The main navigation section on the left-hand side of the Matomo interface is your primary method for navigating through your data. The key sections which we will describe in more detail below are listed in bold. Clicking on the top-level item for this section reloads the page and brings up a sub-menu containing the rest of the items for this section.

Matomo Main Navigation

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the section that loads by default whenever you first log into your Matomo account. There is a standard Dashboard layout created for you. However, you can also create high-level, customised reporting views aligned to specific use cases.

Visitors

This is where you can get more information about the visitors to your site. For example, the number of people visiting; the devices and software they are using; where they come from; and the times they are using your site.

Behaviour

This section gives you more information about what people do when they are on your website. You can see which content is most viewed, what users search for, how they navigate your site and ultimately how people leave.

Acquisition

This section provides you with feedback on how your digital marketing is performing. It does this by breaking down the various ways people reach your website. You can find reports on the search engines, social networks and websites referring people to your site. You can also dig into which search terms people are using.

Ecommerce

This section will only be visible if you have eCommerce tracking enabled. Within it, you’ll find a general overview of your eCommerce conversion data. There is also a full eCommerce log for more granular detail, as well as sections on sales and product trends.

Goals

The Goals section is where you will go to review the data relating to any custom goals you’ve configured. These are often some of the most important stats to consider outside of your eCommerce data. You can learn more about Goal Tracking here.

Marketplace

There are several other reporting sections which may or may not be available depending on the version of Matomo you use. A few examples you might see while using Matomo Cloud or marketplace plugins are:

  • Funnels – Used for tracking user progression through your sales and lead funnels. These reports can help you identify stages where you are losing conversions.
  • Forms – Helps you keep track of your form’s conversion rates and identify potential issues. For example, where large numbers of people start a certain form but don’t complete it for one reason or another.
  • Media – Useful for understanding user engagement with your media, such as videos. You can keep track of how many people play your content and what percentage of those people actually complete it too.
  • A/B Tests – Got a theory on how to improve your conversions? Split-test it on your site by sending a subset of visitors to your new versions, so you can confirm your changes actually improve conversion.
  • Heatmaps – These show a colour coded overlay of your website to see where on the page people, click, scroll to and interact with the most. This is extremely useful for optimising your website design.
  • Session Recordings – Review actual screen recordings of people’s sessions on your website. It might surprise you to see how people really interact with your site and where people get stuck.
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