1. Why You Should Still Use a Website Analytics Tool Even in the Age of the GDPR.
With the GDPR coming into effect, there has been a lot of uncertainty about whether using an analytics tool is still practical or even permissible. You shouldn’t let that deter you. Regularly reviewing the data can lead to significant success through small optimizations. So it’s definitely worth it.
2. Choosing the Right Web Analytics Tools
The first step is selecting the right web analytics tool. We consider Google Analytics and Matomo to be the two main options here. If you also use Google Ads, Google Analytics is often the recommended choice. If you want to ensure that the usage data remains exclusively yours, we recommend Matomo (formerly Piwik). Matomo is installed on your web server, so only you can work with this data.
3. The Analytics Strategy
Before installing the analytics software, you should consider what data you want to analyze and what insights you hope to gain. To help you maintain a clear overview, we create an analysis for many clients that provides a summary spanning several months.
4. Interpreting Metrics Correctly
The biggest challenge lies in interpreting the data. The tracking tool only provides numbers; the software cannot do the interpreting for us. Depending on the website’s target audience and objectives, very different metrics may be significant. For an online store, revenue and the conversion rate are the main priorities, whereas for a website, for example, the time spent on the site is a metric of interest to the website operator. The following metrics can be analyzed, for example:
- Which countries do your users come from?
- How long do users stay on the website?
- At which points do users abandon the checkout process in an online store?
- What search terms are entered on the website?
- Which devices are most commonly used?
- Do users click on inquiry buttons, or are they labeled unclearly?
5. Summary
Regular website analysis is an important tool for improving website performance and understanding user behavior. It can also serve as an early warning system to identify vulnerabilities. We particularly recommend reviewing historical data if you’re planning a website relaunch. Using the data, you can determine which content can be eliminated and in which areas new content can be created.
Feel free to contact us even if you are not a client of ours. If you grant us access to your analytics software, we’d be happy to prepare an analysis for you.