DataSag / field notes
Field notes.
Practical notes on web analytics, privacy, and turning website activity into decisions. No fluff, no 40-tab dashboards.
28
notes
220
minutes of reading
The Easiest Way to Track Website Visitors Without Google Analytics
A practical guide to tracking website visitors without Google Analytics, with simple setup steps and the metrics that matter most.
Read the noteWhy Startups Are Dumping Google Analytics (and How to Escape Before It's Too Late)
Discover why startups are migrating away from Google Analytics. Learn about privacy concerns, complexity issues, and better alternatives for modern teams.
Cross-Device Tracking Is Dead. Here's What Comes Next
Understand why cross-device tracking is fading and what a privacy-first approach can tell you instead.
Why Your Bounce Rate Doesn't Matter (And What to Track Instead)
Learn why bounce rate can mislead you and which engagement signals give a clearer picture of a visit.
Analytics Tools Compared: Plausible vs. Fathom vs. DataSag vs. GA4
Compare four well-known analytics approaches across privacy, setup, features, pricing, and day-to-day usefulness.
How to Read an Analytics Dashboard in Under 5 Minutes
Learn to spot key metrics, identify trends, and make a useful decision from an analytics dashboard quickly.
The Simplest Way to Track Conversions on Any Website
Learn practical ways to track website conversions without complex setup or a heavyweight analytics stack.
What Is a Bounce Rate and Should You Care?
Understand bounce rate, when it matters, and when to focus on more meaningful engagement metrics instead.
Tracking Content Performance: What to Measure in Blogs and Articles
Learn which content metrics help you understand readership, engagement, and the next useful improvement.
The 7 Analytics Metrics Every Beginner Should Know
Master the essential analytics metrics that matter most, including pageviews, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
How to Tell if Your Website Traffic Is “Good” or Just Noise
Learn to distinguish quality website traffic from meaningless numbers using engagement signals that matter.
How to Use Analytics to Improve Customer Onboarding
Find the onboarding signals that reveal where new users hesitate, continue, or leave.
A Beginner's Guide to Attribution Models: First Touch vs Last Touch
Understand first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch attribution with clear examples and practical use cases.
The Difference Between Pageviews, Sessions, and Users (Explained Simply)
A clear explanation of pageviews, sessions, and users, plus guidance on which metric to use for a given question.
Lightweight Web Analytics for Startups: Set Up in 30 Seconds
See how lightweight analytics can help a startup track the signals that matter without a long configuration project.
How to Measure Landing Page Performance Without Complex Tools
Use a focused set of metrics to understand whether a landing page is earning attention and action.
Lightweight Analytics Tools Built for Indie Hackers
Compare analytics tools designed for indie hackers and solo founders who need simple, affordable, privacy-friendly measurement.
Server-Side vs Client-Side Analytics Explained Simply
Understand the trade-offs between server-side and client-side analytics and how to choose an approach.
The Simplest Way to See Where Your Website Traffic Comes From
Learn how to understand traffic sources and referrers without a complex analytics setup.
Lightweight Analytics vs Enterprise Analytics Suites
Compare simple analytics tools with enterprise suites and choose the right level of complexity for your team.
Google Analytics Alternatives (2025 Guide)
Compare popular Google Analytics alternatives across privacy, setup, reporting, and fit for modern teams.
The Role of Data Anonymisation in Analytics
Understand how anonymisation can protect visitors while keeping useful aggregate analytics available.
How to Collect Data Without Consent Banners
Explore cookieless, privacy-first methods for measuring website traffic while keeping the visitor experience focused.
CCPA and Analytics: What You Need to Know
Learn how CCPA and CPRA affect web analytics, personal information, and privacy-conscious measurement.
GDPR-Compliant Web Analytics Explained
Understand the practical relationship between GDPR, analytics data, cookies, and privacy-first implementation.
Web Analytics Without Cookies
See what cookieless analytics can measure, how it works, and why it matters for privacy and compliance.
The Future of Web Analytics (2025 and Beyond)
Explore the direction of web analytics as privacy expectations, browser rules, and useful automation continue to change.
Do You Really Need Google Analytics? A Beginner's Perspective
A beginner-friendly look at when Google Analytics helps, when it adds complexity, and what simpler options exist.
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