Website Tracking

Basically, website tracking (also called web tracking) is a rather vague term, in any case we couldn't find a correct explanation anywhere. Therefore, we would like to give our explanation of this term here:

Website tracking therefore means the tracking that is used on websites. Tracking mostly refers to the tracking of user behavior, i.e. how website visitors move there and what they do exactly. In simple cases it is measured how many visitors enter the website in total, which individual pages they look at, where they come from and where they leave the website. With professional tracking integrations, also interactions are measured, e.g. adding an article in the shopping cart or the completed purchase, which products were bought at what price and which advertising brought the buyer to the website.

The goals of website tracking are different and could be divided into the following categories, for example:

• Error detection
  Usually a website is constantly evolving. In doing so, it is often unavoidable that technical or content errors arise, and it is often not possible to make the effort to test how a website appears on all different browsers and devices. Therefore, various key figures are tracked and these are monitored for changes. If, for example, an important key figure such as the number of sales deteriorates, the web analysis system can be used to determine what the reason is. For example, the “Add to cart” button on a certain browser could technically no longer work.
• Website optimization
  Website visitors should be able to use the website as easily as possible and find information quickly. For this purpose, the visitor behavior is measured or A/B tests attempt to simplify the website use.
• Conversion optimization
  The goal of a website can be to sell products, sign up for a premium area, or something entirely different. Conversion optimization tries to get the visitors to a website to fulfill the goal and to remove possible stumbling blocks on the way there.
• Measurement of marketing campaigns
  Marketing campaigns by websites are e.g. the placing of Google Ads or the renting of banners on other websites, but can also be e.g. radio or television advertising. So that the website owner can use his marketing budget effectively, it is important to measure which marketing channels are profitable and which are not.
• Offer optimization
  When optimizing the offer (for example of an online shop), an attempt is to try to improve the presentation of the offer in order to correctly present the information that is important for the purchase decision to the user. Also by selecting the offer assortment, it is observed which products are selling well and which are not (and why not).
• Profiling
  With profiling, the behavior and interests of the website visitor are tracked and assigned to a visitor ID. This visitor ID can then be used on other channels (e.g. Facebook) in order to recognize the visitor and to display targeted advertising for the interests of the user.

In addition to these categories, there are many other reasons why website tracking is necessary.

With all forms of website tracking, it must be ensured that the applicable data protection regulations are observed.