If until recently cookies did not have excessive limitations in tracking users, with the new free service Cloudflare Analytics things are going to change, and advertising will be the first to notice.
Cloudflare, a US company that does web analytics without using cookies, specialises in website security and offers a number of services. One of them is Cloudflare web Analytics, a cookie-free metrics service that aims to position itself as an alternative to Google Analytics, to date the most widely used tool in the sector.
How Cloudflare’s new launch works
The first thing the company has done is to clarify the foundations on which its new analytics tool is based. In the statement issued on the occasion of the launch of Cloudflare Analytics, the US company explained that they do not track individual users because they prioritise privacy, hence their tool does not use cookies for analytical purposes and does not track through IP addresses, User Argent or other attributes.
Cloudflare Analytics counts the number of page views coming from a different site, rather than counting unique IP addresses. As a result, a valid metric is achieved without the need to compromise privacy by storing the status of what each visitor is doing.
The tool’s analytics allow you to filter any of the metrics with just one click, getting the full update in the dashboard. By zooming in over a period of time, the results can be grouped to visualise the main pages. Subsequently, by adding a filter only to that page you can see its main references. The data obtained with Cloudflare web Analytics will be stored for one month without being able to track conversions, at least for the time being.
To start using Cloudflare, simply enter the name of your website. It is only possible to activate one website per account, but according to the company, the possibilities will soon be extended to analyse multiple websites. The next step is to insert the code into your website, which Cloudflare recommends inserting after the </body> tag on the pages to be tracked.
Analysing without cookies
Cloudflare’s goal is not to sell advertising, nor is it to track user’s steps on the internet. The company is seriously committed to not intruding on user data, so it does not track you using your IP address either.
Cloudflare, unlike the great complexity of most analytics tools, is very intuitive and straightforward, offering only the essential metrics. However, in the case of other tools, the complexity of use is compounded by numerous features that publishers do not typically use. Cloudflare, on the other hand, focuses on the essentials, discarding impractical actions that increase the level of complexity in a tool.
The company calls this approach “Privacy-first Analytics”, and continues to work on providing more comprehensive statistics on performance and security, as well as traffic. They also want to build in support for alerting to enable ever more powerful reporting.
For the moment, Cloudflare Analytics is already positioning itself as a good alternative for analysing website traffic and supporting marketing and SEO strategies. We will have to give it a chance.