Analytics
Analytics shows who is listening, how long they stay and where they come from, across your ShowHub site, episode pages, embeds on other sites and the WordPress plugin. Every plan collects the same data; higher plans keep more history and add deeper analysis.
Headline metrics
The KPI strip at the top gives you the key numbers at a glance. Each card shows the current value and the change from the previous period.
What each number means
| Metric | Definition |
|---|---|
| Visitors | Unique people per day. Counted without cookies, so a person who visits on two days counts twice. |
| Views | Views of your site and episode pages, plus loads of your embed on other sites. |
| Plays | Someone listened or watched for 30 seconds (or most of a very short episode). Pausing and resuming is still one play. |
| Listen time | Seconds actually played. Skipping ahead doesn’t add time. |
| Avg. listen | Listen time per play. |
| Completion rate | Plays that reached 95% of the episode by listening, not by dragging to the end. |
| Engagement rate | Views where the visitor listened 30s+, clicked to a platform, searched the transcript or stayed 10s+ on the page. |
| Play rate | Plays per view: how often a visit turns into a listen. |
| Platform clicks | Clicks from your pages and embeds to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other links. |
Days are counted in UTC. New activity shows up within about two minutes; the live strip at the top updates every 30 seconds.
Trend chart
The trend chart shows daily values for the selected metric. Use the selector above the chart to switch between plays, visitors, views, listen time, and platform clicks.
Tabs
- Overview: headline metrics with the change from the previous period, the trend chart, top episodes, platform clicks, where people find you and which other sites embed you. Business shows add AI insights and spike/drop alerts here.
- Episodes: every episode’s plays, play rate, average listen, completion and engagement. Select an episode for its daily plays, its audience retention curve (Pro) with the moments people left or replayed, tied to your chapters and transcript, and how people found it.
- Audience (Pro): channels (search, social, podcast apps, email, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity, and referral links), referrers, landing pages, campaigns, countries and devices.
- Search (Business): what people search for in your transcripts, including searches that found nothing, and Google Search Console queries and pages.
- Bots & settings: how much automated traffic was filtered out (Business: which crawlers, including AI crawlers), digest emails (weekly, every two weeks or monthly — each person picks in Settings → Notifications) and alert emails.
Episodes tab
The episodes tab breaks down performance per episode. Click any episode row to see its retention curve, daily plays, and traffic sources.
What each plan includes
| Starter | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| History | 30 days | 12 months | All time |
| Core metrics, episodes, platform clicks, live visitors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Traffic sources & AI assistant referrals | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Retention curves & key moments | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Compare episodes with your typical episode | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Email digest (weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| AI insights, spike & drop alerts | ✓ | ||
| Google Search Console, transcript search queries | ✓ | ||
| Bot & AI-crawler report, CSV export | ✓ |
Exclude your own visits
Open any page of your site once with ?showhub_ignore=1 at the end of the address. That browser
stops being counted (on that site) until you open a page with ?showhub_ignore=0. Dashboard
previews are never counted.
Connect Google Search Console (Business)
- Go to Analytics → Search and select Connect Search Console.
- Sign in with the Google account that has access to your site’s Search Console property.
- If we can’t tell which property belongs to your show, pick it from the list.
Data syncs daily. Google’s data runs about two days behind.
Privacy
ShowHub analytics sets no cookies and stores nothing on your visitors’ devices. A visitor is recognised for one day from a hash of their IP address and browser that uses a random value rotated (and deleted) daily, so visits can’t be linked across days or traced back to a person. IP addresses are never stored. Bots and automated traffic are filtered out of every number.
Turning data into actions
- Check the Insights or your latest digest email for the one thing to try this week.
- Open the episode with the biggest drop in its retention curve and look at the moment people left; shorten or move that segment next time.
- Look at Searched, but not found: those are episode ideas your audience asked for.
- Compare play rate across embed placements and themes; move the player higher where it’s low.