Learn how to define and implement a measurement plan
A measurement plan defines what you are planning to implement in terms of tracking code on your website. As those tracking codes are here in order to collect something, this is why we are giving it the name of a measurement plan. You can use a measurement plan to define the data collection of many solutions, here below we are keeping a simple model and will only use one solution: Matomo Analytics.
1 - Browse the website and list everything which come through your mind in terms of measurement
In order to define this measurement plan, you need to analyze the website you are working for. In our case, the example we have is https://www.webassoc.org.
Technically you can measure every interaction which is occurring on the website, but as you probably don't want to spend an unlimited time on this project you will focus on the main objectives of the website.
In general those website objectives aligned with the one of the organization, but that's not the case when a website is poorly made. For example a company is a profit organization, but how can those objectives be achieved on the website if there is no online payment.
From this browsing experience we came out with:
Technically you can measure every interaction which is occurring on the website, but as you probably don't want to spend an unlimited time on this project you will focus on the main objectives of the website.
In general those website objectives aligned with the one of the organization, but that's not the case when a website is poorly made. For example a company is a profit organization, but how can those objectives be achieved on the website if there is no online payment.
From this browsing experience we came out with:
A Measurement plan example
URL | Notes | Difficulty / Importance |
---|---|---|
https://www.webassoc.org | Some outlinks are not well tracked as they are redirecting to webassoc.org instead of www.webassoc.org. | Just inform the non-profit organization about it. Critical |
https://www.webassoc.org | Possibilities to track go to the content and go to the bottom page. | Easy but not critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org | Site search, normally automatically tracked with Matomo. | Easy and critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org | Intent to register to the newsletter. | Easy and critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org/a-propos/ | Track the button "I want to become a volunteer" | Easy and critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org/partenaires/ | Track the button "possibilities to associate your business" | Easy and critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org/temoignages/ | Track the buttons sending to Google forms. | Easy and critical. |
https://www.webassoc.org/associations/formulaire-sos-webassoc/ | A form to track here a bit complicated | Hard and critical |
https://www.webassoc.org/pros-du-web/ | There is a Google form to track | Easy and critical |
https://www.webassoc.org/contact/ | Got to content / Go to the bottom | Easy and not critical |
https://www.webassoc.org/presse/ | There is a Google form to track | Easy and critical |
In general during this meeting you will realize that their needs in terms of data collection is quite different from the one you imagined... but at least you did your job.
2 - Define the Measurement Plan
Note that the list of data tracked by default in Matomo is listed here: https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_18254/
On this page we are listing a measurement plan based on the following website: https://www.webassoc.org
A Measurement plan example
Tag name | Description | Action |
Configuration | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Matomo pageview all pages | This tag measures pages count + outlinks and downloads. | Every time a page is viewed | Provided by default | |
Matomo event click | This tag measures the clicks made on the buttons sending the visitor to Google forms. | Every time a click occurs on a link which contains docs.google.com | Category: form Action: intent to participate Name: Click text | https://matomo.org/docs/event-tracking/ |
Matomo event form | This tag measures the forms sent. | Every time a form is sent on the website, except when it is a search form | Category: form Action: form sent Name: Page URL exclusion for form id=searchform | https://matomo.org/docs/event-tracking/ |
As you can see in the measurement plan you are indicating the type of tracking code you are planning to deploy, the description of this tag and the condition on which this given tracking code will be fired.
Note that this work can be done directly within a Tag Management System but it is also good sometimes to not work straight away within it in order to take some distance from it.
3 - Implementing the Measurement Plan
When you are implementing a Measurement Plan, you need to act on the website. The main issue here is that you will push fake data to Matomo. At a minimum work in preview mode. Note that you can delete your own traffic in Matomo. Add a note in Matomo saying the dates on which you are working on the website. Do not publish until you get the final go from the client.Last modified: Tuesday, 16 July 2019, 11:32 AM