While Google Analytics may seem like a great plugin option on the WordPress directory, we’d like to present a new ethical alternative called Matomo for WordPress, which gives you 100% data ownership and privacy protection.
Firstly what does Google Analytics offer in WordPress?
When you think of getting insights about visitors on your WordPress (WP) sites, the first thing that comes to mind might be Google Analytics. Why not right? Especially when there are good free Google Analytics plugins, like Monster Insights and Site Kit.
These give you access to a great analytics platform, but the downside with Google Analytics is the lack of transparency around privacy and data ownership.
Matomo Analytics for WordPress is an ethical alternative to Google Analytics for WordPress
Risk facing fines for non-GDPR compliance and privacy/data breaches
In Europe there’s an overarching privacy law called GDPR which provides better privacy protection for EU citizens on the web.
Websites need to be GDPR compliant and follow rules governing how personal data is used or risk facing fines up to 4% of their yearly revenue for data/privacy breaches or non-compliance. Even if your website is based outside of Europe. If you have visitors from Europe, you can still be liable.
In the US, there isn’t one main privacy law, there hundreds on both the federal and state levels to protect the personal data (or personally identifiable information) of US residents – like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). There are also industry-specific statutes related to data privacy like HIPAA.
To protect your website from coming under fire for privacy breaches, best practise is to find platforms that are privacy and GDPR compliant by design.
When you own your own data – as with the case of Matomo – you have control over where data is stored, what you’re doing with it, and can better protect the privacy of your visitors.
At this point you may be asking, “what’s the point of an analytics platform if you have to follow all these rules?”
The importance of analytics for your WordPress site
- Figuring out how your audience behaves to increase conversions
- Setting, tracking and measuring conversion goals
- Being able to find insights to improve and optimize your site
- Making smarter, data-driven decisions so your company can thrive, rather than risk being left behind
Analytics is used to answer questions like:
- Where are your website visitors coming from (location)?
- How many people visit your website?
- Which are the most popular pages on your site?
- What sources of traffic are coming to your site (social, marketing campaigns, search)?
- Is your marketing campaign performing better this month compared to last?
Matomo can answer all of the above questions. BONUS: On top of that, with Matomo you get the peace of mind knowing you’re the only one who has access to those answers.
Matomo Analytics vs Google Analytics on WordPress
The top 5 most useful features in Matomo Analytics that’s comparable to GA
- Campaign measurement – traffic. Matomo also has a URL builder that lets you track which campaigns are working effectively
- Tracking goals. Matomo empowers you to set goals you can track. Being able to see this means you can accurately measure your return on investment (ROI)
- Audience reports to learn about visitors. Matomo’s powerful visitors feature lets you learn who is visiting your site, what their journey is and the steps they take to conversion.
- In depth view of behaviour with Funnels in Matomo. This tracks the journey of your visitors from the moment they enter your site, to when they leave. Giving you insight into where and why you lose your visitors.
- Custom reports. Where you create your unique reports to fit your business goals.
Other benefits of using Matomo:
- No data sampling which means you get 100% accurate reporting
- 100% data ownership
- Free Tag Manager
- Search engine keyword rankings
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited team members
- GDPR manager
- API access
- Hosted on your own servers so you have full control over where your data is stored
Learn more about the differences in this comprehensive table.
Matomo Analytics for WordPress is free!
Matomo Analytics is the best free Google Analytics alternative on the WordPress Directory. In addition to having comparable features where you can do pretty much do everything you wanted to do in GA. Matomo Analytics for WordPress makes for an ethical choice because you can respect your visitor’s privacy, can become GDPR compliant, and maintain control over your own data.
Google Analytics leads the market for good reasons. It’s a great free tool for those who want analytics, but there’s no clarity when it comes to grey areas like privacy and data ownership. If these are major concerns for you, Matomo offers complete peace of mind that you’re doing the best you can to stay ethical while growing your business and website.
It’s just as easy to install in a few click!
