When teams flip on Vercel Web Analytics for the first time, the dashboard looks ready but the data stays empty. The missing piece is usually the same: Vercel needs a tiny tracking snippet, and in Next.js that snippet is delivered as a component you add to your root layout.
What "visits" and "page views" actually mean
Vercel's Web Analytics focuses on a few clear metrics:
- Visitors (uniques) are deduplicated using a daily hash of the incoming request. That means one person can be one visitor per day, and the ID resets daily.
- Page views count every page load. The same person can generate multiple page views by reloading or navigating.
- Bounce rate is the share of sessions that only include a single page view.
If you're used to marketing analytics, this is simpler by design. It is meant to answer "what pages are being viewed and by how many people" without adding a heavy tracking layer.
Enable analytics in the Vercel dashboard
In Vercel, open your project, go to the Analytics tab, and click Enable. Vercel will add its analytics endpoints (under /_vercel/insights/*) on the next deployment. If you've already deployed, just redeploy once after enabling analytics.
Add the snippet in a Next.js App Router project
For Next.js with the App Router, the snippet is provided by the Analytics component from @vercel/analytics/next. Install the package and drop the component into your root layout:
pnpm i @vercel/analyticsimport { Analytics } from '@vercel/analytics/next';
export default function RootLayout({
children,
}: {
children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
return (
<html lang="en">
<body>
{children}
<Analytics />
</body>
</html>
);
}That component is the equivalent of a script tag. It handles route changes for Next.js, so you get accurate client-side navigation tracking without manual hooks.
Where to view the data
Once deployed, open the Vercel project and return to the Analytics tab. Data typically appears within a few minutes. Use the Visitors and Page Views tabs to slice by time range, top pages, referrers, device type, and geography.
Privacy and compliance notes
Vercel Web Analytics is designed to be privacy-friendly. It does not use cookies and stores anonymized data, and it excludes bots by inspecting user agents. That said, your own privacy policy still matters. If you have internal requirements around consent banners or data processing disclosures, update those to mention analytics collection even if it is cookie-less.
When to consider other tools
If you need long-term user identity, detailed funnel attribution, or cross-domain tracking, Vercel's lightweight analytics may not be enough on its own. In those cases, consider pairing it with a more specialized analytics product. But for straightforward "visits and page views" on a Vercel-hosted site, the built-in solution is usually a clean fit.