portfolio isn’t visible enough. Focus on SEO basics — make sure your name and relevant keywords appear in page titles, headings, and descriptions. Share your portfolio link more actively on LinkedIn, in email signatures, and in professional communities.

If people visit but don’t explore: Your landing page isn’t compelling enough. Rework your homepage to make the value proposition clearer and the navigation more intuitive. Add stronger calls to action that guide visitors toward your best work.

If one case study gets all the traffic: Double down on that topic. Create more content in that space. Consider whether your portfolio positioning should shift to emphasise that strength.

If traffic spikes after specific activities: Track what triggered the spike. Was it a LinkedIn post? A conference talk? An article mention? Do more of whatever caused it.

If nobody clicks your contact link: The gap between viewing your work and taking action is too wide. Add clearer calls to action. Include a brief “If you’d like to discuss…” prompt at the end of case studies. Make your contact details impossible to miss.

Building a Review Cadence

Analytics only help if you actually look at them. I recommend this schedule:

• Weekly: Quick glance at visitor numbers and traffic sources (2 minutes)
• Monthly: Review top pages, time on page, and contact actions (15 minutes)
• Quarterly: Deep analysis of trends, source changes, and content performance (30 minutes, then make updates)

Don’t over-optimise. The goal isn’t to become a data analyst obsessing over your portfolio metrics. It’s to make informed decisions about where to invest your limited portfolio-building time.

The Simple Test

If you want a quick check without any analytics tools, try this: share your portfolio link with three people in your target industry and ask them to spend two minutes on it. Then ask them: “What do I do? What am I best at? Would you contact me for [type of work]?”

Their answers will tell you whether your portfolio is communicating effectively. Sometimes the simplest feedback is the most valuable.