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• iOS 17’s Impact on Marketing : Navigating Privacy Changes

  22 septembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, staying up-to-date with the latest changes is paramount. One such significant change came on 18 September 2023, in the form of iOS 17, Apple’s latest operating system update. With iOS 17, Apple has introduced new privacy features that are set to have a profound impact on marketers and how they track and analyse user behaviour. 

  In this blog, we will explore what iOS 17 is, how it affects tracking, which tracking parameters are impacted, what remains unaffected, and most importantly, how marketers can future-proof their campaign tracking URLs.

  What is iOS 17 ?

  iOS 17 is the latest update to Apple’s mobile operating system, used on millions of iPhones worldwide. While iOS updates often bring new features and improvements, iOS 17 has made waves in the digital marketing community due to its emphasis on user privacy.

  How does iOS 17 affect tracking ?

  One of the key features of iOS 17 that concerns marketers is its impact on tracking. Apple’s new update aims to enhance user privacy by limiting the information that can be tracked and collected by third-party entities, particularly through query parameters in URLs. This means that certain tracking mechanisms that marketers have relied on for years are now rendered ineffective on iOS 17 devices.

  Campaign tracking URLs, also known as tracking parameters or UTM parameters, are special codes added to the end of URLs. They are used by marketers to track various aspects of a user’s interaction with a digital marketing campaign. These parameters provide valuable data, such as the source of traffic, the medium through which users arrived and specific campaign details.

  For example, with Matomo (mtm) tracking parameters, a campaign tracking URL might look like this :

  https://www.example.com/products/example_product?mtm_campaign=summer-sale

  

  Understanding the impact of iOS 17 on campaign tracking URLs is essential for marketers who rely on this data to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

  Which campaign tracking parameters are affected by iOS 17 ?

  Several tracking parameters commonly used by marketers will no longer work as expected on iOS 17. Some of these include :

  • Facebook (fbclid) : Employed for tracking Facebook advertising campaigns. 
  • Instagram (igshid) : Used to track user interactions with Instagram ads.
  • Google Ads (gclid) : Used to track Google Ads campaigns. 
  • Twitter (twclid) : Used to track user interactions with Twitter ads. 
  • Microsoft Ads (msclkid) : Employed for tracking Microsoft Ads campaigns. 
  • Mailchimp (mc_eid) : Used by Mailchimp for email campaign tracking. 

  These changes are significant, as they disrupt many of the common tracking methods that marketers rely on to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.

  Which campaign tracking parameters are not affected by iOS 17 ?

  While many tracking parameters have been impacted, there are still some that remain unaffected on iOS 17. However, it’s important to note that the status of these parameters might change in the future as Apple continues to prioritise user privacy. Some of the tracking parameters that are still working as of now include :

  • Matomo (mtm) : Matomo campaign tracking parameters. 
  • Google Analytics (UTMs) : Google Analytics campaign tracking parameters.
  • Pinterest (epik) : Used for tracking Pinterest campaigns. 
  • Klaviyo (_kx) : Klaviyo for email marketing tracking. 
  • TikTok (tt-) : Used for tracking TikTok ad interactions. 
  • Hubspot (hsa) : Used for tracking Hubspot campaigns. 

  While these parameters offer some reprieve for marketers, it’s essential to keep a close eye on any potential changes in their functionality as Apple continues to roll out privacy-friendly features.

  How are Matomo users impacted ?

  Fortunately, Matomo, as a leading privacy-friendly web analytics solution, remains unaffected by the changes introduced by iOS 17. Specifically :

  For Matomo users who rely on mtm or UTMs

  If you’re using Matomo or GA tracking parameters, you can rest assured that iOS 17’s changes won’t affect your tracking capabilities in Matomo.

  Attention to gclids (Google Ads) and msclkid (Bing Ads)

  If you use Google Ads or Bing Ads tracking parameters with Matomo’s Advertising Conversion Export feature for tracking, iOS 17 presents a challenge. Your gclids and msclkids may not provide the same level of tracking accuracy on Apple mobile devices. This is a critical consideration, especially if your ad campaigns target mobile users.

  To stay informed about changes in the digital marketing landscape, including updates related to iOS 17, sign up for our newsletter where we regularly provide updates and insights on adapting your tracking and marketing strategies to ensure compliance and respect user privacy.

  How to future-proof your campaign tracking

  Given the impact of iOS 17 on tracking, it’s crucial for marketers to adapt and future-proof their campaign tracking strategies. Here are some steps you can take to mitigate the affects of iOS 17 on your marketing campaigns :

  Monitor platform updates

  Expect updates from advertising and analytics platforms in response to Apple’s privacy changes. These platforms are likely to develop alternative tracking methods or adapt existing ones to comply with iOS 17’s restrictions. Stay informed about these updates and incorporate them into your tracking strategy.

  Prioritise privacy-friendly tech stacks

  In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, it’s crucial to prioritise privacy-friendly tech stacks. Privacy-friendly tracking tools like Matomo are essential for maintaining trust and respecting user privacy.

  Matomo ensures the privacy of your users and analytics data. When using Matomo, you retain control of your data ; nobody else does. This commitment to user privacy aligns with the changing digital marketing landscape, where privacy is taking centre stage.

  Transition from affected campaign tracking parameters

  If you’ve been using tools like Mailchimp, whose campaign tracking URLs have been affected by iOS 17, consider transitioning to the campaign tracking URL parameters of your analytics solution. Whether you choose Matomo or Google Analytics, these solutions can help you understand how your email marketing campaigns are performing.

  Focus on data privacy compliance

  Embrace data privacy compliance practices. As privacy regulations evolve, it’s essential to prioritise transparency in data collection. Ensure that your tracking methods align with privacy standards to maintain trust with your audience.

  Regularly review and adapt

  The digital marketing landscape is dynamic, and iOS 17 is just one example of how quickly things can change. Regularly review your tracking methods and adapt to new developments in the industry. Staying agile and informed is key to long-term success.

  Marketers’ path forward

  iOS 17 has reshaped mobile user privacy, challenging marketers to adapt. While some tracking parameters are affected, savvy marketers can still thrive by embracing unique tracking solutions, staying informed about platform updates, and prioritising data privacy. 

  Explore Matomo for privacy-friendly analytics and navigate this evolving landscape successfully with our 21-day free trial – no credit card required. 

• 8 Best Tools to Analyse Website Traffic

  12 septembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  Do you want to analyse your website traffic ?

  Maybe you want to know how well you’re converting your traffic. Or maybe you’re looking to track the performance and ROI of your marketing campaigns. Regardless, you won’t get far without relying on a dependable web traffic analysis platform.

  In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the top web analytics tools available (including the pricing for each one).

  Let’s dive in.

  What is website traffic analysis ?

  Curious about what it means to analyse website traffic ?

  

  Simply put, it involves collecting and examining data about your website visitors and the actions they take. Marketers, analysts and website owners can then take this data and use it to optimise their strategy to improve site traffic, conversion rates and ROI.

  A website analytics tool is software that tracks and measures various visitor activities and behaviours on your website. Common metrics include pageviews, traffic source, bounce rate and average time on page. Using a web analytics solution can give you insights into what’s working (and what’s not working) so you can optimise your website, campaigns or marketing strategy.

  Advantages of using a website traffic analysis tool

  1. Performance measurement and optimisation

  Tracking the success of your marketing efforts is a challenging task. The primary benefit of using a web analytics tool is implementing effective performance measurement. If you don’t know how to measure your efforts, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not with your campaigns and content. 

  A web analysis tool can give you the insights you need to understand whether your marketing initiatives have been successful or if they need to be improved.

  For instance, your new web design facelift may seem beautiful, but if visitors aren’t staying on your site as long and it is resulting in lower conversions, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

  2. Audience insights to improve the user experience

  Web traffic analysis platforms don’t just show you what your visitors are doing. It shows you who your audience is. A powerful website analytics tool will give you in-depth audience data, including demographics like geographical location (e.g., city, state or country), to help you better understand your audience.

  Additionally, you can learn more about your audience by seeing how they interact with different content on your site. You’ll start to see that certain content performs better than others, giving you a greater understanding of your audience’s needs and wants. This means you’ll be able to tailor your website content and marketing efforts to your audience to improve the overall user experience.

  3. Improve SEO

  In the first two advantages, we touched on how insights can help you craft better content for the visitors already coming to your site to improve the user experience and improve conversions. But did you know that using a website analytics tool can also help improve how much traffic you’re getting to your site ?

  Since a web analytics tool can help you craft better content, one side effect is an increase in traffic from organic search through SEO. Additionally, your platform will likely show you other traffic sources that your visitors are coming from (i.e., another website is referring traffic to you) so you can tap into those high-performing sources and optimise your incoming traffic over time.

  Top 8 Tools to Analyse Website Traffic

  Here’s a breakdown of the top eight web analytics platforms to help you analyse each tool’s unique features, price, advantages and disadvantages so you can make the best decision.

  1. Matomo

  Matomo is an open-source website analytics tool that’s focused on protecting user privacy and data while offering robust insights into your web traffic. It’s one of the most powerful tools to track the entire customer journey on your site.

  

  Why Matomo : As the leader in open-source, privacy-friendly and ethical web analytics, Matomo is trusted by more than 1 million websites, including NASA, the United Nations and the European Commission.

  Matomo plays well with Google Analytics to track your websites by filling in the gaps where Google Analytics has limitations (i.e., cookie consent banner requirement). Matomo combines traditional and behavioural web analytics for deeper insights while ensuring compliance with the strictest privacy regulations like GDPR, LGPD and HIPAA.

  Matomo Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include comprehensive visitor tracking, multi-attribution, goal tracking, event tracking, custom dimensions, custom reports, automated email reports, session recordings, tag manager, roll-up reporting to pull data from multiple sites, Google Analytics importer, heatmaps and more.

  Integrations include WordPress, Google Ads, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Cloudflare, Magento, Vue, SharePoint, WooCommerce and more.

  Pricing starts free for Matomo On-Premise (but requires technical skills and servers to set up) and $23/month for Matomo Cloud, which includes a 21-day free trial (no credit card required).

  Pros

  • Best for respecting visitor privacy
  • You own your data — ensuring that it’s not shared with third parties for purposes like advertising
  • Compliant with the strictest privacy laws
  • Greater flexibility with open-source advantages, as well as the option to either self-host or cloud host
  • Can run cookieless — providing 100% accurate data and a better user experience without the need for an annoying cookie consent banner 
  • Exceptional customisability — from white labeling, alerts and custom dimensions to dashboards and reports, tailor your insights for faster decisions, deeper insights and superior outcomes

  Cons

  • On-Premise is free, but there are additional costs for advanced features
  • On-Premise requires servers and technical expertise to manage

  2. Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is the most well-known and used web analytics platform in the world, with nearly 30 million active websites.

  

  Why Google Analytics : It’s one of the leading web traffic analysis tools backed by the Alphabet group of companies. For anyone getting started, it’s a great free option to understand your web traffic and your audience.

  Google Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include in-depth visitor tracking, event tracking with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), easy integration with Google marketing tools (i.e., Google Search Console and Google Ads), custom reports and easy data importing from third-party sources.

  Integrations include Google Ads, Google Webmaster Tools, AdSense, WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Zendesk, Facebook, Marketo, WordPress, Hotjar, SEMrush, Salesforce, Hootsuite and more.

  Pricing is free.

  Pros

  • Detailed audience insights
  • Customisable reports
  • Seamless integration with other Google products
  • Easy to set up

  Cons

  • Not privacy-friendly — you don’t own your data (data is shared with third parties for advertising purposes)
  • Complex interface
  • Requires cookie consent banner for GDPR compliance, which negatively impacts data accuracy and user experience

  3. Fathom Analytics

  Founded in 2018, Fathom Analytics is a privacy-friendly and lightweight web analytics tool. The platform offers a simple, minimalistic dashboard.

  

  Why Fathom Analytics : Fathom Analytics is a minimalistic tool to help website owners gain insights into customer behaviour without compromising on privacy. It’s an easy-to-use tool that offers a simplified breakdown of the most popular data points. For newcomers to web analytics seeking essential metrics like visitor counts and traffic sources, Fathom Analytics provides a straightforward, cost-effective solution.

  Fathom Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include easy, automated GA4 importing with lifetime data retention, a single-page dashboard for a quick overview of metrics, traffic summaries for chosen timeframes, visually striking graphs for better data digestion and privacy protection covering major compliance regulations.

  Integrations include Google Analytics, Squarespace, Drupal, WordPress, Discourse, Bloggi, ConvertKit, Webflow, Transistor, Remix, Gatsby and Carrd.

  Pricing starts at $14/month for up to 100k pageviews (with a 30-day free trial).

  Pros

  • Doesn’t use cookies
  • Out-of-the-box GDPR, ePrivacy, PECR and CCPA compliance
  • Great for visual data insights
  • Lightweight tracking script for fast loading

  Cons

  • Can’t easily see traffic trends on specific pages
  • Metrics may be too simple for those wanting advanced analytics

  4. Mixpanel

  Mixpanel is a web analytics platform that helps you track visitors as well as improve customer retention. The software has 8,000 customers worldwide, including Netflix, Yelp, BuzzFeed and CNN.

  

  Why Mixpanel : Mixpanel is great for websites with e-commerce functionality. The tool helps you understand both your site visitors and your customers so you can optimise your customer experience and improve conversions.

  Mixpanel Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include deep insights into how your products are being used, including your most popular features, user cohorts that let you segment users based on specific actions, and visual analysis showing where users drop off.

  Integrations include Google Cloud, Figma, Mailchimp, Zoho CRM, Databox, Marketo, Hotjar, Slack, Zapier, Amazon Web Services, Google Ads and HubSpot.

  Pricing starts free for up to 20 million events per month and $20/month for Growth.

  Pros

  • Interface is easy for beginners
  • Exhaustive reporting options
  • Custom event tracking options
  • Predict user actions based on data science models
  • Send targeted messages to specific users to encourage action

  Cons

  • User-based pricing isn’t the most ideal for everyone
  • Alert management can be confusing

  5. Kissmetrics

  Kissmetrics is a marketing and product analytics tool that helps e-commerce and SaaS companies grow through qualitative data insights. The web analytics tool is trusted by 10,000 users, including Microsoft, Unbounce, AWeber, Dropbox DocSend and SendGrid.

  

  Why Kissmetrics : As an e-commerce-driven analytics platform, the platform is best suited for Enterprise businesses, but it also offers flexible pricing plans that make it easy for someone to get their feet wet with website analytics. 

  Kissmetrics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include a customisable dashboard to see key metrics at a glance, comprehensive visitor tracking, cohort analysis including power user tracking to understand your most active visitors and customers and insights into customer lifetime value and churn rate.

  Integrations include Chargify, HubSpot, Slack, Live Chat, Marketo, Optimizely, Mailchimp, Recurly, Wufoo Forms, Facebook Ads, WordPress, Shopify and WooCommerce.

  Pricing starts at $0.0025/event for the Pay As You Go Plan, $25.99/month for Build Your Plan and $199/month for Small Teams, which includes a 7-day free trial.

  Pros

  • Flexible pricing options
  • Easy to install
  • Several analytics viewing options
  • Visual checkout funnel insights
  • Track sessions by desktop or mobile

  Cons

  • Despite more pricing options, it’s still quite expensive overall
  • Difficult to use for beginners

  6. Adobe Analytics

  Adobe Analytics is a web and marketing analytics platform within the Adobe Experience Platform. Used by over 170,000 businesses, it’s one of the most popular analytics solutions available.

  

  Why Adobe Analytics : Adobe Analytics was created for large organisations. It’s essentially the enterprise version of Google Analytics. The tool does a great job of offering a customised analytics solution that’s capable of delivering personalised user experiences at scale.

  Adobe Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include attribution, AI-driven predictive analytics, robust customer segmentation and automation based on customer behaviour.

  Integrations include all Adobe products, Salesforce, Hootsuite, Contentsquare, Sisense, Mouseflow, Google Ads, Google Search Console, HubSpot and Microsoft Teams.

  Pricing is custom and available upon request, but users can expect to pay at least $2,000 per month, and there is no free trial.

  Pros

  • Built for enterprise businesses
  • Seamless workflow integration for Adobe Experience Cloud users
  • Incredible customisation options
  • Integration process is flexible
  • Capable of accurately tracking large volumes of traffic

  Cons

  • Very expensive
  • Not suitable for small businesses
  • The setup is challenging for beginners

  7. SimilarWeb

  SimilarWeb is a robust analytics platform used to track your website data and compare it to other websites. Backed by a team of experienced data scientists and mathematicians for in-depth website traffic and search engine analysis. Founded in 2007, the platform is trusted by major brands like Adidas, DHL, PepsiCo and Walmart.

  

  Why SimilarWeb : The tool relies on multiple scientific methodologies and approaches to data analysis to help provide a better understanding of visitors and customers. The platform is great for crafting prediction models for customer acquisitions by using machine learning to offer SEO insights and competitive analysis.

  SimilarWeb Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include competition traffic and engagement analysis, in-depth visitor tracking, keyword analysis to optimise your SEO and search ads, affiliate traffic analysis, search traffic analysis and funnel insights.

  Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Shift, AT Internet, Adverity, SimilarTech, Biscience and more. 

  Pricing starts at $125/month for the Starter plan, which includes a 7-day free trial.

  Pros

  • Has a user-friendly dashboard for simple insights
  • Highly customisable platform to meet your specific needs
  • Easy competition analysis
  • Funnel insights to improve your conversion rates
  • Great customer support

  Cons

  • Expensive pricing
  • Doesn’t include a code snippet to pull data directly from websites
  • Doesn’t show sub-domains of your site

  8. Hotjar

  Hotjar is a behavioural website analytics tool with a focus on providing insights into individual user sessions with features like heatmaps and session recordings. Founded in 2014, Hotjar is used by 900,000 sites around the world.

  

  Why Hotjar : Unlike traditional web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar is a behavioural analytics tool that provides in-depth behaviour insights session by session. The tool offers a variety of features that give you a sneak peek into your users’ behaviours by watching how they interact with your site action by action.

  Hotjar Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include comprehensive heat mapping, visitor session recordings to see what visitors did moment by moment, feedback polls to gain insights from site visitors and conversion funnels to help you analyse leaks in your funnel at each conversion stage.

  Integrations include HubSpot, Slack, Jira, WordPress, Shopify, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Microsoft Teams, Zapier and ClickFunnels.

  Pricing starts at free for the Basic plan and $80/month for Business, which includes a 15-day free trial.

  Pros

  • You can see exactly where visitors click, move and scroll
  • Watch session replays to see what visitors did step-by-step
  • See what percentage of visitors take certain actions
  • Data segmentation features to help you understand KPIs in-depth
  • There are no user limits with the platform, making it easy to scale

  Cons

  • While it offers behavioural analytics, Hotjar doesn’t provide insights into traditional web analytics like Matomo does, including traffic sources and bounce rate
  • History data monitoring is complex

  Elevate your website performance today

  Understanding your visitors’ behaviour and needs is essential when you’re looking to improve your website performance.

  By leveraging a website analytics platform, you’ll be able to gain new insights into your visitors and use insights from your content and campaign performance to improve your user experience.

  If you’re looking to start using a web traffic analysis tool today, then Matomo is an excellent choice.

  Matomo is a powerful, privacy-friendly and compliant tool that gives in-depth insights into your audience, your content and your marketing efforts to help you improve your site’s performance.

  The platform also includes a variety of robust behavioural analytics features like heatmaps, session recording and more, which are included in your Cloud subscription. 

  Start your 21-day free trial of Matomo today (no credit card required).

• How to Track Website Visitors : Benefits, Tools and FAQs

  31 août 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  Businesses spend a ton of time, money and effort into creating websites that are not only helpful and captivating, but also highly effective at converting visitors. They’ll create content, revise designs, add new pages and change forms, all in the hope of getting visitors to stay on the site and convert into leads or customers.

  When you track website visitors, you can see which of your efforts are moving the needle. While many people are familiar with pageviews as a metric, website visitor tracking can be much more in-depth and insightful.

  In this article, we’ll cover how website visitor tracking works, what you can track, and how this information can improve sales and marketing results. We’ll also explain global privacy concerns and how businesses can choose the right tracking software. 

  What is website visitor tracking ? 

  Website visitor tracking uses software and applications to track and analyse how visitors interact with your website. It’s a vital tool to help businesses understand whether their website design and content are having the desired effect.

  

  Website visitor tracking includes very broad, non-specific data, like how many times visitors have come to your site. But it can also get very specific, with personal information about the user and even recordings of their visit to your site. Site visits, which may include visiting several different pages of the same site, are often referred to as “sessions.”

  Although Google Analytics is the most widely used website visitor tracking software, it isn’t the most comprehensive or powerful. Companies that want a more in-depth understanding of their website may need to consider running a more precise tool alongside Google Analytics, like Matomo.

  As we’ll cover later, website tracking has many important business applications, but it also poses privacy and security concerns, causing some states and countries to impose strict regulations. Privacy laws and your company’s values should also impact what web analytics tool you choose.

  How website tracking works

  Website tracking starts with the collection of data as users interact with the website. Tracking technologies like cookies, JavaScript and pixels are embedded into web pages. These technologies then gather data about user behaviour, session details and user actions, such as pageviews, clicks, form submissions and more.

  More advanced tracking systems assign unique identifiers (such as cookies or visitor IDs) to individual users. This enables tracking of user journeys across multiple sessions and pages. These detailed journeys can often tell a different story and provide different insights than aggregated numbers do. 

  All this collected data is transmitted from the user’s browser to a centralised tracking system, which can be a third-party web analytics tool or a self-hosted solution. The collected data is stored in databases and processed to generate meaningful insights. This process involves organising the data, aggregating metrics, and creating reports.

  Analytics tools process the collected data to generate reports and visualisations that provide insights into user behaviour. Metrics such as pageviews, bounce rates, conversion rates and user paths are analysed. Good web analytics tools are able to present these insights in a user-friendly way. Analysts and marketing professionals then use this knowledge to make informed decisions to improve the user experience (UX).

  Advanced tracking systems allow data segmentation and filtering based on various criteria, such as user demographics, traffic sources, devices and more. This enables deeper analysis of specific user groups. For example, you might find that your conversion rate is much lower when your website is viewed on a mobile device. You can then dig deeper into that segment of data to find out why and experiment with changes that might increase mobile conversions.

  3 types of website tracking and their benefits

  There are three main categories of website tracking, and they each provide different information that can be used by sales, marketing, engineering and others. Here, we cover those three types and how businesses use them to understand customers and create better experiences.

  Website analytics 

  Website analytics is all about understanding the traffic your website receives. This type of tracking allows you to learn how the website performs based on pageviews, real-time traffic, bounce rate and conversions. 

  For example, you would use website analytics to determine how effectively your homepage drives people toward a product or pricing page. You can use pageviews and previous page statistics to learn how many people who land on your homepage read your blog posts. From there, you could use web analytics to determine the conversion rate of the call to action at the end of each article.

  

  User behaviour

  While website analytics focuses on the website’s performance, user behaviour tracking is about monitoring and quantifying user behaviour. One of the most obvious aspects of user behaviour is what they click on, but there are many other actions you can track. 

  The time a user spends on a page can help you determine whether the content on the page is engaging. Some tracking tools can also measure how far down the page a user scrolls, which reveals whether some content is even being seen. 

  Session recordings are another popular tool for analysing user behaviour. They not only show concrete actions, like clicks, but can also show how the user moves throughout the page. Where do they stop ? What do they scroll right past ? This is one example of how user behaviour data can be quantitative or qualitative.

  Visitor information

  Tracking can also include gathering or uncovering information about visitors to your site. This might include demographic information, such as language and location, or details like what device a website visitor is using and on which browser they view your website. 

  This type of data helps your web and marketing teams make better decisions about how to design and format the site. If you know, for example, that the website for your business-to-business (B2B) software is overwhelmingly viewed on desktop computers, that will affect how you structure your pages and choose images. 

  Similarly, if visitor information tells you that you have a significant audience in France, your marketing team might develop new content to appeal to those potential customers.

  Use website visitor tracking to improve marketing, sales and UX 

  Website visitor tracking has various applications for different parts of your business, from marketing to sales and much more. When you understand the impact tracking has on different teams, you can better evaluate your company’s needs and build buy-in among stakeholders.

  Marketing

  At many companies, the marketing team owns and determines what kind of content is on your website. From landing pages to blog posts to the navigation bar, you want to create an experience that drives people toward making a purchase. When marketers can track website visitors, they can get a real look at how visitors respond to and engage with their marketing efforts. Pageviews, conversion rates and time spent on pages help them better understand what your customers care about and what messaging resonates.

  But web analytics can even help marketing teams better understand how their external marketing campaigns are performing. Tracking tools like Matomo reveal your most important traffic sources. The term “traffic source” refers to the content or web property from which someone arrives at your site. 

  For instance, you might notice that an older page got a big boost in traffic this month. You can then check the traffic sources, where you find that an influential LinkedIn user posted a link to the page. This presents an opportunity to adjust the influencer or social media aspects of your marketing strategy.

  

  Beyond traffic sources, Matomo can provide a visual user journey (also known as User Flow), showing which pages visitors tend to view in a session and even in what order they progress. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of the customer journey.

  Sales

  Just like your marketing team, your sales team can benefit from tracking and analysing website visitor information. Data about user behaviour and visitor demographics helps sales representatives better understand the people they’re talking to. Segmented visitor tracking data can even provide clues as to how to appeal to different buyer personas.

  Sales leadership can use web analytics to gauge interest over time, tie visitors to revenue and develop more accurate sales forecasts and goals. 

  

  And it’s not just aggregated website tracking data that your sales team can use to better serve customers. They can also use insights about an individual visitor to tailor their approach. Matomo’s Visits Log report and Visitor Profiles allow you to see which pages a prospect has viewed. This tells your sales team which products and features the prospect is most interested in, leading to more relevant interactions and more effective sales efforts.

  User experience and web development

  The way users interact with and experience your website has a big impact on their impression of your brand and, ultimately, whether they become customers. While marketing often controls much of a website’s content, the backend and technical operation of the site usually falls to a web development or engineering team. Website analytics and tracking inform their work, too.

  Along with data about website traffic and conversion rates, web development teams often monitor bounce rates (the percentage of people who leave your website entirely after landing on a page) and page load time (the time it takes for an individual web page to load for a user). Besides the fact that slow loading times inconvenience visitors, they can also negatively affect your search engine optimization (SEO).

  

  Along with session recordings, user experience teams and web developers may use heatmaps to find out what parts of a page draw a visitor’s attention and where they are most likely to convert or take some other action. They can then use these insights to make a web page more intuitive and useful.

  Visitor tracking and privacy regulations 

  There are different data privacy standards in other parts of the world, which are designed to ensure that businesses collect and use consumer data ethically. The most-discussed of these privacy standards is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was instituted by the European Union (EU) but affects businesses worldwide. However, it’s important to note that individual countries or states can have different privacy laws.

  Many privacy laws govern how websites can use cookies to track visitors. With a user’s consent, cookies can help websites identify and remember visitors. However, many web visitors will reject cookie consent banners. When this happens, analysts and marketers can’t collect information from these visitors and have to work with incomplete tracking data. Incomplete data leads to poor decision-making. What’s more, cookie consent banners can create a poor user experience and often annoy web visitors.

  With Matomo’s industry-leading measures to protect user privacy, France’s data protection agency (CNIL) has confirmed that Matomo is exempt from tracking consent in France. Matomo users have peace of mind knowing they can uphold the GDPR and collect data without needing to collect and track cookie consent. Only in Germany and the UK are cookie consent banners still required.

  Choosing user tracking software

  The benefits and value of tracking website visitors are enormous, but not all tracking software is equal. Different tools have different core functionalities. For instance, some focus on user behaviour over traditional web analytics. Others offer detailed website performance data but offer little in the way of visitor information. It’s a good idea to start by identifying your company’s most important tracking goals.

  Along with core features, look for useful tools to experiment with and optimise your website with. For example, Matomo enables A/B testing while many other tools do not.

  

  Along with users of your website, you also need to think about the employees who will be using the tracking software. The interface can have a big impact on the value you get from a tool. Matomo’s session recording functionality, for example, not only provides you with video but with a colour-coded timeline identifying important user actions.

  

  Privacy standards and compliance should also be a part of the conversation. Different tools use different tracking methods, impacting accuracy and security and can even cause legal trouble. You should consider which data privacy laws you are subject to, as well as the privacy expectations of your users.

  

  Some industries have especially high data security standards. Government and healthcare organisations, for example, may require visitor tracking software that is hosted on their premises. While there are many purely cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) tracking tools, Matomo is available both On-Premise (also known as self-hosted) and in the Cloud.

  Frequently asked questions

  Here are answers to some of people’s most common questions about tracking website visitors.

  Can you track who visited your website ?

  In most cases, tracking your website’s traffic is possible. Still, the extent of the tracking depends on the visitor-tracking technology you use and the privacy settings and precautions the visitor uses. For example, some technologies can pinpoint users by IP address. In other cases, you may only have access to anonymized data.

  Is it legal to track someone’s IP address ?

  It is legal for websites and businesses to track someone’s IP address in the sense that they can identify that someone from the same IP address is visiting a page repeatedly. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), IP addresses are considered personally identifiable information (PII). The GDPR mandates that websites only log and store a user’s IP address with the user’s consent.

  How do you find where visitors are clicking the most ?

  Heatmap tools are among the most common tools for learning where visitors click the most on your website. Heatmaps use colour-coding to show what parts of a web page users either click on or hover over the most.

  Unique tracking URLs are another way to determine what part of your website gets the most clicks. For example, if you have three links on a page that all go to the same destination, you can use tracking links to determine how many clicks each link generates.

  Matomo also offers a Tag Manager within the platform that lets you manage and unify all your tracking and marketing tags to find out where visitors are clicking.

  What is the best tool for website visitor tracking ?

  Like most tools, the best website visitor tracking tool depends on your needs. Each tool offers different functionalities, user interfaces and different levels of accuracy and privacy. Matomo is a good choice for companies that value privacy, compliance and accuracy.

  Tracking for powerful insights and better performance

  Tracking website visitors is now a well-ingrained part of business operations. From sales reps seeking to understand their leads to marketers honing their ad spend, tracking helps teams do their jobs better.

  Take the time to consider what you want to learn from website tracking and let those priorities guide your choice of visitor tracking software. Whatever your industry or needs, user privacy and compliance must be a priority.

  Find out how much detail and insight Matomo can give you with our free 21-day trial — no credit card required.