Analytics are worth investing in, but why Matomo?
Without well thought-out website analytics and marketing monitoring, it is easy to allocate advertising dollars and other resources based on a "hunch". The result is a guessing game, as the old saying goes "half is wasted, but you don't know which half", making it challenging to assess results and inefficient to plan for the future. The effectiveness of analytics depends on careful design, and testing the results is essential. In this article, we'll explain why Matomo in particular is a great analytics tool, how to set it up and what data to collect with it.
Some people think that the analytics tool itself solves problems magically, but in reality, every tool requires more or less setup and customization to achieve the desired results. It is particularly important to map out the usage paths of your site or application and ensure that the data that goes into the tool is in the right format and carefully processed so that the interpretation of the results is not left to guesswork. Add to this the tightened requirements for personal data protection, and cookie-free analytics becomes a viable option for reliable, versatile and easily processed data.
What is Matomo?
Matomo is a so-called cookie-free, open-source web analytics tool that focuses specifically on compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The operator of the Matomo analytics tool owns and is responsible for the data collected, and proprietary data is available as raw data. The tool offers the option of monitoring from your own server or using the cloud version implemented by InnoFactor, which also offers paid add-ons for a monthly fee.
Matomo offers a refreshing alternative to the analytics tools previously dominated by Google Analytics Universal Analytics (GA3). The current Google Analytics 4 remains the most popular tool on the market, with 49.7% of all websites using (having installed) this tool, or 48.97% of the largest one million websites, depending on the source. However, the share of Matomo is 1.6% or even 2.5% and is growing. Matomo is one of the most popular choices in the public sector, especially due to its GDPR compliance and the similarity of the interface to Google Analytics Universal.
Matomo vs GA4
At the outset, Matomo is not a better choice than Google Analytics 4 in all aspects of web analytics. However, Matomo better serves those needs where data privacy compliance and data ownership are key.
- Matomo is an open source network analytics tool designed to comply with data privacy regulations, making it particularly suitable for organizations that prioritize GDPR or other data protection regulations. For many, this is the main reason for switching tools or choosing a new one.
- The data collected by Matomo is entirely yours and is not sent to unspecified servers. This means you know exactly how the data is handled and there is no risk of it being used or processed outside your control.
- Matomo comes with a wide range of reports to cover the needs of most users. The reports are similar to what Google Analytics 4 offers, making it familiar and easy to use for those who are already familiar with other tools.
- By using Matomo, your site retains full ownership of the data generated by the analytics tool and is also accountable for it. This ownership gives you more control and accountability, supporting stricter privacy and data management policies.
Who is Matomo suitable for?
Matomo is particularly suitable for users with previous experience of Google Analytics Universal Analytics, as it offers similar reports and a similar user interface. In many ways, the tool works in the same way as Google Analytics Universal Analytics. For example, Matomo uses the three-tiered 'category, name, label' structure for transactions that was previously the standard for analytics tools.
Using Matomo
Matomo requires a little more to get up and running, but the initial investment pays off. Quick analyses are less straightforward in Matomo, as you can't add new fields to reports. You can create the reports you want separately using the Custom Reports add-on.
In general, you start using Matomo by creating events and goals for site tracking in Matomo. Reports are then created using Custom Reports to take advantage of the new events, as well as a few reports for site-wide events. The filtering of the basic Matomo reports is based on the 'contains' filter, so depending on the site structure and desired results, this filter may not be sufficient. The more time you spend on pre-processing, the easier further analysis will be in Matomo.
Installing Matomo
To install Matomo on your website without any extra configurations, simply insert the Matomo tracking code at the end of the <head> section, just before the closing </head> tag.
<!-- Matomo --><script> var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || []; /* tracker methods like "setCustomDimension" should be called before "trackPageView" */ _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u = "https://your-matomo-url.example.com/"; // Replace with your Matomo URL _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u + 'matomo.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', 'YOUR_SITE_ID']); // Replace with your site ID var d = document, g = d.createElement('script'), s = d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.async = true; g.src = u + 'matomo.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g, s); })();</script><!-- End Matomo Code -->
When monitoring a website, in most cases you need to ask users for permission to use cookies and monitoring, which can make the installation process a bit more complicated. The complexity of the installation depends on which tool is used to manage the permission.
Matomo and GDPR
Matomo is definitely less problematic from a GDPR perspective than Google Analytics 4. While Matomo provides a stronger security foundation, it does not completely prevent illegal use, for example by collecting identifiable data from users or by not taking advantage of required pseudonymization and anonymization techniques. The legality of data processing is mostly determined by what data is collected, for what purpose, how the data is collected and who has access to the data.
Business benefits of Matomo
Switching to Matomo can be a sensible solution to protect your business from potential future GDPR and data security risks. Matomo provides a truly real-time view and a more accurate visitor log, making it easier to detect and resolve issues on your site. Matomo is not free to use, so it's worth using it to collect the kind of data that will bring tangible benefits to your service.
See our other articles on MatomoOpens in a new tab or contact us directly. We would be happy to tell you more about both Matomo and our implementations of it.
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