ThemeGrill AuthorAre you looking for a way to add Google Analytics to your WordPress site?
Regardless of the type of website, Google Analytics will always be of great help. It will provide you with in-depth data about your site and help you take it to the next level. When it comes to understanding your audience, you’ll have a hard time finding a better tool out there.
In this article, you will learn all about Google Analytics, how to add it to WordPress, and how to make the best use of it. By the end, you’ll be ready to get started with this fantastic analytics tool.
Why Use Google Analytics?
Before we get into the “hows” of Google Analytics, let’s first take a moment to consider the “whys”. If you’re still on the fence, here are some reasons for you to check out Google Analytics.
i) Traffic Data: With Google Analytics, you’ll know exactly how many users visit your site, where they visit, and even when they visit. It will be easy to see which pages are popular and which ones need improvement.
ii) Demographic Data: Your information is not just limited to the number of visitors either. Google Analytics will give you in-depth information about your audience, such as age, gender, location, interests, etc. By learning more about your audience, you can cater to them better.
iii) Conversion Data: Using Google Analytics, you can have a much clearer idea of how effective your site is at converting visitors. You’ll be able to make good use of the data regarding incoming traffic, referral links, bounce rates, advertisements, and more.
iv) User-Friendly Presentation of Stats: Despite all the data that Google Analytics handles, it still manages to keep things easy on the eyes with its simple visualizations. You can even create custom dashboards of your own with only the information that you think is necessary.
v) Free of Cost: A huge plus point of Google Analytics is that you can get all those benefits for absolutely free. There’s no need to deal with obnoxious paywalls for basic features.
Now that we got that out of the way, we can finally talk about how to set up Google Analytics on WordPress. Doing so involves two important steps. The first step is to create a Google Analytics account of your own and the second step is to connect the account to your WordPress site.
Step 1: Signing Up for Google Analytics
First things first, you will need to sign up for a Google Analytics account. To sign up for Google Analytics, you will first need to go to the Google Analytics website and click on the ‘Start Measuring’ button.
This will bring you to the account creation page. Here, you will can to fill in your Account Name and choose your Data Sharing Settings. If you’re unsure about the options, you can leave all boxes checked. After that, scroll down and click on Next.
Now, the site will ask you what you want to measure. If you want to track your website then you can leave it as it is and click on Next. For anyone who wants to use Google Analytics to track their apps, this is where they can select the option.
After that, you will be asked to fill up the details of your website. You can add your site name and URL under the Website Name and Website URL fields respectively. Use the drop-down list under the Industry Category option to select the most fitting category for your site. After you’ve set the Reporting Time Zones, you can go ahead and click on Create.
In the new pop-up box, just accept Google’s terms and conditions and you’re good to go.
Step 2: Connecting Google Analytics to WordPress
Now that you have a Google Analytics account ready, we can finally move on to the second step. You can now go ahead and connect your Google Analytics account to your WordPress site There are many ways you could do that, each with their own merits.
In this article, we are going to show you two different methods of connecting your site to Google Analytics:
- Connecting Google Analytics Manually
- Using the Site Kit WordPress Plugin
1) Connecting Manually
To manually add Google Analytics to WordPress, you’re going to need to find your Google Analytics Tracking Code. It should be pretty easy since creating an account automatically brings you to your Tracking Code page. In case you need to navigate to it, click on the Cog icon on the bottom left and click on Tracking Info>Tracking Code. You’ll need to copy this code for later.
Now log-in to your dashboard and navigate to Plugins>Add New and search for Insert Headers and Footers. Now just Install and Activate this plugin.
After that, you can go to Settings>Insert Headers and Footers from your dashboard. You can now paste the Google Analytics Code from earlier underneath the Scripts in the Header option. Now scroll down and click on Save and you’re done.
2) Using Site Kit Plugin
If you don’t want to mess around with Tracking Codes then you can use the Site Kit, an official plugin from Google. Not only will you be able to avoid the hassle of messing with codes, but it also allows you to check out the stats right from the WordPress dashboard.
From your dashboard, go to Plugins>Add New and search for Site Kit and then Install and Activate it.
Now select the new Site Kit option on your sidebar. Here, you can be started with the whole thing by clicking on Start Setup.
In this new page, click on Sign in with Google and select the account that you used to create your Google Analytics Profile. If it asks for permissions, you can click on Allow.
The next page will ask you to verify your site ownership. Here, you can just on Proceed and wait as it checks everything in the background.
You’ll then have to repeat the previous step to give access to Google Account Data and set up the Search Console. Finally, click on Go to my Dashboard to finish it.
Once that is done, it will redirect back to your Site Kit dashboard. Now find Analytics and then click on Connect Service underneath it.
Again, select the account with Google Analytics connected and then allow it access to your data. This will bring you back to the Site Kit Dashboard so you can finish configuring Google Analytics.
Here, you either select your account from the dropdown list under the Account field Configure Analytics to finish the whole thing.
With that, you’ve configured Site Kit and finished connecting your site to Google Analytics. While the process is slightly longer than the manual one, it has an important benefit. Now you will be able to check your stats right from your WordPress Dashboard without needing to go to the Google Analytics site.
Understanding the Basics of Google Analytics
Now that you have Google Analytics set up, it’s important to start learning how to use it, and you. It might seem confusing at first, but the results are more than worth it.
As we’ve stated before, the primary goal of Google Analytics is to help you understand your website. The main way to do so is through reports. All of the data collected by this tool are used to create a number of informative reports that tell you about your site.
To see these reports, you need to go to your Google Analytics page and check the right side of the screen. As you will see, there are five different options there.
i) Realtime Reports: The realtime reports help you monitor everything that is happening on your site right now. It shows you information like the number of visitors, visited content, and traffic sources, to just name a few.
ii) Audience Reports: These reports will help you understand your audience better. Not only does it have basic information such as age, gender, location, it also stores data on their engagement, loyalty, and interests.
iii) Acquisition Reports: You can use these reports to see how the performance of different marketing channels. It allows you to check which sources provide you with the best traffic and conversions.
iv) Behavior Reports: As the name suggests, behavior reports contain information on how your audience act while on your site. With this, you’ll see where users drop off, average time on page, bounce rates, etc.
v) Conversion Reports: Here, you can set up specific goals for your site and then track their progress. You can track certain user actions, analyze traffic conversion, and even see where users might be leaving your site.
That’s the basics but there’s still a lot more to learn. Fortunately, there are a ton of resources available on the internet, including the amazing Google Analytics course.
Making the Most of Google Analytics
Of course, there is even more Google Analytics than the features you get right out of the box. If you want something more, then you can turn to Google Analytics WordPress plugin. Not only can you get a ton of more features, but these plugins can also make it much easier to use Google Analytics.
Some standout options for Google Analytics WordPress Plugins are as shown below.
1) MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is a popular plugin streamlines the process of setting up Google Analytics and helps you access a ton of useful data right from your dashboard. In just a few clicks, you can start tracking your audience with metrics that aren’t even available on Google Analytics.
On top of that, you won’t even have to leave your site to check the statistics and reports. You can find in-depth reports on your audience right on your website. It’s powerful as well as super convenient.
Key Features:
- Data presented intuitively on the dashboard
- Supports eCommerce tracking downloads
- Tracks affiliate links, banner ads, and other outbound links
- In-depth stats for all posts/pages
- GDPR Compliant
Price: $199-$799
2) Analytify
Analytify is also a fantastic option that can save you a ton of time just by making sure that the data is easy to understand. Not just that, you can see the data on your dashboard or even the front-end, without needing to leave the site. A special emphasis has been placed on user-friendliness.
It’s not all looks either and has a powerful set of features that add a lot to Google Analytics. With features like Page Level analysis, Social Media tracking, and automated email reports, it has a lot going for it.
Key Features:
- Easy to understand stats
- Separate dashboard for different stats
- Automated Email reporting
- Front-end reporting
- Enhanced eCommerce tracking
Price: $39-$199
For even more useful plugins of this kind, check out our article on the best Google Analytics WordPress Plugins.
Conclusion
And there you go! This was our article on how to set up Google Analytics on WordPress. You should now be able to set everything up and get started with this amazing analytics tool. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be ready to grow your audience in no time at all.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. While you are here, why not check out some of your other articles?
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