Wordpress Plugins Analytics & Traffic

[jim101]

I'm experimenting with traffic sources, directing to various Wordpress landing pages.

What plugins do you find useful for understanding traffic patterns and in particular whether the traffic is valid or bogus/junk?

[jim101]

Any of these?

https://blog.hubspot.com/website/wordpress-traffic

[emmasexytime]

Just test a few and see what you like best. It depends what information you are wanting?

Keep an eye on bounce rate and time on page to see if bot activity.

Keep an eye on what you can rank in search cause that is the best converting traffic usually

[Okaro]

Right now I'm using WP Statistics.

Anyone but Jetpack. Now are asking money for everything...

[jim101]

Thanks for the feedback, I will try 2 or 3 perhaps. There are various claims about "real time" information which will be interesting to check out.

I have a KVS site which I experiment with. The access log on the server displays real time activity, mostly robots google/bing/ahrefs/petal etc. Perhaps that just isn't possible on wordpress sites?

[CherryGirl69]

Most stats plugins will slow down WP performance by some margin, unfortunately.

[jimbob123]

Most stats plugins will slow down WP performance by some margin, unfortunately.

This is very true and with google placing a lot of weight on site speed I would suggest simply going with Google analytics.

[cerulean]

I tend to avoid complicating WordPress installs with additional plugins. I think you would probably be better off with a combination of Google Analytics 4, and Matomo, which can be self-hosted or purchased for a fee.

I have Matomo running on a variety of client sites, including WordPress, and it's pretty nifty. It supports both JavaScript integration and fallback image-based tracking.

If you're deadset on a plugin, I think Jetpack offers statistics (probably for a fee,) but they offload all of the computation to their own servers.

[jim101]

Matomo looks interesting. For the Wordpress site which is a series of landing pages it looks like the plugin could be used?

[Okaro]

I have a few plugins, and I don't see any issues in perfomance or speed...

I think it's all about optimization...

My Pagesopeeed Insights:

96 Perfomance
96 Accessibility
100 Best Practices
100 SEO

[Mindi]

Are there any free trackers anymore like the old sextracker?

[cerulean]

Matomo looks interesting. For the Wordpress site which is a series of landing pages it looks like the plugin could be used?

I haven't used the Matomo plugin directly in WordPress, but I hear good things. I like the external install, because you don't need to fit a whole application inside WordPress, and you can add multiple sites to it, including other WordPress installs. I use a tiny little header & footer plugin (that is relatively inert and has been around for ages) to add the tracking script and the fallback tracking image. I have had zero issues with Matomo across multiple WP sites.

I have a few plugins, and I don't see any issues in perfomance or speed...

I think it's all about optimization...

My Pagesopeeed Insights:

96 Perfomance
96 Accessibility
100 Best Practices
100 SEO

To clarify, I'm not saying that always adding plugins will cause you performance issues. I myself have maybe 4-5 plugins that I always install in WordPress because they greatly augment the experience and they are very performant.

My experience, however, is that adding plugins to solve problems generally complicates things and can lead to performance issues if it's relied on too much. You have to be very particular about what you add to your install. It all comes down to the developers backing those plugins.

If you can simply add a script to the header and utilize an existing platform, that is generally better (in my opinion) than adding a plugin that might slow your site down and require additional attention. That is not always the case, but it has been my experience.

[jim101]

I haven't used the Matomo plugin directly in WordPress, but I hear good things. I like the external install, because you don't need to fit a whole application inside WordPress, and you can add multiple sites to it, including other WordPress installs. I use a tiny little header & footer plugin (that is relatively inert and has been around for ages) to add the tracking script and the fallback tracking image. I have had zero issues with Matomo across multiple WP sites.



To clarify, I'm not saying that always adding plugins will cause you performance issues. I myself have maybe 4-5 plugins that I always install in WordPress because they greatly augment the experience and they are very performant.

My experience, however, is that adding plugins to solve problems generally complicates things and can lead to performance issues if it's relied on too much. You have to be very particular about what you add to your install. It all comes down to the developers backing those plugins.

If you can simply add a script to the header and utilize an existing platform, that is generally better (in my opinion) than adding a plugin that might slow your site down and require additional attention. That is not always the case, but it has been my experience.

Using the small plugin to add the tracking script looks like a good idea.

[jim101]

Something like this?

https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/h...-in-wordpress/