Tracking for sure it is helpful but there are just too many ways how a user can be tracked and store the data without even asking, is think becoming ugly, is this ethical and do we even need it ? What can you track , what tools to use & the best practices.
For this article I will discuss Google Analytics, Hotjar, Self Made tracking & CSS Tracking and combining them with large databases that contain Business Information based on your public IP & digital fingerprint.
Google Analytics
Well this being the most commonly used tracking method I do it a little bit different not using Tag Manager , while being a developer my self I register the events directly from the code . What I practice doing is that on click for example I register these protocols “tel:”, “mailto:” also the social media links like “facebook.com”, “fb.com”, “twitter.com” , “t.co” etc. So anything that is clickable you can send it as event on analytics for example form submission and it’s data ( Hi GDPR, yes I am fine how about you ? ) or in some cases the IP with it using external API you can get the city name and save it , the OS , Device etc. If I connect this with a database like Lead Forensics what happens ? I know who exactly was in my website, that is what happens so I can send em an imaginary E-Mail like this:
Hi "Sir",
Why were you on "date" and clicked "link" also submitted "form" on my "site".
Also why did you go back and forth twice on "about us" page because I have compared your "IP"
with a businesses database and found "you","business name", "address" on money house .
It is a little bit suspicious this behavior,
so here is a recording of your interactions and mouse in my website "Hotjar".
BTW If you are interested in a website how can I help you ?
Almost forgot, thanks for clicking on our consent banner "by continuing to browse you accept our ...",
here is a free e-book as a gift.
Regards.
The Company.
This is how much data I can get out of you in a single visit, even to the point where I can have a recording of your mouse movements and see how you interacted with the website. This is cool I admit it , is it ethical ? I don’t think so as I am pretty sure 99% of users don’t know exactly how much & what is getting tracked.
Technical problems
Slows Website, remember more then 3 sec visitor goes away you don’t want that, that tracking takes time.
Many Scripts that are not needed most of them render blocking, analytics loads more then you think.
And this is how I send more data to Analytics, dynamically on interaction not page load.
$('a[href^="tel"]').click(function(e) {
var tel = this.href;
tel = tel.substr(4);
gtag('event', 'Phone Call ', {
'event_category': 'Phone: ' + tel,
'event_label': 'From: <?= $_SERVER[ "REMOTE_ADDR" ] ?> - On: <?= date("l jS \of F Y - h:i:s A") ?>',
'value': ''
});
})
Crazy EGG
Crazy EGG, is a very good tool when it comes to analyzing user behavior , scrolling distances and creating heat-maps that help you choose what elements to keep or focus more in a website or landing-page. Those reports can be very helpful and help you reduce campaign costs while creating more conversions at the same time. For more check
Crazy EGG
Hotjar
Hotjar is like Crazy EGG in steroids but what makes it so unique is that is capable of recording an entire session of visitor and provide it in a video format together with a detailed report of click heatmap, scroll heat-map and much more so go ahead and checkout it
out
Self Made Tracking
This is to a point just for the page speed side and also of course all the information can be stored on a personal database where you can also analyze afterwards or build a web app where you show to the client the history of their progress and also can be combined with other tools .
Basically what you do is just simply send the same data as you used to for Google Analytics to your database via AJAX or in submission there are a ton of ways, this way you have a custom solution which you can optimize for the clients with the benefits of not loading a ton of scripts.
CSS Tracking
This is more of a concept but being the one who loves bare bone solutions with no frameworks and flat file systems I truly considered and proved that it works. HTML tags while styling can have on ::before, ::after a attribute called “content” which you can call a URL inside and inside it of course you can save the data on a file, the cool thing is it doesn’t evolve any JavaScript or database at all. For more information please check this original
article
@supports (-webkit-appearance:none) and (not (-ms-ime-align:auto)){
#chrome_detect::after {
content: url("track.php?action=browser_chrome");
}
}
Conclusion
Yes they are needed to analyse your website and AB testing and improving the UI, UX of a website I totally understand. But so much tracking as to the point where you can know exactly which business has visited your website, it’s CEO or comparing their digital fingerprint and know if actually it was the CTO who visited and make him an offer ? If some one like that comes to me he is long gone before finishing his pitch.
Business wise with these methods you can scale very good.
You may have noticed a pattern here where I criticize each method for the sake of page speed and reason for that is highly important as Google it self is taking as ranking factor the page speed and mobile has overthrown desktop.
At the end of the day is much more important to focus on the product you are trying to sell and craft it to the point where it sells it self, focus on providing an excellent experience & value. Don’t try to convince people.