Website visitor identification, explained without the hype

Most visitors leave without saying who they are. There are three ways to find out more: look up their company from the IP address, match them to a person in a data broker's graph, or give them a good reason to tell you. Here's how each works.

1. Company lookup from the IP address

Tools like Leadfeeder, Snitcher and Albacross match a visitor's IP address to the company that owns it. It works for visitors on an office network of a mid-size or large company.

It works less well for small businesses' audiences: people browsing from home, on mobile data, or working for a company of five. Those IP addresses belong to an internet provider, not to the company you'd want to know.

2. Person-level identity resolution

Some tools go further and match visitors to a named person, using cookies and data bought from publisher networks. RB2B, for example, says on its own site that its person-level identification is US-only.

In the EU and UK this kind of matching needs a legal basis most small businesses can't show, so these tools either don't offer it there or ask you to collect consent first.

3. Letting visitors identify themselves

The visitors worth knowing usually want something from you: a quote, a call, a price, an answer. If you offer that at the right moment, they tell you who they are, and they expect to hear from you.

That's the approach Signal takes. It doesn't look anyone up. It reads what a visitor does, works out what they need and how soon, and offers the next step. When they book a call or ask for a call back, you get their name, how to reach them, and the whole visit.

Which should you use?

If you sell to large companies and need account lists, an IP-lookup tool is useful. If you're a small business, an agency or a trade, most of your ready visitors are people, not accounts, and they'll talk to you if you make it easy.

Questions

Is website visitor identification legal in the EU?

Company-level lookups are usually argued under legitimate interest; person-level identification generally needs consent. The rules depend on what you collect and how. Ask your adviser; this page isn't legal advice.

How many visitors can IP lookup identify?

Vendors quote different numbers for different things (companies, people, sessions). Check what's counted, and how much of your traffic is business networks rather than home or mobile.

Does Signal identify visitors?

Only when they tell you, for example by booking or asking for a call back. Signal doesn't keep IP addresses.

Try Signal on your site

We'll set it up with you, in shadow mode first, so you see what it would do before your visitors do.