Now, Indeed Visitor Statistics? Why I Changed My Mind
Those who have followed my blog for a long time know that privacy is very important to me. No advertising networks, no unnecessary cookies and certainly no services that track the behavior of my readers across different websites.
Nothing has changed in this regard. Nevertheless, there is now a feature on Christian’s blog that I have deliberately avoided so far: visitor statistics.
A contradiction? Perhaps at first glance. But the story behind it is a bit longer.
Over 15 Years of Blogging – and Eventually It Stops Moving Forward
Christian’s blog has been around for over 15 years now. During this time, I have spent countless hours writing articles, gathering information and sharing my experiences. Especially for professional truck drivers, but also for other topics that occupy me.
Over the years, I have built up a certain reach and a steady readership. I am proud of that. After all, there is no publisher, no editorial team and no marketing department behind this blog. I do all of this myself, alongside my actual job.
However, I eventually noticed that my reach was no longer growing significantly. The readers are there, new ones will certainly come, but I could no longer detect a real growth.
Of course, I could just keep doing what I’ve been doing. Write articles, publish them and hope that they find their readers.
But I didn’t want to settle for that.
So I started to thoroughly overhaul my blog. And from what was originally just minor adjustments, it developed into a near-complete redesign of the website.
The Hugo theme was largely rebuilt. The presentation of the articles, the navigation and the usability were revised. New features, additional information offerings and a whole range of technical improvements were added.
A lot of work also went into the search engine optimization. Because what good is the best article if it disappears in the back pages of Google and other search engines and hardly anyone finds it?
But I wasn’t trying to turn my blog into the biggest possible click machine. I simply want to reach the people for whom I write my content.
And after all this effort, a question naturally arises: Has all of this actually made a difference?
I can’t judge this so far.
The server logs provide a lot of numbers, but they include real page views as well as search engine bots, automated scanners and other accesses. A page being accessed a hundred times doesn’t necessarily mean that a hundred people read the article.
That’s why I want to look more closely now. Not to monitor my readers, but to find out whether my work on the website is bearing fruit and whether Christian’s blog is reaching more people again.
So, Indeed Matomo
That’s why I have decided to use Matomo for analyzing my visitor numbers from now on.
Matomo is an open-source software for web analysis. Unlike with many commercial statistics services, I run it myself. The application runs on my own home server, which I have named Holzi. My publicly accessible server only handles the encrypted forwarding of the necessary requests.
The collected statistics remain under my control. I don’t need a Google Analytics account and I don’t have to send my readers to an external advertising company just to find out which article was read most frequently.
What interests me are the page views and their development. I want to know, for example, which articles were read most frequently within a year or whether an older article suddenly receives more attention. I’ve had this before when my blog was still running on WordPress.
This is especially interesting for topics around professional truck drivers, traffic law or technical instructions. Some information is not only needed on the day of publication but may be needed again months or even years later.
Privacy Remains Privacy
Now one could naturally say: For years arguing against tracking and then starting to do it yourself.
I can understand this objection. I didn’t make this decision lightly.
But there is a significant difference between a data-sparing reach measurement and systematic spying on internet users.
I don’t want to know who you are. I don’t want to find out where you’ve been on other websites, what products you buy or what personal interests you have.
What interests me is whether my texts are being read.
That’s why I have limited Matomo accordingly. No tracking cookies are set. IP addresses are shortened, referral information is reduced and the recognition of individual visitors is limited as much as possible.
Individual raw data should be deleted after 30 days. The aggregated statistics, such as the monthly page views of an article, remain. After all, I want to be able to compare how the reach has developed in the coming year.
I can’t promise complete anonymity. Certain connection data is inevitably collected when visiting a website. That’s why I deliberately refer to a data-sparing and IP-anonymized analysis.
You Decide, Not Me
And then there’s the most important point: Participation in this statistics is voluntary.
When visiting my blog, you can decide whether you want to support the anonymized reach measurement or not.
If you decline, Matomo won’t be loaded and no statistics data will be sent to Matomo. You can continue to use all articles and functions without any restrictions.
An initially granted consent can also be revoked at any time via the statistics settings.
I will not deny anyone access to my content just because they don’t want to be tracked. I also don’t want an opt-in dialog where the big green button invites you to agree, while the option to decline is hidden somewhere.
A free decision should indeed be free.
And Now I’m Looking Forward
What I expect from the statistics are not the biggest numbers, with which I can somehow claim something.
I want to see whether my blog is still developing. Whether the overhaul of the Hugo theme and all the technical improvements contribute to people finding my content better. And which topics my readers are particularly interested in.
There is, of course, a limitation here: Those who don’t agree to the statistics won’t be recorded in them. The numbers will therefore not provide a complete picture of my actual reach. Also, I lack the corresponding historical Matomo data for an exact before-and-after comparison.
Nevertheless, I can recognize developments in the future. And that’s exactly what I’m after.
Perhaps I will later even display a small overview of the most-read articles directly on the blog. Of course, only with aggregated view counts and without any information about individual visitors.
My fundamental principles will remain unchanged: My blog remains ad-free, independent and focused on the protection of the privacy of its visitors.
I want to know how many people my content reaches. I don’t have to know who these people are.
