Came out of a previous request for greater url tracking capabilitiies thread here:
Show Goal Targeting By URL As Well As By Keyword
But thought on reflection I had better add it as its own thread so it doesn’t get lost in that other thread.
Relates to improving the functionality of the ‘Visitors Log’ screen.
In the Visitors Log screen make the column headings sortable. (And preferably make the visitors log screen searchable)
It offers the most SEO information and conversion information of any page on the Piwik Admin Area, and yet it is not searchable, and the columns cannot be sorted
There are 4 columns in there at the moment:
Date - It sorts on this by default anyway.
Visitor -
Referrer URL
Actions
In reality there is more information per column then this:
Date: This is really Date, IP Address, Provider, Time
Visitors: This is really country, browser used, operating system used, plugins used, flag to show visits converted
Referrer URL: This is really search engine used, keywords used for search, rank for keyword on search engine
Actions: This is really title of webpage landed on first, url of page landed on first, subsequent path through the site, goals recorded
So the parameters that the software is ALREADY collecting and displaying on the Visitors Log screen are:
Date, IP Address, Provider, Time, country, browser used, operating system used, plugins used, flag to show visits converted, search engine used, keywords used for search, rank for keyword on search engine, title of webpage landed on first, url of page landed on first, subsequent path through the site, goals recorded
Sounds like a lot! And it is, but if you added in sorting even alphabetically, then all anyone would have to do to see the information in a whole new way would be to:
1/ Select a date range on the Visitor Log Screen (So I could see say today, or a week, or a year etc)
2/ Sort by the relevant column (And possibly search capabilities, which would make this MUCH more powerful)
For example, say I sorted alphabetically by URL in the actions column.
Because it brings all the other information above along with it I could see which urls are generating the goals.
If I sorted alphabetically by keywords in the ‘referrer url’ column then I could browse down and see which keywords were producing the traffic and the goals.
etc etc.
The power of this ‘Visitors Log’ screen is immense, because the information is all in one spot, and yet it is hardly being tapped at the moment in the Piwik Admin Area, simply because there is no way of sorting or searching it.
You have to spend hours scanning through page after page to get a feel for what is going on on the site.
This is the only screen for example in Piwik that shows the keyword and its ranking on Google.
If it could be sorted then you could easily see which keywords were generating the visitors at a glance, and if they led to goals being triggered.
That is crucial. A keyword MAY produce massive traffic, but whats the good if it leads to no goals?
What’s more there is no additional overhead on the software, because this information is ALREADY being collected by Piwik.
It just needs to be made more user firiendly and accessible.
It just needs more flexibility in the admin area of how it is displayed on the Visitors Log screen, and for people to be able to sort it (at teh most basic level) and preferably also be able to search it.
If you also added in the ability to search it eg Search for all of ‘this keyword’ then the webmaster could instantly see which are the really potent keywords that he ranks for.
Or ‘all number 1 google listings’ etc.
And because ALL of the information above is displayed TOGETHER ie
Date, IP Address, Provider, Time, country, browser used, operating system used, plugins used, flag to show visits converted, search engine used, keywords used for search, rank for keyword on search engine, title of webpage landed on first, url of page landed on first, subsequent path through the site, goals recorded
That would make it enormously powerful, because you could then see at a glance the interplay of all those OTHER factors.
eg Its number one on Google, but the traffic only converts to goals between 5 and 9 in the evening.
Or the path through the site needs to be THIS… At This Time etc Before it Converts.
Even with very basic sorting by each of those parameters in turn eg Sort by each of these alphabetically.
Date, IP Address, Provider, Time, country, browser used, operating system used, plugins used, flag to show visits converted, search engine used, keywords used for search, rank for keyword on search engine, title of webpage landed on first, url of page landed on first, subsequent path through the site, goals recorded
You would add MASSIVELY to the usefulness of this software.
And that would be amplified by much more if it was properly searchable.
This information is ALREADY being collected. So it only makes sense to give users of Piwik better ways of using it.
To answer your questions, Sorting will not be possible for a while, however soon I will work on