Title: Tracking is enabled, so why configure tracking code Last modified: February 12, 2021 --- # Tracking is enabled, so why configure tracking code * Resolved [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * (@wpfan1000) * [5 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/) * Hi, * My site says: * > 1. Tracking is enabled > Click here to configure your tracking code. * I would just like to point out things that I think could be improved and this is one of them. * This is not clear to me: * If tracking is enabled, why do I need to configure my tracking code? * With eg Google Analytics, I have to get a tracking code from them. I have not gotten a code from you. So how could I configure it? * Is this required or optional? * If it is required, how could tracking already be enabled? * I think this could all be much better explained. * I even went to your docs to try and figure this out and did not find anything. Not to say its not there, but it was not easy to find. * I find the docs not clear at all either. * Eg there is: * > Matomo Installation & Optimization > Installing Matomo * So, 2 different main sections about the same thing? * It seems after some reading that your docs are about installing Matomo itself on a server, not on WordPress, but that is not made clear….. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * Plugin Author [Thomas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tsteur/) * (@tsteur) * [5 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14038982) * Thanks for the feedback [@wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) very appreciated! * I can totally see what you mean. Do you have maybe some thoughts how it would have been more clear? * Generally, when you configure the tracking code and set it eg to “Default tracking” or “Tag Manager” or “Manually” then everything will be taken care of for you and you don’t need to embed any code into your site as the plugin does everything for you. * I’ve already made two tweaks to improve things a bit but be great to hear from your perspective what would help? * Thread Starter [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * (@wpfan1000) * [5 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14039010) * Hi, * Thanks for being open to my feedback. * I am a retired professor and I say that not to blow my own horn but to say I have had a lot of experience in tech and documentation. * My feedback is not meant to criticize, just for you to consider to take or leave: * The way the plugin is documented it seems to me is from the perspective of coders who know the plugin inside and out and dont put themselves in the shoes of a new user. They seem to think because they know a tracking code is required that user will know that as well, somehow 🙂 * It seems that it is assumed that a user will know that a tracking code is required, and many other things. * If you consider your competition to be Goog analytics and you assume your users are coming from there, then you could assume that users will know about tracking codes. * But that is not a good assumption for the following reasons: * Many users may not know a thing about tracking and have never used a tracking plugin and so have no idea about a tracking code. * Many other tracking plugins dont need a tracking code, they may have less features than yours but still a user may be used to using a plugin that does not use a tracking code. * So I would suggest that it must be explained: * 1) A tracking code is required * 2) What a tracking code does * 3) How to get a tracking code * before your plugin says * 4) Configure the code * and only then * 5) Say that Tracking is enabled. * And to say Tracking is enabled when no tracking code has been configured is IMO not clear. Tracking is enabled means to me it is working but it cant be working if there is no tracking code. Presuming again, that a tracking code is needed. * Also when I look at the config option there is a text area field with a whole bunch of html and code and it seems very complex compared to eg being used to just entering a numeric code in a Goog analytics plugin. So that needs to be explained or simplified. * I think there are a lot more suggestions but I dont have more time for this unfortunately. * A good way to develop better instructions would be to get an external writer who does not know yuor plugin to write the instructions because then it would be step by step from a new user’s perspective, or at least sit down with some new users and have them go thru the plugin and then document all steps they need help in understanding. * Hope that helps 🙂 * If I am direct it is not meant to offend, just to be clear. * Plugin Author [Thomas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tsteur/) * (@tsteur) * [5 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14039172) * Thank you very much for this feedback. We’re not offended at all and really appreciate this feedback. It really helps. We’ve already made a few minor tweaks and we have created an issue to follow up on this further. * Thank you again [@wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * Thread Starter [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * (@wpfan1000) * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14046134) * Hi Thomas, * I am trying out your plugin further and am getting very frustrated and I’ll explain why: * In my OP I asked: * > If tracking is enabled, why do I need to configure my tracking code? > With eg Google Analytics, I have to get a tracking code from them. I have not > gotten a code from you. So how could I configure it? > Is this required or optional? * You said thanks for the feedback but my questions have not been answered. * So again: * 1) If tracking is enabled, why do I need to configure my tracking code? If I do not config my tracking code, is tracking working? * 2) With eg Google Analytics, I have to get a tracking code from them. I have not gotten a code from you. So how could I configure it? Do I need a tracking code from you? Or not? * 3) Is this required or optional? Well, is it? * 3a) Anohter huge issue is your terminology – a tracking code could be a code like I would get from Google analysitc which as unique code eg 34386252. Eg a Key, an API key. * Or tracking code could be code is in programming code. * I am thinking I need a key? Is that what you mean by trackng code? Or do you mean the HTML/JS code you show: * > * I have been thinking all along I need a key from you, and to get a key I need to register and then you send me a key. * And then somehow I have to enter/edit this key into the code above…… * In addition: * 4) I am now in the Settings > Tracking page. It shows this code: * > * 4a) So why do you show that? * 4b) Do I need to edit it before Saving Changes? It is in an editable textarea field. * 4c) If so, how? * 4d) It is not a simple one line piece code – do you really expect people to learn every piece of it and edit it properly? * 4e) Currency: US dollars? What the heck does that mean? Are you going to track how much currency the visitors have? If so would you not need access to their banks accounts? Currency of what? My payment to you? How can you expect payment for a optional free plugin? * The only help says “Currency to use in reports” – Ok so a typical analytics report show page views, visits, visitors, visitor geolocation info, etc. NEVER have I seen a currency column in a analytics report. So what is it? $ per page? $ per visitor? $ amount based on what calculations? No explanation of this. * On top of that I mentioned earlier that your docs not for this WP plugin but you dont bother to mention that in the docs, so people have to read some of the docs to figure out it does not apply to the plugin. * Is there any docs for this plugin? * REALLY REALLY SMH at all of this now. The only reason I am spending so much time on this and enduring all this annoyance is because I dont see many other options other than Google which I prefer not to use…… * If there are other good options I would have abandoned trying your plugin at the first instance…. * It should have taken 5 minutes to set the plugin up – I have spend already an hour or 2 on my posts. Gotten nowhere, you didnt even answer my original questions, Really frustrating since time is money. - This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/). * Plugin Author [Thomas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tsteur/) * (@tsteur) * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14048837) * > 1) If tracking is enabled, why do I need to configure my tracking code? If I do not config my tracking code, is tracking working? * You don’t need to configure the tracking code when tracking is enabled. All configurations are optional. The only thing in the Matomo Settings you would need to set is “ Add tracking code: Default tracking” (or more advanced users might use manually). All the other options are optional. * > 2) With eg Google Analytics, I have to get a tracking code from them. I have not gotten a code from you. So how could I configure it? Do I need a tracking code from you? Or not? * Our plugin inserts this tracking code into your site automatically as long as the tracking code is not set to “Disabled”. So when it says in the tracking settings“ Tracking code: Default tracking” for example, our plugin does the job for you directly and you won’t have to do anything else. * > I am thinking I need a key? Is that what you mean by trackng code? Or do you mean the HTML/JS code you show: * The tracking code you are seeing there is what our plugin will add to your website automatically. That’s what’s meant by tracking code but you don’t need to do anything with it. It’s more like a preview to know what Matomo adds to your website. We’ll make this more clear in the future. * > I am now in the Settings > Tracking page. It shows this code: > 4a) So why do you show that? * It’s kind of a preview to know what Matomo will inject into your website. I can see this is not clear and we will tweak this in the future, potentially remove it or reword it and make things more clear. * 4b) Do I need to edit it before Saving Changes? It is in an editable textarea field. * You should only be able to edit this field if the tracking code mode is set to“ Manually”. In all other cases the field should not be editable. “Manually” is meant for advanced users where they want max flexibility and configure the tracking code to their liking. * I’m assuming the first setting says “Tracking code: Default tracking” so you won’t need to do anything with it. * 4d) It is not a simple one line piece code – do you really expect people to learn every piece of it and edit it properly? * You don’t need to edit it unless you choose to do so by setting the tracking code to “Manually”. Can you double check “Add tracking code” says “Default tracking” and whether you can then edit this field? Do you have maybe JavaScript disabled or so? * 4e) Currency: US dollars? What the heck does that mean? Are you going to track how much currency the visitors have? If so would you not need access to their banks accounts? Currency of what? My payment to you? How can you expect payment for a optional free plugin? * Matomo can automatically track ecommerce orders if your site is a shop. It then tracks the amount of each product you add to cart, the total cart value etc. With Matomo you can also configure goals. Meaning you could say, when a user visits my contact website, then from some business calculations I know on average this is worth 0.5 USD to me. It’s kind of a value you assign yourself for a certain page and it helps people better understand their business and how the website is going. It’s a little bit described in [https://matomo.org/docs/tracking-goals-web-analytics/](https://matomo.org/docs/tracking-goals-web-analytics/) * I hope this helps. We really appreciate your feedback and we will make changes so things become more clear. Feel free to further let us know when you see confusing things. Only with feedback we can improve things 🙂 Thanks again very much. * Plugin Author [Thomas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tsteur/) * (@tsteur) * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14048843) * > Is there any docs for this plugin? * Yes, we have documentation for this plugin in [https://matomo.org/faq/wordpress/](https://matomo.org/faq/wordpress/) * > It should have taken 5 minutes to set the plugin up – I have spend already an hour or 2 on my posts. Gotten nowhere, you didnt even answer my original questions, Really frustrating since time is money. * Sorry about that. Generally, the only thing that needs to be done is in “Getting started” page clicking on “Enable tracking” and that’s it. It’s meant to be a 5 seconds job but I can see because some things are not clear it does take longer especially depending on the background and what other systems users have used in the past. Thanks for this. * Thread Starter [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * (@wpfan1000) * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14049206) * Hey [@tsteur](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tsteur/), * > > Is there any docs for this plugin? > Yes, we have documentation for this plugin in [https://matomo.org/faq/wordpress/](https://matomo.org/faq/wordpress/) * The main settings page of the plugin says: * How can we help? User guides – Learn how to configure Matomo and how to effectively analyse your data * Which links to * [https://matomo.org/docs/](https://matomo.org/docs/) * Which is NOT the WP help docs. * I hope you can understand for that reason that I said there were no docs for the plugin. I would suggest changing this link. * > Sorry about that. Generally, the only thing that needs to be done is in “Getting > started” page clicking on “Enable tracking” and that’s it. * Wow. If I had known that, I think it would have saved me hours of time and frustration. Maybe I missed it but I think that should be made more clear. * If I seem to be direct with my feedback, I have also started and ran a corporation for many years, and my feedback is in the context of pointing out critical things that I think could help the plugin be more successful. I can see your heart is in the right place, and you have a great product, and I think it just needs some polishing to help it along….. * Thread Starter [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * (@wpfan1000) * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14049223) * > con·fig·ure (kən-fĭg′yər) > tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures > To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or > uses * To say “Configure the tracking code” implies that one needs to design, arrange, setup: * > * I hope you can understand that I why I thought I had to edit the tracking code. * But that is not actually the case. No edit is needed in many cases. * I would suggest a rewording….. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘Tracking is enabled, so why configure tracking code’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/matomo/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2309115) * [Matomo Analytics - Powerful, Privacy-First Insights for WordPress](https://wordpress.org/plugins/matomo/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/matomo/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/matomo/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/matomo/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/matomo/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/matomo/reviews/) * 8 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [wpfan1000](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpfan1000/) * Last activity: [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tracking-is-enabled-so-why-configure-tracking-code/#post-14049223) * Status: resolved