We track hits for every image and video on your site.
Our goal is to only track visitor views; however, it is not always technically possible to identify an owner view, so some may be counted as well in the Sitewide Stats available in the Account Settings. Your owner views in our mobile apps are also counted in the Sitewide Stats.
Read on below for more information about how your photos and videos are viewed.
Sitewide stats.
You must be logged in to view your stats. In your Account Settings you'll find a Stats tab. Click Stats then Details under Photo Views.
When you first open this page, we'll display all views from the past month for all your photos and videos.
Want to look up a specific time span, such as a single day or week that you posted your photos to a forum? Click the date link at the top of the page and bring up the calendar to change it.
Click to select the start date, then click a second time on the end date. The line graph will automatically adjust for your new range.
Below the graph, we show a list of total hits for photos, video files, or both.
We start off by displaying the information in chronological order, but you can click the column header to sort by another parameter. For example, click Photos to see which dates generated the most hits.
Versatile viewing.
The tabs across the top allow you to view the number of views for different areas of your site. Note: Picking a specific gallery in any of these tabs will "stick" as you browse around so you don't have to re-select them in subsequent tabs.
Gallery Trends: View counts for a specific gallery.
Gallery Details: View counts for all photo or video sizes within a particular gallery.
Photo Trends: Select your gallery, then pick the photo you want to track.
Popularity: All your galleries will display in a list in order of popularity. Click the gallery name to get more detailed information. If you've already chosen a specific gallery in a different tab, we'll remember that. Pick another one by selecting the Back to Popular Galleries link.
Note: The Popularity page can only display up to 500 photos at this time.
Referrers: You can see where your views are coming from under this tab. You can even click on the numbers to see the exact pages that are generating traffic to your site.
Keeping track of your popularity? Just click Permalink in the upper-right side, then copy the URL from your browser. With it, you can go directly to the stats you're viewing without having to fiddle with the variables again.
Stats traffic.
When visitors view your site, we count a hit each time an image is loaded onto their screen. Those are the numbers you're seeing, and they'll go up if the images are viewed again and again.
Note: Your own web browser views were temporarily counted from June 25, 2014, to March 17, 2015. In addition, beginning February 2024 your own views on web browsers may be counted going forward depending on browser and settings.
What counts as a view?
- Hits on images that are size Small or larger. Example: If you've set a logo for your homepage, that image will register a view anytime someone visits your homepage.
- Images you use for content blocks, such as folders and galleries, will register a view for every image that's set as a feature image, regardless of privacy level, if you're logged in and visiting the folder/gallery for the first time.
- Images on the homepage will register a view whenever someone visits the page. If you feature images from an unlisted gallery, they'll get a view. We also do our best to predict which images you're most likely to click, so we deliver those display sizes to your browser, too. They aren't visible to you until you click on a small image to get a bigger one, but it's an image we send to your browser so it's counted as a view.
- Owner views are currently counted when accessing SmugMug via mobile apps and some web browsers scenarios.
What doesn't count as a view?
- Opening folders and galleries in the organizer.
Worried about unexpected views to your Unlisted (Anyone with the Link) gallery? Adding a viewing password (or changing an existing one) can work wonders.
Note: To improve your privacy, web browsers are phasing out third-party cookies. We've relied on third-party cookies to make your SmugMug experience smooth and simple, but we're updating how we do things to support this move toward increased privacy.
Stats are impacted by these changes in that owner views may be counted, dependent on your browser, while these changes are underway in 2024. This only applies to the stats available in your Account Settings. We encourage using Google Analytics for more detailed guest view data.
Gallery stats.
If you have a Portfolio or Pro plan, you can now drill down into more granular stats at the gallery level. To take advantage of this feature, first make sure you're logged in. Then navigate to a gallery. Click the three dot overflow menu, upper right in the gallery. The drop down menu will open, click View Gallery Stats.
This will open a new page that will show you your total gallery views, total gallery visitors, and total gallery downloads for all time from the web and native apps. These stats are updated daily. You'll also see your top ten most viewed and most downloaded images, with total views and downloads listed below each image.
Image views track active engagement with your images, such as clicking/tapping a photo to view it in the lightbox. Image downloads are counted when a visitor interacts with the download button on an image. (If you sell digital downloads, they're excluded.)
You can toggle your gallery stats view between all time and the past 30 days. All-time data is reflective of February 2022 onward (except gallery-download data from iOS, which began being collected April 2022). And your download stats include only free downloads of the entire gallery, not any purchased downloads.
Note: When using the Android or iOS app in Visitor View, that will add your views to your gallery stat numbers.
- Gallery Visits: The number of times your gallery has been viewed. Your views are excluded while logged in.
- Gallery Visitors: The number of unique visitors who have viewed your gallery. You are excluded while logged in.
- Gallery Downloads: The number of times visitors have downloaded your entire gallery. Items that aren't included in this data: individual image downloads, a purchase of the digital files in your gallery, your downloads while logged in.
You can also access this information from the Organizer. Click Organize from the global navigation bar, then select a gallery from the left-hand navigation tree. You'll again see a stats bar just below the section bar with a summary of your gallery visits. Click View Gallery Engagement for more detailed information.
Gallery stats are also available in the Android and iOS mobile apps.
Add Google Analytics.
If you want to add additional tools like Google Analytics, you can do that, too. While we track photo views, Google Analytics tracks only page views. Combined, you get a better overview of how people are using your site.
First, go here and set yourself up with a profile. They'll give you a Web Property ID that starts with "UA" or "G" followed by dashes and several numbers. (Example: UA-999999-1 or G-999999-1.)
Tip: The "G-" number can be found in your Google Analytics account in the Data Streams section.
Copy the whole number (including the UA/G-), then head over to your Account Settings > Stats tab. Paste the number into the Web Property ID box near the bottom, under Google Analytics. Done!
Remember to check your traffic reports over at your Google account.
Note: Once set up in your account settings, it may take Google up to 72 hours to recognize the ID.
Add Statcounter.
Go to the Statcounter website to sign up and subscribe to their service. During the sign-up process, you'll be asked for a Project URL. Enter your SmugMug site URL address: yoursitenickname.smugmug.com (the one we assigned you, not your custom domain if you've set one up).
Not sure what your SmugMug URL is? You can find it in your Account Settings under Me > Account > Site URL.
Once you enter your registration information, you’ll be presented with your Statcounter Project ID and Security ID on the next screen. Copy those two numbers because you'll need them for your SmugMug site.
You can also find the Project ID and Security ID later in the confirmation email Statcounter sends you, or in your Statcounter account under Projects.
Once you have the IDs, you can skip to the last step.
I already have a Statcounter account.
To add SmugMug to your Statcounter account, log in to Statcounter and visit your Projects page, then click Add Project on the left-hand side.
You’ll be asked to enter your project URL, which is your SmugMug Site URL address: yoursitenickname.smugmug.com (the one we assigned you, not your custom domain if you've set one up). Not sure what your SmugMug URL is? You can find it in your Account Settings under Me > Account > Site URL.
Fill in the rest of the information on that screen to proceed.
On the next screen, you’ll be presented with your Statcounter Project ID and Security ID. Copy these two numbers and paste them into SmugMug.
When you add the project, you should get an email at the address you used to register your Statcounter account. That email will also contain your Statcounter Project ID and Security ID.
Now log in to your SmugMug account. Go to your Account Settings > Stats > Statcounter section. Enter the Project ID and Security ID you copied from the previous steps. Save your changes, and you're done!
Note: It'll take some time for Statcounter to start tracking your visitors.