How To Install And Setup Google Analytics In Your WordPress Blog
In order to properly optimise your website, it’s important to be able to know who is visiting your site and how they are interacting with the material on your site. This information can help inform nearly any decision you make. As such, it’s a good idea to set up Google Analytics in WordPress.
One of the best solutions on the market for data gathering is Google Analytics. It is sometimes difficult to integrate with WordPress but thanks to the availability of plugins, the job becomes simpler.
This article will discuss why you should use Google Analytics and how to incorporate it into your WordPress site. We’ll cover three different methods for adding the tool either partially or completely: two without any code. Let’s get started!
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Introduction To Google Analytics
You can use Google Analytics to analyse your site’s traffic, audience, and much more. You can easily and for free!
Google Analytics logs information about visitors to a website. It tracks some of these things in the header coding, such as when a user visits a particular page.
- What The Stars Are Saying
- Which pages they land on and leave on
- The psychology behind how we interact with websites
- Their demographic information (for example age, gender, and interests)
- Other tasks (for example, opening on specific links)
With this data, you can find the most watched posts to feature on your home page, use analysis to decide which social media post will be the one that resonates with your audience, and assess how your marketing strategy is performing.
Three Ways To Setup Google Analytics In WordPress
The process of adding tracking code to your WordPress website can be intimidating at times. Fortunately, various plugins exist to make it easier by following a step-by-step process or by simply doing the research for you.
With this detailed walk-through, you can set up how you want WordPress to be integrated with Google Analytics. You’ll use two plugins, their code and your domain. If you haven’t already done so, sign-up for Google Analytics first by visiting this link
1. How To Install Google Analytics Using The OrbitFox Plugin
The multifunction skin plugin, OrbitFox, is developed by Themeisle. While having far fewer features than MonsterInsights, it offers much more diverse features that can help make your WordPress site stand out from the rest of the competition. It’s suitable for users who want a full-fledged software solution for their WordPress website.
Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and to the Plugins menu, activate the Google Analytics plugin. Next, go to OrbitFox > General Settings under Plugins.
Track Google Analytics in WordPress via the OrbitFox General Settings page
In the list of integrations, scroll down and find the Toggle Authenticate with Google button. Once turned on, the site will automatically go to a new window where you can log in using your Google account.
When you click on it, it will ask for access to your Google account. When you give the app consent, the permissions of your account will be granted in an instant.
You’ll be taken back to the OrbitFox settings screen and a new section will appear at the bottom.
You can easily select your tracing code from the drop-down menu. After pressing save, you will be able to view your stats on Google Analytics.
2. Monster Insights: A Plugin That Helps You Track More Website Data
The MonsterInsights plugin features a Google Analytics integration that helps you set up the program while also providing statistics without leaving your WordPress dashboard.
To get started, go to your WordPress dashboard and install the plugin. After activation, you should see a welcome screen. Scroll down until you see the Launch the Wizard! button.
However, after you’ve entered your Google account information, you’re asked to enter a Google Analytics account.
Let’s take a look at MonsterInsights permissions
Then, you can choose your website from a list of Google Analytics web properties. If you don’t see your website on the list, remember to add it as a property in Google Analytics
The plug-in, which is available for free, also offers cost efficient upgrading for advanced features such as integrations with other plugins and more tools in the dashboard.
3. How To Install Google Analytics In WordPress Manually
If you’re looking for an even easier way to track your progress, it’s worth taking a look at WordPress child themes. Make sure that you use one of these, or your Google Analytics code will be overwritten when you update the theme.
It’s also smart to backup your website before making any changes so you can be sure you don’t lose data.
Adding the Google Analytics tracking code to your WordPress theme can take some time and skill. If you don’t know how to do this by hand, you can use a plugin like the “Google Script Injector” or use a “Global Site Tag,” which is a pre-made Javascript snippet with ID numbers that you place on your website.
On the next page, you’re given your Tracking ID and below that you find the code you need.
Creating and updating blog posts with ease
Now it is time to head back to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearance > Theme Editor. This is a built-in code editor for the files that make up your WordPress theme.
In the sidebar on the right, find a file labelled Theme Header. This file must be added manually. If you don’t see a header.php file in your child theme yet, that means it was never copied to your child theme’s folder. In order to edit this file, click on it in the main editor window.
Paste the place you copied the Global Site Tag into this file as close to the opening <body> tag as possible. After you’ve done that, click on the Update File to save these changes. You have now manually added Google Analytics code!
