Do you reccommend some statistics when I can clearly see all visitor paths over time from day one on my website? Is is possible?
DixonJones
8:41 am on Aug 12, 2021 (gmt 0)
You will really need to invest in some analytics tracking software - or at least install a free one like Google Analytics or Matomo (which is open source).
If you need to look at PAST data and never integrated analytics code onto your website yet. then your only option is to delve into yout logfiles with a logfile analyzer. If your web host has something like cPanal or Plesk, you should be able to log in and download your logfiles or, even easier, use a logfile analyzer that they may already have installed for you. The downside of Logfile analysis (and indeed javascript based analytics) is that when a person loks at a site from multiple devices over time, they get counted twice, unless you have been able to configure it around some kind of login tracking control. still - much better than nothing.
januaryyy
9:27 am on Aug 12, 2021 (gmt 0)
Thanks I'm looking for some analytics tracking software for future data. I would like to install some, but no idea which one can clearly show me visitor path of the same user over time.
DixonJones
1:56 pm on Aug 12, 2021 (gmt 0)
OK. I don't want to just plug different analytics packages, but the thing you want to look out for is the phrase "visitor profile" or "visitor ID" as a feature of whatever package you go for. As the world moves forward with GDPR, the packages will increasingly need you to get explicit permission to track this, as "IP Address" is now considered Personally Identifiable Information these days in the EU at least. So the challenge is creating a pseudo User ID (usually as a cookie, but not always). Don't get me wrong, lots of analytics tools claim to do this user journey tracking, but with varying degrees of accuracy. For one of my sites, we only start tracking users after they have signed up (for a free service). This means they accept that the tracking is "legitimate interest". For all not logged in users, we do not record the last 3 digits of the IP address. In short - the tracking is not the issue. You need legitimate interest and different packages (and different users) interpret what that means very differently.
not2easy
4:07 pm on Aug 12, 2021 (gmt 0)
Maybe a look at Microsoft Clarity can give you the insight you want without getting into so much PII data? you can see what people find interesting and follow their path through your site. A new article was recently posted here: [webmasterworld.com...]
Note - not a recommendation, I do not use it but it looks interesting for understanding visitors.
DixonJones
4:32 pm on Aug 12, 2021 (gmt 0)
MS Clarity is awesome, but I think it doesn't achieve what the poster is looking for, as it only gives sample information... so tells you things like, where people are clicking and where people are bouncing... not what an individual and specific user has done. Piwik (Matomo) does it. GoSquared Does it and Intercom (I assume) will do it... infact those chat come CRM type tools may be just the ticket for you as they are focised on user support first and analytics second, but that will mean they are better at tracking the user. Google Analytics can do it, if you set the userid (I think.) I am also not recommending any one of these tools - I just think these ones do what you want.