When it comes to Google Analytics implementation with their WordPress website, many WordPress users need help to gather user information.
Thankfully, there are several ways to integrate Google Analytics with WordPress. These methods are relatively easy to use once users know what they are doing and can be helpful in various circumstances.
What is Google Analytics?
It’s most beneficial to know what Google Analytics is and how it functions before connecting it to your WordPress website. In brief, this platform helps track the activity on your website through Google Analytics and gives you vital information to help you improve it.
Google Analytics collects a variety of data by inserting a small code into the header of each page on your website. This data is categorised into five groups:
- Realtime: This shows what is occurring on your website as you view the report.
- Include details about your site’s audience, including demographic information.
- Acquisition: Describes how visitors are brought to your website.
- Behaviour: Displays what website visitors do, such as the most popular pages and button clicks, while on your site.
- Conversions: An advanced report to track actions like e-commerce sales and email list subscriptions in conjunction with Google Analytics goals.
Why is Google Analytics Important?
You can use Google Analytics to make data-driven decisions by viewing the relevant statistics. You’ll notice:
Who visits your website?
This analytics section provides information on your audience’s location, the browser they used to access your website, and other crucial details like language, screen resolution, JavaScript and Flash support.
This information is beneficial and can be used in a variety of ways. For example, you can use user data to inform your custom website design and ensure that your target audience will be happy with it.
What Are Viewers Doing In your Website?
You can monitor the user’s journey through your website, their time spent there, and the bounce rate (the percentage of users who exit your site on the first visit).
This data can lower your bounce rate and raise your page views.
You can also see which of your articles are the most read, which are performing poorly, and what content your users prefer.
How to Do Google Analytics Implementation in Your Website?
There are mainly two ways of adding Google Analytics to your WordPress website, such are
- By using tracking code
- By installing the plugin
Before going to either of the methods, first, you need to create your Google Analytics account. So let’s see how to do that.
All you require to sign up for Google Analytics is a Google or Gmail account. To create your Google Analytics account, follow the simple signup instructions below.
Step 1: Go to the Google Analytics website and register there first. Click the “Get started today” button on the website.
The next step is to log in using your Google account. If you already have one, you can sign in using your Google or Gmail account. Of course, you can still set up a Google account if you prefer.
Step 2: A welcome screen like the one below will appear after you sign in using your Gmail account.
You can use your Gmail account to sign up for Google Analytics here. Click the “Start measuring” button now.
You will then be asked for an account name. You can use anything similar to your company name since this name will only be used internally.
Google Analytics will also display settings for data sharing across multiple accounts. You have control over sharing your Google Analytics data thanks to these settings. You can proceed to the following step while maintaining the default settings.
Step 3: Create a Google Analytics property on the following screen.
Google released Google Analytics 4, or GA4, a new software version. The most recent version tracks your website and mobile apps under one account. Additionally, you get new metrics, features, and a new report interface.
Enter the name of the property, the reporting time zone, and the currency to get started. Next, press the “Next” button.
Then on the next screen, a popup will show up and ask for your business information, like how many employees are working there.
The next step is to scroll down and choose how you want to use Google Analytics for your company, such as to measure engagement, reduce advertising costs, boost conversions, and other things.
You can pick a few options or all of the available ones, depending on what you need. Then, click the “Create” button when you are done.
The Google Analytics terms of the service agreement will pop up once you click the Create button.
Select “I also accept the Data Processing Terms as required by GDPR” from the drop-down menu before clicking the “I Accept” button.
You’ll then see a popup with options for the Google Analytics communication emails you’d like to receive.
Select the updates you want to receive by checking the appropriate boxes, and then click the “Save” button.
Like this, you can create your own Google Analytics account.
By Using Tracking code
Go ahead and choose “Web” as the platform since we are configuring Google Analytics for a WordPress website.
You will then need to enter data streams like the website URL and name of your stream.
An enhanced measurement option will be turned on by default in Google Analytics. With Google Analytics, you can now monitor things like page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, file downloads, and more.
You can then select the “Create” button.
Your Stream URL, name, and Measurement ID will now be visible.
Additionally, it will display various improved measurements that it will record.
Under the “Tagging Instructions” section, Google Analytics will also provide examples of how to add Google Analytics code to your WordPress website.
You can see the tracking code for Google Analytics by selecting the “Global site tag (gtag.js)” option.
Depending on the technique you employ below, you may need to copy this tracking code and paste it into your WordPress website. You can leave this tab open in your browser and return to it later to copy the necessary code.
This is an option for adding your Google Analytics code if you feel comfortable working directly in your theme code. Remember that you are making direct changes to the theme files, so if you update or change your theme, you will lose your Google Analytics code and need to add it again.
Step 1: Select Appearance > Theme File Editor from the WordPress dashboard.
Step 2: Choose the parent theme and header.php.
Step 3: Cut and paste the code just before the /head> element that closes the page.
Step 4: To save your modifications, click Update File.
By Installing the Plugin
A plugin is the simplest way to add your Google Analytics tag code to WordPress.
The most widely used SEO plugin for adding your Google Analytics code to your website is MonsterInsights Google Analytics for WordPress.
Unless you require sophisticated tracking and reporting features, the free version should function just fine. After that, if you think the free version is insufficient, you can upgrade to the pro version.
Step 1: Installing and enabling the MonsterInsights plugin.
Step 2: Open the Wizard, enter the details of your website, and press the Connect MonsterInsights button. This will get you through a few pages of pre-selected settings for your setup.
Step 3: The following step will ask you to sign in to your Gmail account and grant access to your Google account.
Step 4: After clicking Allow, the Google Analytics account to which it will connect will be displayed.
Step 5: To connect to your Google Analytics account, select Complete Connection. When done, it will offer you the option to upgrade to Pro, but you can choose the link at the bottom to complete the installation without doing so.
Now that everything is set up, Insights should appear in your WordPress dashboard. In the WordPress dashboard, Reports, Settings, and any other tools you’ve chosen will now be visible.
Conclusion
Google Analytics is an essential tool for website managers and owners to analyse their site’s search engine optimization, but it’s not the only one you can use. For example, growing your audience and building your brand requires monitoring user activity, referral sources, and other data on your website. This will provide enough information about implementing Google Analytics on your website.
