# How Webmetic works (https://webmetic.de/docs/en/wie-webmetic-funktioniert)

Webmetic shows which companies visit your website, not which people. For example, three employees of a machine builder read your pricing page this week. In the dashboard you see the machine builder with three visits, not the three people.

## From visit to company [#from-visit-to-company]

1. **Record the visit**: The tracking code reports every page view to Webmetic.
2. **Match the company**: Webmetic checks which company owns the network the visit comes from.
3. **Complete the profile**: Webmetic adds the company's name, industry, size, and contact details.
4. **Use the data**: The company appears in the dashboard, in notifications, and in your CRM.

If Webmetic already knows the company, you see a visit in the dashboard within a few minutes. If a company visits a website with Webmetic for the first time, it takes longer, because Webmetic has to build its profile first.

## What the tracking code records [#what-the-tracking-code-records]

The tracking code runs on every page of your website and records:

- **Page views**: the page's address and title, where the visit came from, and UTM parameters.
- **Behavior**: time on page, scroll depth, and clicks on downloads, email links, and external links.
- **Technical details**: browser, device type, language, and screen size.
- **Forms**: whether a form was started or submitted.

Webmetic sets no cookies of its own. Each visit carries a pseudonymous identifier, a SHA-256 hash that changes daily and is different for every Webmetic account.

If you want, Webmetic records the course of a visit and hides anything typed into form fields. You turn the recording on or off with **Session recording** when you copy the tracking code.

## How Webmetic identifies the company [#how-webmetic-identifies-the-company]

Every visit comes from a network, for example a company's office network. Webmetic uses its own database to check which company that network belongs to. The database is built from public register data of networks, other public information, and pseudonymous observations from tracking.

Webmetic only names a company when the evidence is clear. It never matches networks of internet providers, mobile carriers, cloud services, or VPNs to a company. Evidence also expires over time. [Identification rate and data quality](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/erkennungsrate-und-datenqualitaet) explains why this means not every visit is identified.

## Where the company data comes from [#where-the-company-data-comes-from]

Webmetic searches the public web, collects only public information about each company it identifies, and updates it regularly. A company's profile contains:

- **Core data**: name, address, phone number, and VAT ID.
- **Industry**: a description of the company and the matching NACE code.
- **Profiles**: links to LinkedIn and other social networks.

On top of that come the logo and, where available, the number of employees and the revenue, each as a range.

Webmetic doesn't find contacts through tracking but through the contact search, separately from visits. Unlocking an email address or phone number costs credits.

## What you see in the dashboard [#what-you-see-in-the-dashboard]

For every identified company, Webmetic shows the profile, every visit with the pages viewed, and its **Activity**. Activity is the former lead score and shows how actively a company looks around your website. It rises with the number of visits, their length, and how regular they are. The longer ago the last visit was, the further it drops.

| Where | What you do there |
| --- | --- |
| Visitor Intelligence | View, filter, and export identified companies |
| Segments | Select companies by attributes and save the selection |
| Notifications | Get emails about new companies |
| Integrations and API | Send companies to your CRM and automations |

## Next steps [#next-steps]

- [Get started](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/erste-schritte): Set up Webmetic in six steps.
- [Identification rate and data quality](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/erkennungsrate-und-datenqualitaet): Why not every visit is identified.