Your 2025 Website Analytics Year-End Review

How hard did your website work last year?

With the final numbers recorded, now's the perfect time to find out. While monthly reports track campaigns and short-term wins, the year-end review reveals the bigger picture: what truly resonates with your audience, where they're engaging with you, and whether your communication plan is effective.

Get started:

By default your analytics dashboard will show current analytics. But we want to see analytics for just 2025. Here's how to do that:

1. Log in to the Matomo analytics dashboard (if this is your first time, request access via a quick email to websupport@iastate.edu). 
2. Set the date selector for the year 2025.
3. In the date selector settings, be prepared to enable "Compare to Previous Year" to spot trends immediately.
4. Click the green APPLY button.

These steps are shown in the following video:
 

Acquisition: Are your communication efforts effective?

Reports to Investigate:

• Total pageviews (Visitors > Overview)
• Traffic source breakdown (Acquisition> Overview)
• Keywords from search (Acquisition> Search Engines and Keywords>Web Keywords on Google)

Start with your Visits Overview report to see the total number of pageviews for 2025. Then, check "Compare to" and select "Previous year" in the date selector.

What to look for: If traffic increased, your content strategy is working to drive more visitors to your website. A decline of 10% or more may signal it's time to investigate. Look for the source of the bleeding. Did a major referral source dry up? Has search engine traffic dropped? Knowing this information can help you plan resource allocation for the upcoming year.

Why pageviews matter: Each pageview represents an opportunity for conversion (when a lead takes your desired action, like signing up or filling out a contact form, that equates to one conversion). More traffic means more chances to turn visitors into future students, donors, or staff. Learn more about conversions.

Dig deeper into traffic sources: Navigate to Acquisition Overview to see where your visitors come from:

• Direct visits (bookmarks, typed URLs)
• Search engines (Google, Bing)
• AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity—tracked since November 2025)
• Referral "websites" (which other websites are directing traffic to you)
• Social networks (where do most people engage with your content)

Compare each channel to last year using the date selector. If search traffic dropped but social media surged, that tells you where your audience may be getting information in a new place.

For search-engine-heavy acquisition: Review the Search Engines and Keywords report. Uncheck "Compare to" in the date selector. Identify your top 10 search terms. Are they what you expected? If "calendar" outperforms "academic programs," your messaging might need adjustment. Note the themes your visitors are searching for and plan future content to meet their requests.

Behavior: Are visitors actually engaged?

Reports to Investigate:

• Pages (Behavior> Pages)
• Segment for mobile and desktop traffic

Traffic means nothing if visitors bounce immediately. It's important to try to get an idea for how engaged they are with the content you are producing.

Navigate to Behaviour > Pages and examine:

• Your top 5 pages by pageviews - Are these the pages you want to be popular? If your homepage excels but program pages are absent, you might have a navigation problem.
• Average time on page - This may be different for every website, and good engagement varies by content type (news vs. landing page). Look for significantly lower times, suggesting the content isn't matching what the visitor had in mind.
• Exit rates - An exit means it's the last page a visitor sees before moving on to a different site. High exit rates (above 70%) on key pages like program information or anything in your main navigation can indicate friction points (confusing information, broken links, or missing calls-to-action).

Don't forget to segment your data by device type (Desktop vs. Mobile). If mobile engagement is significantly lower, your mobile experience needs work. Learn more about mobile page design.

1. Open the segment selector
2. Add new segment
3. Name it
4. Search for Device type
5. Set Desktop or Smartphone
6. Save and Apply

These steps are shown in the following video:
 

Conversions: Did visitors take action?

Reports to Investigate:

• Transition reports from Pages (Behaviour > Pages)

If you set goals for your website (newsletter signups, PDF downloads, contact form submissions), measure their success.

Review each goal:

• Total conversions
• Conversion rate (conversions ÷ total visitors)

For each goal, examine transitions reports to find:

• Which traffic sources convert best?
• Which pages lead to conversions?
• What's the typical journey? Learn more about journey mapping in Matomo.

Next Steps : Adjust communication plans

Don't be afraid to make tough decisions

The data might reveal uncomfortable truths:

• That expensive paid campaign drove traffic but zero conversions
• Your most popular content has nothing to do with your core offering
• Half your visitors leave immediately from certain pages

That's why this review matters. Use this information to:

• Reallocate resources for underperforming channels
• Create more content around what actually resonates
• Align your 2026 strategy with what the data proves

Don't waste another year ignoring what your website is telling you. Use what you learned today to transform your communication strategy in 2026.

The CALS/LAS Web Team is here to support your analytics review. Email websupport@iastate.edu to contact the web team or schedule a strategy meeting.