Measuring visitors without a cookie banner

Do you want to know how many people visit your site and which pages they read, without tracking your visitors and without a cookie banner? It's possible. In this article you'll read which measurement options there are, how to read the statistics in DirectAdmin, how to set up Matomo in a privacy-friendly way, and what the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) says about analytical cookies.

Search Console or an analytics tool?

Google Search Console shows what happens in Google: how often your page appeared in the results and how often it was clicked. What the visitor does on your site afterwards, or visitors who come via a different route, Search Console doesn't see. For that you need an analytics tool. Differences between the two are normal: look at the trend, not the exact number.

AWStats in DirectAdmin

If you have a hosting package, you already have server statistics. In DirectAdmin, under System Info & Files, click Site Summary & Statistics and then, next to your domain, click View Statistics. You'll see unique visitors, visits, pages and data traffic per month, day and hour, and where visitors come from. Good to know:

• AWStats updates the figures once a day, at night. You'll see today's visits tomorrow.
• AWStats also counts bots. What it recognises as a bot is listed separately as "Not viewed traffic", but not every bot is recognised.
• You can't see well which pages one visitor views one after another.

Step by step, with screenshots: Site Summary and Statistics: the error log and the access log. Note: User Statistics is about your package (storage and data traffic), not about your visitors.

Installing Matomo

Do you want to see more than AWStats, for example how many people submit your contact form? Then you can install Matomo on your own hosting package. You do this with Installatron in DirectAdmin, or with the Website Manager in My WebOké. See Opening Installatron: what can you install? and Website Manager: installing WordPress and other software. Install Matomo, for example, on a subdomain, such as stats.example.com, and then put the measurement code Matomo gives you on your site.

Setting up Matomo in a privacy-friendly way

1. Measure without cookies. Add the line _paq.push(['disableCookies']); in the measurement code, before the line with trackPageView. See Matomo's explanation.
2. Shorten IP addresses. In Matomo, go to Administration, Privacy, Anonymize Data, and choose how many bytes of the IP address are left out. The default is 2; 3 is stricter.
3. Choose a retention period. Matomo can regularly delete old raw visit data. Decide for yourself how long you need it and note that period.
4. Don't share anything. Don't link your statistics to advertising or to other services.
5. Mention it in your privacy policy.

Matomo's own steps are in Configure privacy settings in Matomo (English).

What the AP says

To place or read cookies, you generally need consent. There's an exception for what the AP calls limited analytical cookies: cookies to improve your site, for example by counting visitors and popular pages, which have little or no impact on visitors' privacy. No consent is needed for these. However, the following still applies:

• If you process personal data in doing so, and an IP address is already personal data, then the GDPR also applies. You then need a legal basis. According to the AP, for limited analytical cookies this can be a legitimate interest, after a balancing test.
• You mention the measurement in your privacy policy, and visitors must be able to easily object.
• If you track visitors across sites, create profiles, or use the data for advertising, then they're tracking cookies and you do need consent.

According to the AP, with Google Analytics you process personal data. Whether it's possible without consent depends on your settings. If you use it on a small site, asking for consent is the safe choice.

Further reading

• Dutch Data Protection Authority: Cookies
• WordPress course: GDPR, cookies, forms and privacy policy
• Which words do your customers use? Free keyword research (the search queries in Search Console)