How to include Google Analytics to your WordPress site and its benefits
To have a competitive digital edge, the presence of websites isn’t enough. One needs to dig deep to understand what’s working and what’s not for their business. To drive traffic and increase brand awareness constant strategizing, monitoring and modifications are required.
Google Analytics is one of the most widely used digital analytical tools that generate valuable insights on website visitors. It doesn’t affect the website cost and is free to use.
The best way to know one’s target audience is through website traffic. Optimizing performance has become crucial for businesses small or big to sell their products and services online.
A JavaScript code collects and processes data from the visitors that pay a visit to the website.
Common Analytical tools like Google Analytics give insights on:
- How many users visit a page?
- For how long did they access the website?
- Which pages were most frequented?
- What did they do or not do on a website?
A tracking code collects anonymous information on every interaction of a visitor on a website irrespective of a browser (Chrome, Safari, IE) or device (mobile, tablet, desktop).
All this data running in the background could be too hot to handle, it’s important that one breaks it down to map out goals and objectives which can be tracked. Mapping out reports through key metrics will not only improve a website but help render a user experience that can significantly drive the business forward. With a little tweaking, analytical tools are great for startups and small enterprises who have the free hand to use its features to full effect.
Map out your action plan!
Mapping out an action plan is essential to drive traffic on the WordPress site with the help of Google Analytics. Extracting relevant information from the available data coupled with one’s brand strategies, changes could be implemented in real time after evaluating user behavior.
Here are important subsets of Google Analytics that provide relevant information on a website visitor.
1. Real-time data: It gives insight on the visitors that are live on a website with the pages they are looking at and the region they belong to. Real-time data can be effectively used to drive short campaigns or custom events that are designed to optimize performance.
2. Acquisition: Google Analytics has a set structure where it groups visitors based on the arrival channels. Visitors who arrive through browsers are categorized into the organic search channels. Social channel drives visitors through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Reports are available through the acquisition category. All channels shed light on different aspects of the business. While some are good for generating leads others could work great for closing deals.
3. Visitors: Reports on visitors is branched into gender, age, language, location and the device used to access the website. Monitoring mobile reports should be prioritized since it accounts for a larger portion of web traffic. Optimizing mobile site is highly recommended.
4. Behavior: The landing page and all the pages report assist one to generate important insight on the content which makes or breaks the business. Whether the content is getting popular or not? Does it need any timely updates? Is the landing page content leading to more bounce rate or less? These are the questions that need to be addressed timely. Having a well-worked content isn’t a solution either. A website should offer a seamless user experience to drive traffic. It’s the job of designers to enhance the experience of the visitor and leave a long lasting impression.
5. Conversion: Conversion requires a more advanced setup. Defining email marketing, signups, calls, requests for information on your brand needs careful planning. They are important elements of a successful website that are fully leveraged with the use of Google analytics.
Signing Up with Google Analytics
To sign up with Google Analytics for the first time, one needs to create a google account. Here is how you can do it:
Step 1:
Type in Google Analytics on your search window and sign up with your existing Gmail account or create a new one.
Step 2:
Once you are signed in, a screen will prompt which would look like this. Click to sign up with your Gmail account.
Step 3:
After selecting the website option ( a choice b/w mobile app or website), enter the name of the account, website’s name, URL, country and time zone. After filling out his information, Click to get the tracking ID button and agree with the services.
Step 4:
Google Analytics will generate your tracking code. Copy this tracking code because it will come in handy for your WordPress site. You may need to revisit google analytics again, so keep the browser tab open.
Now that Google Analytics has been set up, let’s power up with WordPress.
Option:1 Insert Header and Footer Plugin
Install Google Analytics to a WordPress site through the header and footer.
After activation, visit Settings > Insert Headers and footers page. Now copy the code that you copied in step 4 (above mentioned) of the header section.
Save changes to store your settings.
Option:2 Installing Analytics for WordPress by Monsterinsights
MonsterInsights is one of the most popular and widely used Google analytics plugins. Beginners often confuse the 2 by presuming that both are different services, but that’s not the case. Monsterinsights effortlessly connects Google Analytic with a WordPress site. It’s available both as a free and a premium plugin. For more advanced features get MonsterInsights Pro which robustly tracks E-commerce activities, ads, and authors.
Our steps center around the free version of MonsterInsights.
Step 1:
Go to your WordPress admin panel and click on plugin > add new. Type “Monsterinsights” in the search bar to find the plugin. Once activated, a new item termed ‘insights’ will be added to your menu. Click to continue with the setup wizard.
It will ask you to choose a category (website, blog or online store) for your website. Select Save and Continue.
Step 2:
The next step will successfully merge your account with MonsterInsights. Click on the ‘Connect MonsterInsights’ button.
Step 3:
A popup will display your Google accounts. Sign in or select an account if you have been already signed in.
Step 4:
MonsterInsights will put a request to access your Google Analytics account. Click the ‘allow’ button.
Step 5:
Now select the file that you need to track which basically means tour website. Click on the authentication button to complete the steps.
Step 6:
Now MonsterInsights will be installed on your website. It will ask you for the recommended settings. The default setting is an ideal option but if you are using an affiliate link, then you need to add its path so that it gets linked to Google Analytics.
Click on save and then continue.
Step 7:
You can skip this step if you’d like to. This page shows paid add-ons that are accessible once you upgrade to the premium version.
Step 8:
This step will give you an option to install the WordPress Forms plugin. It’s one of the best beginner-friendly WordPress contact form plugins. Its user-friendly and comes with basic contact features such as captcha for spam protection, form field, email notification and a thank-you page for confirmation.
Step 9:
That’s it! You have successfully set up Google Analytics to your WordPress site. Once your setup is finished, you’ll be able to access all the insights that you were looking forward to.
Why You Should Go For MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights free plugin should be an ideal step for a website owner to boost conversions. More than 2 million downloads, it’s one of the trusted WordPress plugins. It also gives advanced tracking options like author tracking, custom post types tracking, links tracking, etc. It’s tested and optimized for speed.
- The whole setup takes less than a minute to complete. MonsterInsights can be powered through a WordPress site and Google account for Analytics.
- MonsterInsights reports can be viewed in the WordPress dashboard. Most of the other plugins require a separate tab to view the reports or an extra login to view reports.
- File downloads can be accurately tracked. Google Analytics doesn’t track downloads.
- Google’s AMP is known to boost site rankings however, it does not render accurate mobile traffic. MonsterInsight comes up with an addon for Google AMP tracking, which gives precise information on mobile visitors.
- MonsterInsights integrates well with WordPress contact form plugins. Forms are important which give insight into leads and conversions.
Conclusion
The number of plugins installed on a WordPress site does not affect the site’s performance. It’s badly coded plugins that are responsible for slowing down a site. Quality and trusted plugin should be prioritized over the others. Working out Google Analytics on the WordPress site without a plugin is not easy. A website owner risks losing the tracking code once the themes are switched. Working on reports is frustrating and time-consuming. Website owners also miss out on features such as file download tracking, event tracking, custom dimensions and more.
With a plugin, no data is lost, a great amount of time is saved and relevant insight is generated on a constant basis. Small business website owners can utilize selected SEO services and drive campaigns for better conversions. When handling a website becomes quite complex because of the number of leads being generated and conversions made, seeking out a WordPress web development company should be an ideal choice that is equipped to provide holistic solutions to one’s website.
Integrating Google Analytics to a WordPress site doesn’t come with a price. Its benefits outweigh the website cost and should be an ideal choice for bloggers, product owners, and service providers.
You must be logged in to post a comment.