What WordPress services do you offer?

I offer comprehensive WordPress services including custom development, WooCommerce store building, plugin development, theme customisation, speed optimisation, security hardening, maintenance, and migration services.

How much does WordPress development cost in South Africa?

WordPress development costs depend on the scope and complexity of your project. Every website is unique, so I provide custom quotes based on your specific requirements. Contact me for a free consultation and detailed quote.

Do you build custom WordPress plugins?

Yes, I specialise in custom WordPress and WooCommerce plugin development. I build bespoke plugins for payment gateways, shipping methods, inventory management, API integrations, and business-specific functionality.

Can you integrate South African payment gateways?

Absolutely. I have extensive experience integrating South African payment gateways including PayFast, Yoco, Peach Payments, and SnapScan with WooCommerce stores.

Can you help with an existing WooCommerce store?

Yes, I work with existing WooCommerce stores for optimisation, custom development, troubleshooting, migrations, and ongoing maintenance.

Do you offer ongoing WordPress support?

Yes, I offer WordPress maintenance and priority support packages that include regular updates, backups, security monitoring, and guaranteed response times for issue resolution.

What areas do you service?

While based in Cape Town, I work with clients throughout South Africa and internationally. All communication and work can be handled remotely.

How long does it take to build a WooCommerce store?

A basic WooCommerce store typically takes 1-2 weeks, while complex stores with custom functionality, integrations, and advanced features can take 2-4 weeks depending on requirements.

A Comprehensive Guide to Installing Matomo Analytics on WordPress

Many WordPress site administrators express concern about utilizing Google Analytics due to its extensive data collection practices and third-party sharing. With increasingly stringent privacy regulations such as GDPR, exploring privacy-centric analytics solutions has become essential.

Matomo Analytics presents itself as a viable alternative in this context.

Numerous website operators select Matomo because it delivers comparable analytical capabilities—tracking visitor traffic, conversion metrics, and user interactions—while securely storing all data on their own servers. This approach facilitates compliance with privacy standards and fosters audience trust.

Fortunately, implementing Matomo within a WordPress environment is more straightforward than many anticipate.

This tutorial provides a systematic walkthrough, enabling you to monitor website performance effectively while maintaining privacy standards.

Before proceeding with the installation steps, we will review fundamental concepts to ensure proper understanding.

If you have already decided to implement Matomo analytics with WordPress, you may utilize the navigation links below to proceed directly to specific sections:

Understanding Matomo Analytics
Implementing Matomo Analytics in WordPress
Alternative Analytics Solutions for WordPress
Common Questions About Matomo Analytics
Additional Resources on WordPress Analytics

Understanding Matomo Analytics

Matomo functions as an open-source web analytics platform that monitors website traffic and user engagement patterns. While similar to Google Analytics in functionality, it emphasizes privacy protection for both website operators and visitors.

With Matomo, you retain complete ownership of your analytical data. This privacy-focused approach stores information on your personal servers, providing full administrative control. However, this also means you assume responsibility for maintaining data security.

What analytical capabilities does Matomo offer? Below are several essential tracking features:

Campaign Monitoring– Track visitor origins using UTM parameters, ideal for evaluating advertising campaigns, social media content, and email marketing initiatives.
User Identification Tracking– Monitor logged-in users across multiple devices and browsing sessions, providing comprehensive journey analysis.
E-commerce Analytics– Observe sales transactions, shopping cart behavior, and product view statistics to optimize WooCommerce stores and online retail platforms.
Form Interaction Analytics– Identify areas where visitors encounter difficulties with forms to enhance registration processes and conversion rates.
Heatmap Visualization & Session Recording– Visualize user interaction patterns through click maps, scroll tracking, and session replay functionality.

Since Matomo delivers these analytical capabilities while ensuring data protection compliance, many organizations are transitioning from alternative analytics platforms.

Comparing Matomo and Google Analytics

Selecting between Matomo and Google Analytics depends on which platform aligns with your specific requirements.

If data privacy represents a primary concern, Matomo emerges as the preferred choice. As an open-source solution that enables self-hosted data storage, it provides complete control and facilitates privacy regulation compliance.

Conversely, Google Analytics stores information on Google's infrastructure, which may raise privacy considerations for some users.

Regarding analytical functionality, both platforms offer extensive tools including real-time data monitoring and visitor tracking capabilities.

Matomo includes additional features like heatmap visualization and session recording, though these typically require premium subscription plans.

Google Analytics offers seamless integration with other Google services including Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager. This interoperability proves valuable for users already utilizing these platforms.

Google's solution also excels in advanced analytics and reporting features, including custom funnel analysis and predictive analytics. Furthermore, its widespread adoption ensures extensive community support and documentation resources.

Concerning pricing structures, Google Analytics provides a feature-rich free version alongside its premium Google Analytics 360 service with higher costs.

Matomo offers deployment flexibility through a free self-hosted version requiring server management and a paid cloud-hosted option with managed infrastructure.

Implementing Matomo Analytics in WordPress

Before initiating Matomo installation, conduct a brief system compatibility assessment.

Your WordPress installation should operate on version 4.8 or newer with PHP 7.2 or higher. MySQL 5.5 or greater is recommended alongside a minimum of 128MB available memory.

Understanding Matomo deployment options is beneficial. Available approaches include:

On-Premise Installation– Software installation on your personal server infrastructure.
Cloud Service Version– Fully managed hosting through Matomo's cloud platform.

This guide utilizes Matomo for WordPress, an integrated solution operating directly within your WordPress environment. This approach eliminates the need for external account creation or separate server management.

This represents the most accessible implementation method, particularly for new users. Maintained directly by Matomo's development team, it ensures reliable support and current feature availability.

The following sections detail the Matomo implementation process within WordPress.

Step 1: Installing the Matomo for WordPress Plugin

Begin by installing and activating the Matomo for WordPress plugin. Navigate to Plugins » Add New Plugin within your WordPress administration panel.

The Add New Plugin submenu under Plugins in the WordPress admin area

On the subsequent interface, utilize the search functionality to locate the plugin efficiently. Enter 'Matomo for WordPress' in the search field and initiate the search.

Once the plugin appears in search results, select the 'Install Now' option.

Following installation, activate the plugin by selecting the 'Activate' button.

For comprehensive installation guidance, consult documentation regarding WordPress plugin installation procedures.

Step 2: Activating Matomo Tracking on Your WordPress Site

After activation, you will automatically redirect to the Matomo Analytics » Get Started interface.

Proceed through the setup wizard to configure fundamental settings. Two primary steps require completion: updating your privacy policy documentation and enabling Matomo Analytics tracking functionality. The plugin will subsequently save and implement your configuration preferences.

Let us examine each step individually.

Updating Your Privacy Policy

The initial step involves updating your Privacy Policy documentation.

Matomo requires verification that your Privacy Policy reflects commitment to user privacy and compliance with regulations including GDPR and ePrivacy directives.

This necessitates inclusion of visitor opt-out options for tracking, achievable through the [matomo_opt_out] shortcode or the dedicated 'Matomo opt-out' content block.