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• How (and Why) to Run a Web Accessibility Audit in 2024

  7 mai 2024, par Erin

  When most businesses design their websites, they primarily think about aesthetics, not accessibility. However, not everyone who visits your website has the same abilities or access needs. Eight percent of the US population has visual impairments.

  The last thing you want is to alienate website visitors with a bad experience because your site isn’t up to accessibility standards. (And with growing international regulation, risk fines or lawsuits as a result.)

  A web accessibility audit can help you identify and fix any issues for users with impaired vision, hearing or other physical disabilities. In this article, we’ll cover how to conduct such an audit efficiently for your website in 2024.

  What is a web accessibility audit ?

  A web accessibility audit is a way to evaluate the usability of your website for users with visual, auditory or physical impairments, as well as cognitive disabilities or neurological issues. The goal is to figure out how accessible your website is to each of these affected groups and solve any issues that come up.

  To complete an audit, you use digital tools and various manual accessibility testing processes to ensure your site meets modern web accessibility standards.

  Why is a web accessibility audit a must in 2024 ?

  For far too long, many businesses have not considered the experiences of those with disabilities. The growing frustrations of affected internet users have led to a new focus on web accessibility laws and enforcement.

  Lawsuits related to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) reached all-time highs in 2023 — over 4,500 digital-related lawsuits were filed. The EU has also drawn up the European Accessibility Act (EAC), which goes into effect in June 2025.

  But at the end of the day, it’s not about accessibility legislation. It’s about doing right by people.

  

  This video by voice actor, YouTuber, and surfer Pete Gustin demonstrates why accessibility measures are so important. If buttons, navigation and content sections aren’t properly labelled, sight-impaired people who rely on speech-to-text to browse the web can’t comfortably interact with your site.

  And you’re worse off for it. You can lose some of your best customers and advocates this way. 

  With stronger enforcement of accessibility regulations in the US and new regulations coming into effect in the EU in 2025, the time to act is now. It’s not enough to “keep accessibility in mind” — you must take concrete steps to improve it.

  Who should lead a web accessibility audit ?

  Ideally, you want to hire a third-party web accessibility expert to lead the audit. They can guide you through multiple stages of manual accessibility testing to ensure your site meets regulations and user needs. 

  Experienced accessibility auditors are familiar with common pitfalls and can help you avoid them. They ensure you meet the legal requirements with proper solutions, not quick fixes.

  If this isn’t an option, find someone with relevant experience within your company. And involve someone with “skin in the game” in the process. Hire someone with visual impairments to usability test your site. Don’t just do automated tests or “put yourself in their shoes.” Make sure the affected users can use your site without issues.

  Automated vs. manual audits and the danger of shortcuts

  While there are automated audits, they only check for the bare minimum :

  • Do your images have alt tags ? (They don’t check if the alt tag is descriptive or just SEO junk text.)
  • Are clickable buttons identified with text for visually impaired users ?
  • Is your text size adjustable ?
  • Are your background and foreground colours accessible for colour-blind users ? Is there a sufficient contrast ratio ?

  

  They don’t dive into the user journey (and typically can’t access login-locked parts of your site). They can be a good starting point, but it’s a bad idea to rely completely on automated audits.

  They’ll miss more complex issues like :

  • Dynamic content and animated elements or videos that could put people with epilepsy at risk of seizures
  • A navigational flow that is unnecessarily challenging for users with impairments
  • Video elements without proper captions

  So, don’t rely too much on automated tests and audits. Many lawsuits for ADA infractions are against companies that think they’ve already solved the problem. For example, 30% of 2023 lawsuits were against sites that used accessibility overlays.

  Key elements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

  The international standard for web accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In the most recent version, WCAG 2.2, there are new requirements for visual elements and focus and other updates.

  Here’s a quick overview of the key priorities of WCAG :

  

  Perceivable : Any user can read or listen to your site’s content

  The first priority is for any user to be able to perceive the actual content on your site. To be compliant, you need to make these adjustments and more :

  • Use text that scales with browser settings.
  • Avoid relying on colour contrasts to communicate something.
  • Ensure visual elements are explained in text.
  • Offer audio alternatives for things like CAPTCHA.
  • Form fields and interactive elements are properly named.

  Operable : Any user can navigate the site and complete tasks without issue

  The second priority is for users to navigate your website and complete tasks. Here are some of the main considerations for this section :

  • Navigation is possible through keyboard and text-to-speech interfaces.
  • You offer navigation tools to bypass repeated blocks of content.
  • Buttons are properly titled and named.
  • You give impaired users enough time to finish processes without timing out.
  • You allow users to turn off unnecessary animations (and ensure none include three flashes or more within one second).
  • Links have a clear purpose from their alt text (and context).

  Understandable : Any user can read and understand the content

  The third priority is making the content understandable. You need to communicate as simply and as clearly as possible. Here are a few key points :

  • Software can determine the default language of each page.
  • You use a consistent method to explain jargon or difficult terms.
  • You introduce the meaning of unfamiliar abbreviations and acronyms.
  • You offer tools to help users double-check and correct input.
  • The reading grade is not higher than grade 9. If it is, you must offer an alternative text with a lower grade.
  • Use consistent and predictable formatting and navigation.

  This intro to accessibility guidelines should help you see the wide range of potential accessibility issues. Accessibility is not just about screen readers — it’s about ensuring a good user experience for users with a wide range of disabilities.

  Note : If you’re not hiring a third-party expert for the manual accessibility audit, this introduction isn’t enough. You need to familiarise yourself with all 50 success criteria in WCAG 2.2.

  How to do your first web accessibility audit

  Ready to find and fix the accessibility issues across your website ? Follow the steps outlined below to do a successful accessibility audit.

  Start with an automated accessibility test

  To point you in the right direction, start with a digital accessibility checker. There are many free alternatives, including :

  • Accessibility Checker
  • Silktide accessibility checker
  • AAArdvark

  When choosing a tool, check it’s up-to-date with the newest accessibility guidelines. Many accessibility evaluation tools are still based on the WCAG 2.1 version rather than WCAG 2.2.

  The tool will give you a basic evaluation of the accessibility level of your site. A free report can quickly identify common issues with navigation, labelling, colour choices and more. 

  But this is only good as a starting point. Remember that even paid versions of these testing tools are limited and cannot replace a manual audit.

  Look for common issues

  The next step is to manually look for common issues that impact your site’s level of accessibility :

  • Undescriptive alt text
  • Colour combinations (and lack of ability to change background and foreground colours)
  • Unscalable text
  • Different site content sections that are not properly labelled

  The software you use to create your site can lead to many of these issues. Is your content management system (CMS) compliant with ADA or WCAG ? If not, you may want to move to a CMS before continuing the audit.

  Pinpoint customer journeys and test them for accessibility 

  After you’ve fixed common issues, it’s essential to put the actual customer journey to the test. Explore your most important journeys with behavioural analytics tools like session recordings and funnel analysis.

  Analysing funnel reports lets you quickly identify each page that usually contributes to a sale. You will also have an overview of the most popular funnels to evaluate for accessibility.

  If your current web analytics platform doesn’t offer behavioural reports like these, Matomo can help. Our privacy-friendly web analytics solution includes funnel reports, session recordings, A/B testing, form analytics, heatmaps and more.

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  If you don’t have the budget to test every page individually, this is the perfect place to start. You want to ensure that users with disabilities have no issues completing the main tasks on your site. 

  Don’t focus solely on your web pages 

  Accessibility barriers can also exist outside of your standard web pages. So ensure that other file formats like PDFs and videos are also accessible. 

  Remember that downloadable materials are also part of your digital experience. Always consider the needs of individuals with disabilities when accessing things like case studies or video tutorials. 

  Highlight high-priority issues in a detailed report

  To complete the audit, you need to summarise and highlight high-priority issues. In a larger company, this will be in the form of a report. W3’s Web Accessibility Initiative offers a free accessibility report template and an online tool to generate a report.

  For smaller teams, it may make sense to input issues directly into the product backlog or a task list. Then, you can tackle the issues, starting with high-priority pages identified earlier in this process.

  Avoid quick fixes and focus on sustainable improvement

  As mentioned, AI-powered overlay solutions aren’t compliant and put you at risk for lawsuits. It’s not enough to install a quick accessibility tool and pat yourself on the back.

  And it’s not just about accessibility compliance. These solutions provide a disjointed experience that alienates potential users. 

  The point of a digital accessibility audit is to identify issues and provide a better experience to all your users. So don’t try to cut corners. Do the work required to implement solutions that work seamlessly for everyone. Invest in a long-term accessibility remediation process.

  Deliver a frictionless experience while gaining insight into your users

  An accessibility audit is crucial to ensure an inclusive experience — that a wide variety of users can read and interact with your site.

  But what about the basic usability of your website ? Are you sure the experience is without friction ? Matomo’s behavioural analytics tools can show how users interact with your website.

  For example, heatmaps can show you where users are clicking — which can help you identify a pattern, like many users mistaking a visual element for a button.

  Plus, our privacy-friendly web analytics are compliant with GDPR, CCPA and other data privacy regulations. That helps protect you against privacy-related lawsuits, just as an accessibility audit protects you against ADA lawsuits.

  And it never hurts that your users know you respect their privacy. Try Matomo free for 21-days. No credit card required.

  Try Matomo for Free

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• What Is Ethical SEO & Why Does It Matter ?

  7 mai 2024, par Erin

  Do you want to generate more revenue ?

  Then, you need to ensure you have a steady stream of traffic flowing to your site.

  Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo are powerful mediums you can use to scale your business.

  Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of creating search engine-friendly content to draw in traffic to your website. But, if you aren’t careful, you could be crossing the line of ethical SEO into unethical SEO.

  In this article, we break down what ethical SEO is, why it’s important in business and how you can implement effective SEO into your business while remaining ethical.

  Let’s begin.

  What is ethical SEO ?

  Since the early days of the internet and search engines, business owners and marketers have tried using all kinds of SEO tactics to rank atop the search engines for relevant keywords.

  The problem ?

  Some of these practices are ethical, while others aren’t.

  What exactly is ethical SEO ?

  It’s the practice of optimising your website’s rankings in search engines by following search engine guidelines and prioritising user experience.

  

  Ethical SEO is also referred to as “white hat SEO.”

  On the other hand, businesses that break search engine rules and guidelines to “hack” their way to the top with faulty and questionable practices use unethical SEO, or “black hat SEO.”

  Ethical SEO aims to achieve higher rankings in search engines through sustainable, legitimate and fair methods.

  Black hat, or unethical SEO, aims to manipulate or “game” the system with deceptive strategies to bypass the search engine’s guidelines to rank higher.

  The two core branches of ethical SEO include :

  1. Strategies that align with search engine guidelines.
  2. Accessibility to broad audiences.

  Some examples of ethical SEO principles include :

  • Natural link building
  • Compliance with search engine guidelines
  • Establishing great user experiences
  • Creating reader-focused content

  By sticking to the right guidelines and implementing proper SEO practices, businesses can establish ethical SEO to generate more traffic and grow their brands.

  8 ethical SEO practices to implement

  If you want to grow your organic search traffic, then there’s no doubt you’ll need to have some SEO knowledge.

  While there are dozens of ways to “game” SEO, it’s best to stick to proven, ethical SEO techniques to improve your rankings.

  Stick to these best practices to increase your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs), increase organic traffic and improve your website conversions.

  

  1. Crafting high-quality content

  The most important piece of any ethical SEO strategy is content.

  Forget about rankings, keywords and links for a second.

  Step back and think about why people go to Google, Bing and Yahoo in the first place.

  They’re there looking for information. They have a question they need answered. That’s where you can come in and give them the answer they want. 

  How ? In the form of content.

  The best long-term ethical SEO strategy is to create the highest-quality content possible. Crafting high-quality content should be where you focus 90% of your SEO efforts.

  2. Following search engine guidelines

  Once you’ve got a solid content creation strategy, where you’re producing in-depth, quality content, you need to ensure you’re following the guidelines and rules put in place by the major search engines.

  This means you need to stay compliant with the best practices and guidelines laid out by the top search engines.

  If you fail to follow these rules, you could be penalised, your content could be downgraded or removed from search engines, and you could even have your entire website flagged, impacting your entire organic search traffic from your site.

  You need to ensure you align with the guidelines so you’re set up for long-term success with your SEO.

  3. Conducting keyword research and optimisation

  Now that we’ve covered content and guidelines, let’s talk about the technical stuff, starting with keywords.

  In the early days of SEO (late 90s), just about anyone could rank a web page high by stuffing keywords all over the page.

  While those black hat techniques used to work to “game” the system, it doesn’t work like that anymore. Google and other major search engines have much more advanced algorithms that can detect keyword stuffing and manipulation.

  Keywords are still a major part of a successful SEO strategy. You can ethically incorporate keywords into your content (and you should) if you want to rank higher. 

  Your main goal with your content is to match it with the search intent. So, incorporating keywords should come naturally throughout your content. If you try to stuff in unnecessary keywords or use spammy techniques, you may not even rank at all and could harm your website’s rankings.

  4. Incorporating natural link building

  After you’ve covered content and keywords, it’s time to dive into links. Backlinks are any links that point back to your website from another website.

  These are a crucial part of the SEO pie. Without them, it’s hard to rank high on Google. They work well because they tell Google your web page or website has authority on a subject matter.

  But you could be penalised if you try to manipulate backlinks by purchasing them or spamming them from other websites.

  Instead, you should aim to draw in natural backlinks by creating content that attracts them.

  How ? There are several options :

  • Content marketing
  • Email outreach
  • Brand mentions
  • Public relations
  • Ethical guest posting

  Get involved in other people’s communities. Get on podcasts. Write guest posts. Connect with other brands. Provide value in your niche and create content worth linking to.

  5. Respecting the intellectual property of other brands

  Content creation is moving at lightspeed in the creator economy and social media era. For better or for worse, content is going viral every day. People share content, place their spin on it, revise it, optimise it, and spread it around the internet.

  Unfortunately, this means the content is sometimes shared without the owner’s permission. Content is one form of intellectual property (IP). 

  If you share copyrighted material, you could face legal consequences.

  6. Ensuring transparency

  Transparency is one of the pillars of ethical marketing.

  If you’re running the SEO in your company or an agency, you should always explain the SEO strategies and tactics you’re implementing to your stakeholders.

  It’s best to lean on transparency and honesty to ensure your team knows you’re running operations ethically.

  7. Implementing a great user experience

  The final pillar of ethical SEO practices is offering a great user experience on your website.

  Major search engines like Google are favouring user experience more and more every year. This means knowing how to track and analyse website metrics like page load times, time on page, pageviews, media plays and event tracking.

  8. Use an ethical web analytics solution

  Last but certainly not least. Tracking your website visitors ethically is key to maintaining SEO ethics.

  You can do this by using an ethical web analytics solution like Matomo, Plausible or Fathom. All three are committed to respecting user privacy and offer ethical tracking of visitors.

  We’re a bit biassed towards Matomo, of course, but for good reasons.

  Matomo offers accurate, unsampled data along with advanced features like heatmaps, session recording, and A/B testing. These features enhance user experience and support ethical SEO practices by providing insights into user behaviour, helping optimise content. 

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  6 unethical SEO practices to avoid

  Now that we’ve covered the ethical SEO best practices let’s talk about what kind of unethical SEO practices you want to avoid.

  Remember, SEO isn’t as easy to manipulate as it once was 20 years ago.

  Algorithms are much more sophisticated now, and search engines are getting better at detecting fraudulent, scammy or unethical SEO practices every year.

  Avoid these eight unethical SEO practices to ensure you can rank high in the long term :

  

  1. Keyword stuffing

  Keyword stuffing is probably the most common unethical SEO practice. This is where someone deliberately stuffs keywords onto a page to manipulate the search engines to rank a web page higher.

  Where this is unethical isn’t always easy to detect, but in some cases, it is. It comes down to whether it’s relevant and natural or intentionally stuffing.

  2. Cloaking

  Cloaking is another unethical SEO practice where someone manipulates the information search engines see on their website.

  For example, someone may show search engines one web page on their website, but when someone clicks on it in Google, they can direct someone to a completely different page. They do this by detecting the incoming request from the user agent and presenting different content.

  3. Deceiving functionality

  Another way companies are unethically implementing SEO tactics is by deceiving people with misleading information. For example, a website may claim to provide a free resource or directory but may intentionally lead visitors to paid products.

  4. Fraudulent redirects

  Another way to deceive or mislead searchers is by creating fraudulent redirects. A redirect is a way to take someone to a different web page when they click on another one. Redirects can be useful if a page is broken or outdated. However, they can be used to deceptively take someone to a website they didn’t intend to view.

  5. Negative SEO

  Negative SEO is the intentional attempt to harm a competitor’s search engine rankings through unethical tactics.

  These tactics include duplicating their content or generating spammy links by creating low quality or irrelevant backlinks to their site.

  6. Hidden text

  Placing hidden text on a website typically has one purpose : keyword stuffing.

  Instead of making it visible to users reading the content, websites will place invisible text or text that’s hard to read on a website to try to rank the content higher and manipulate the search engines.

  3 reasons you need to implement ethical SEO

  So, why should you ensure you only implement ethical SEO in your organic traffic strategy ?

  It’s not just about what’s morally right or wrong. Implementing ethical SEO is the smartest long-term marketing strategy :

  1. Better long-term SEO

  Search engine optimisation is about implementing the “right” tactics to get your website to rank higher.

  The funny thing is many people are trying to get quick fixes by manipulating search engines to see results now.

  However, the ones who implement shady tactics and “hacks” to game the system almost always end up losing their rankings in the long term. 

  The best long-term SEO strategy is to do things ethically. Create content that helps people. Make higher quality content than your competitors. If you do those two things right, you’ll have better search traffic for years.

  2. Great brand reputation

  Not only is ethical SEO a great way to get long-term results, but it’s also a good way to maintain a solid brand reputation.

  Reputation management is a crucial aspect of SEO. All it takes is one bad incident, and your SEO could be negatively impacted.

  3. Lower chance of penalties

  If you play by the rules, you have a lower risk of being penalised by Google.

  The reality is that Google owns the search engine, not you. While we can benefit from the traffic generation of major search engines, you could lose all your rankings if you break their guidelines.

  Track SEO data ethically with Matomo

  Ethical SEO is all about :

  • Serving your audience
  • Getting better traffic in the long run

  If you fail to follow ethical SEO practices, you could be de-ranked or have your reputation on the line.

  However, if you implement ethical SEO, you could reap the rewards of a sustainable marketing strategy that helps you grow your traffic correctly and increase conversions in the long term.

  If you’re ready to start implementing ethical SEO, you need to ensure you depend on an ethical web analytics solution like Matomo.

  Unlike other web analytics solutions, Matomo prioritises user privacy, maintains transparent, ethical data collection practices, and does not sell user data to advertisers. Matomo provides 100% data ownership, ensuring that your data remains yours to own and control.

  As the leading privacy-friendly web analytics solution globally, trusted by over 1 million websites, Matomo ensures :

  • Accurate data without data sampling for confident insights and better results
  • Privacy-friendly and GDPR-compliant web analytics
  • Open-source access for transparency and creating a custom solution tailored to your needs

  Try Matomo free for 21-days. No credit card required.

  Try Matomo for Free

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  
  

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• What Are Website KPIs (10 KPIs and Best Ways to Track Them)

  3 mai 2024, par Erin

  Trying to improve your website’s performance ?

  Have you ever heard the phrase, “What gets measured gets managed ?”

  To improve, you need to start crunching your numbers.

  The question is, what numbers are you supposed to track ?

  If you want to improve your conversions, then you need to track your website KPIs.

  In this guide, we’ll break down the top website KPIs you need to be tracking and how you can track them so you can double down on what’s working with your website (and ditch what’s not).

  Let’s begin.

  What are website KPIs ?

  Before we dive into website KPIs, let’s define “KPI.”

  A KPI is a key performance indicator.

  You can use this measurable metric to track progress toward a specific objective.

  A website KPI is a metric to track progress towards a specific website performance objective.

  

  Website KPIs help your business identify strengths and weaknesses on your website, activities you’re doing well (and those you’re struggling with).

  Web KPIs can give you and your team a target to reach with simple checkpoints to show you whether you’re on the right track toward your goals.

  By tracking website KPIs regularly, you can ensure your organisation performs consistently at a high level.

  Whether you’re looking to improve your traffic, leads or revenue, keeping a close eye on your website KPIs can help you reach your goals.

  10 Website KPIs to track

  If you want to improve your site’s performance, you need to track the right KPIs.

  While there are plenty of web analytics solutions on the market today, below we’ll cover KPIs that are automatically tracked in Matomo (and don’t require any configuration).

  Here are the top 10 website KPIs you need to track to improve site performance and grow your brand :

  1. Pageviews

  Website pageviews are one of the most important KPIs to track.

  What is it exactly ?

  It’s simply the number of times a specific web page has been viewed on your site in a specific time period.

  For example, your homepage might have had 327 pageviews last month, and only 252 this month. 

  This is a drop of 23%. 

  A drop in pageviews could mean your search engine optimisation or traffic campaigns are weakening. Alternatively, if you see pageviews rise, it could mean your marketing initiatives are performing well.

  High or low pageviews could also indicate potential issues on specific pages. For example, your visitors might have trouble finding specific pages if you have poor website structure.

  

  2. Average time on page

  Now that you understand pageviews, let’s talk about average time on page.

  This is simple : it’s the average amount of time your visitors spend on a particular web page on your site.

  This isn’t the average time they spend on your website but on a specific page.

  If you’re finding that you’re getting steady traffic to a specific web page, but the average time on the page is low, it may mean the content on the page needs to be updated or optimised.

  Tracking your average time on page is important, as the longer someone stays on a page, the better the experience.

  This isn’t a hard and fast rule, though. For specific types of content like knowledge base articles, you may want a shorter period of time on page to ensure someone gets their answer quickly.

  3. Bounce rate

  Bounce rate sounds fun, right ?

  Well, it’s not usually a good thing for your website.

  A bounce rate is how many users entered your website but “bounced” away without clicking through to another page.

  Your bounce rate is a key KPI that helps you determine the quality of your content and the user experience on individual pages.

  You could be getting plenty of traffic to your site, but if the majority are bouncing out before heading to new pages, it could mean that your content isn’t engaging enough for your visitors.

  Remember, like average time on page, your bounce rate isn’t a black-and-white KPI.

  A higher bounce rate may mean your site visitors got exactly what they needed and are pleased.

  But, if you have a high bounce rate on a product page or a landing page, that is a sign you need to optimise the page.

  4. Exit rate

  Bounce rate is the percentage of people who left the website after visiting one page.

  Exit rate, on the other hand, is the percentage of website visits that ended on a specific page.

  For example, you may find that a blog post you wrote has a 19% exit rate and received 1,000 visits that month. This means out of the 1,000 people who viewed this page, 190 exited after visiting it.

  On the other hand, you may find that a second blog post has 1,000 pageviews, but a 10% exit rate, with only 100 people leaving the site after visiting this page.

  What could this mean ?

  This means the second page did a better job keeping the person on your website longer. This could be because :

  • It had more engaging content, keeping the visitors’ interest high
  • It had better internal links to other relevant pieces of content
  • It had a better call to action, taking someone to another web page

  If you’re an e-commerce store and notice that your exit rate is higher on your product, cart or checkout pages, you may need to adjust those pages for better conversions.

  

  5. Average page load time

  Want to know another reason you may have a high exit rate or bounce rate on a page ?

  Your page load time.

  The average page load time is the average time it takes (in seconds) from the moment you click through to a page until it has fully rendered within your browser.

  In other words, it’s the time it takes after you click on a page for it to be fully functional.

  Your average load time is a crucial website KPI because it significantly impacts page performance and the user experience.

  How important is your page load time ?

  Nearly 53% of website visitors expect e-commerce pages to load in 3 seconds or less.

  You will likely lose visitors if your pages take too long to load.

  You could have the best content on a web page, but if it takes too long to load, your visitors will bounce, exit, or simply be frustrated.

  6. Conversions

  

  Conversions.

  It’s one of the most popular words in digital marketing circles.

  But what does it mean ?

  A conversion is simply the number of times someone takes a specific action on your website.

  For example, it could be wanting someone to :

  • Read a blog post
  • Click an external link
  • Download a PDF guide
  • Sign up to your email list
  • Comment on your blog post
  • Watch a new video you uploaded
  • Purchase a limited-edition product
  • Sign up for a free trial of your software

  To start tracking conversions, you need to first decide what your business goals are for your website.

  With Matomo, you can set up conversions easily through the Goals feature. Simply set up your website goals, and Matomo will automatically track the conversions towards that objective (as a goal completion).

  Simply choose what conversion you want to track, and you can analyse when conversions occur through the Matomo platform.

  7. Conversion rate

  

  Now that you know what a conversion is, it’s time to talk about conversion rate.

  This key website KPI will help you analyse your performance towards your goals.

  Conversion rate is simply the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, like completing a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a form, out of the total number of visitors to your website or landing page.

  Understanding this percentage can help you plan your marketing strategy to improve your website and business performance.

  For instance, let’s say that 2% of your website visitors purchase a product on your digital storefront.

  Knowing this, you could tweak different levers to increase your sales.

  If your average order value is $50 and you get 100,000 visits monthly, you make about $100,000.

  Let’s say you want to increase your revenue.

  One option is to increase your traffic by implementing campaigns to increase different traffic sources, such as social media ads, search ads, organic social traffic, and SEO.

  If you can get your traffic to 120,000 visitors monthly, you can increase your revenue to $120,000 — an additional $20,000 monthly for the extra 20,000 visits.

  Or, if you wanted to increase revenue, you could ignore traffic growth and simply improve your website with conversion rate optimisation (CRO).

  CRO is the practice of making changes to your website or landing page to encourage more visitors to take the desired action.

  If you can get your conversion rate up to 2.5%, the calculation looks like this :

  100,000 visits x $50 average order value x 2.5% = $125,000/month.

  8. Average time spent on forms

  If you want more conversions, you need to analyse forms.

  Why ?

  Form analysis is crucial because it helps you pinpoint where users might be facing obstacles. 

  By identifying these pain points, you can refine the form’s layout and fields to enhance the user experience, leading to higher conversion rates.

  In particular, you should track the average time spent on your forms to understand which ones might be causing frustration or confusion. 

  The average time a visitor spends on a form is calculated by measuring the duration between their first interaction with a form field (such as when they focus on it) and their final interaction.

  Find out how Concrete CMS tripled their leads using Form Analytics.

  9. Play rate

  One often overlooked website KPI you need to be tracking is play rate.

  What is it exactly ?

  The percentage of visitors who click “play” on a video or audio media format on a specific web page.

  For example, if you have a video on your homepage, and 50 people watched it out of the 1,000 people who visited your website today, you have a play rate of 5%.

  Play rate lets you track whenever someone consumes a particular piece of audio or video content on your website, like a video, podcast, or audiobook.

  Not all web analytics solutions offer media analytics. However, Matomo lets you track your media like audio and video without the need for configuration, saving you time and upkeep.

  10. Actions per visit

  Another crucial website KPI is actions per visit.

  This is the average number of interactions a visitor has with your website during a single visit.

  For example, someone may visit your website, resulting in a variety of actions :

  • Downloading content
  • Clicking external links
  • Visiting a number of pages
  • Conducting specific site searches

  Actions per visit is a core KPI that indicates how engaging your website and content are.

  The higher the actions per visit, the more engaged your visitors typically are, which can help them stay longer and eventually convert to paying customers.

  Track your website KPIs with Matomo today

  Running a website is no easy task.

  There are dozens of factors to consider and manage :

  • Copy
  • Design
  • Performance
  • Tech integrations
  • And more

  But, to improve your website and grow your business, you must also dive into your web analytics by tracking key website KPIs.

  Managing these metrics can be challenging, but Matomo simplifies the process by consolidating all your core KPIs into one easy-to-use platform.

  As a privacy-friendly and GDPR-compliant web analytics solution, Matomo tracks 20-40% more data than other solutions. So you gain access to 100% accurate, unsampled insights, enabling confident decision-making.

  Join over 1 million websites that trust Matomo as their web analytics solution. Try it free for 21 days — no credit card required.

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