As mentioned in the blog post from yesterday, I am using two different statistics plugins on this blog. The “simple one” is Koko Analytics, the advanced one is Matomo.

Using Matomo with a WordPress site comes in two variants. You can use the Matomo plugin, which is the easier version. This basically installs a full Matomo copy into the wp-content/plugins/matomo/app folder. Updating the plugin also updates the Matomo installation, which is quite convenient. But it also adds more than 50 tables (including 30+ “archive tables”) into your WordPress database. This can be quite messy and is only recommended for very small sites, even by Matomo. If you care about separating your WordPress database from Matomo, or you run a multisite, like I do, I would recommend a different way.

What does Connect Matomo do?

I contrast to the Matomo plugin, you can use the more lightweight Connect Matomo plugin, formerly known as WP-Matomo or WP-Piwik (Piwik was the old name for Matomo), to connect a WordPress installation with a “Matomo On-Premise” installation. This means that you have to install Matomo on your webserver as a separate app. Or you use an external service that offers you a Matomo installation. You can also connect it to Matomo Cloud, but with currently 22 Euro a month, this is a quire costly option. I mean, the beauty of Matomo is the fact, that you can run it on your own hosting, right?

I don’t want to go into too much detail on how to set up a Matomo installation and how to connect it to WordPress. This could be covered in a whole blog series, as it can get quite complex. In my case, I have it on the same server as my WordPress multisite. I then use the “Self-hosted (HTTP API, default)” option for the “Matomo Mode”, point it to the “Matomo URL”, give it my “Auth Token” and it automatically adds all sites of my multisite to Matomo. In the “Enable Tracking” tab, I can choose between different ways to embed the tracking code and where it should be placed. Once these two steps are completed, tracking begins.

Inside WordPress you get a small dashboard section, that shows you the visits of the last 30 days, an overview of visits and visited pages from yesterday, and metrics like browsers, screen resolutions, device types, operating systems, cities, countries, keywords, referrers, and much more. To view the full statistics, you would log into your Matomo instance. Even if you use the Matomo plugin, it would open the “Matomo app” and not embed everything into WordPress.

Why do I use Connect Matomo?

As I want to have more advanced statistics and Google Analytics was no longer an option, Matomo was the obvious alternative. Since I did not want to stuff the Matomo tables into my blog database, and as I also use Matomo for other WordPress sites, I chose the Connect Matomo plugin to integrate it into my blog.

For my yearly “blog birthday” posts, I do consult Matomo, to find the most popular blog posts and the days with the most visits. It also helps me to understand where visits come from (which referrer and which country/city) and what devices are used. This help me to optimize the page and to find the right content for my audience.

Conclusion

If you need more than just a simple statistics plugin, and you want to be privacy-friendly, then Matomo is a great choice. You only have to decide how to use it with your WordPress installation. While the separate Matomo instance keep things more clean, it comes with a little maintenance overhead. But Matomo has a great update process, almost as easy as WordPress, and it never failed for me.

Are you also using Matomo? If so, which plugin do you use? And to do run your own instance, or do you have someone hosting it for you or even use the Matomo Cloud?