Tracking your blog’s performance is essential when you have a blog. If you don’t have analytics software set up on your blog, you are missing out. Google Analytics is (hands down) a must have.
The great news:
Google Analytics is FREE!
In this post, I’m going to cover how to set up Google Analytics in WordPress and why you need Google Analytics installed on your blog TODAY.
Installing Google Analytics on your WordPress Blog is now easier than ever.
Why Do I Need Google Analytics Installed on My WordPress Blog?
When you first set up your blog, you really don’t know what is working. You create some content and wait to see what happens. Eventually, you start to consider how you can increase your blog traffic and followers.
But how do you improve without insight into what is working? You can’t….effectively. Without insight, you are basically slinging spaghetti to a wall to see if it sticks.
That is where Google Analytics comes into the picture. Google Analytics is the go-to for FREE, easy to learn analytics program for bloggers. This is one of those rare programs where “free” doesn’t mean “basic”. Here are just a handful of hundreds of insights that you can pull from your Google Analytics account.
Who is visiting your blog?
Google Analytics offers a tremendous amount of insight into who visits your blog.
For example, you can see the location of your visitors (country, state, city), whether they are a new visitor or a returning visitor, and their technology information (browser and mobile devices).
If you enable the settings, you can even collect their age, gender, and their interests.
These pieces of information can help you make informed decisions. For example, if you have a blog for several years and learn that most of your visitors are new visitors, you might take steps to increase the “stickiness” of your blog to increase your returning visitors.
Another example: If you learned that most of your visitors are using a mobile device, you might ask yourself “How can I improve the mobile experience of my blog?”
How do visitors find your blog?
Personally, I find that the acquisition section of Google Analytics is my #1 time saver. This section of Google Analytics will tell you how your visitors are finding your blog.
Visitors may arrive at your blog through search engines, a social media platform, a referral, or your email marketing. With Google Analytics, you can determine which of your efforts are successful and which efforts needed fine tuning.
This section is also great for understanding traffic gains. When you receive an increase in sales or affiliate income, you can use Google Analytics to determine where your increases in traffic occurred. Maybe it was a result of your SEO efforts or a Pin is getting traction on Pinterest. You will only know if you have Google Analytics installed on your blog.
What do your visitors DO on your blog?
This might seem like a silly question, but it can be very helpful information. Your initial reaction may be “Well, they read, of course!” In the Behavior section of Google Analytics, you can find out which blog posts your visitors read, which posts they land on the most, and which ones they exit from the most.
This information can be very helpful in determining what content is a fit for your audience.
The Behavior section also gives you insight into their experience. How fast or slow was your blog when they visited? Site speed plays a role in, not only, the visitors experience, but also in search engine optimization rankings.
How to Set Up Google Analytics for a WordPress Blog
I have great news. “There is a plugin for that!”
There are several WordPress plugins that can assist you with setting up Google Analytics.
Two popular plugins are:
- Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
- GA Google Analytics
By default, the “Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights” plugin is installed when you go through the WordPress set up process through Bluehost. If you are new to Google Analytics and want to quickly view key metrics without learning GA, MonsterInsights may be the plugin for you. MonsterInsights will pull analytics data into WordPress and will make measuring key metrics easy.
Personally, I use the “GA Google Analytics” plugin.
There are two reasons that I use the GA Google Analytics plugin.
- The GA Google Analytics plugin code is lighter than MonsterInsights.
The GA Google Analytics plugin only adds the lines of code required by Google. In contrast, the MonsterInsights plugin adds several more lines of code in order to offer you reporting through WordPress. Site speed and crawlability are important for SEO. So, I eliminate unnecessary code when possible (see next item).
- I am comfortable using the Google Analytics platform.
There is nothing wrong with getting your feet wet by using MonsterInsights. Once you learn the ins and outs of the Google Analytics platform, you can always switch from the MonsterInsights plugin to the GA Google Analytics plugin later. The Google Analytics platform is not difficult to learn and there are many FREE resources and tutorials provided by Google for learning how to use GA. Plus, you can avoid having the extra code on your website altogether.
In the remainder of this article, I have provided the written directions on how to set up Google Analytics for your WordPress blog using the GA Google Analytics plugin.
1. Go to the Google Analytics Landing page
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
2. Set up a Google Account (or log into your existing Google account)
You will need to log into or set up a Google Account in order to access Google Analytics. If you already have a Gmail account or Google account, you can use that login.
Fun Fact: Did you know that you can use a non-Gmail email address to set up a Google account?
3. Set up a Google Analytics account
Once you are logged into a Google account, you will receive a screen that prompts you to set up your Google Analytics account. Simply click the “Sign Up” button on the righthand side.
4. Enter the details for your analytics account.
This screen allows you to customize the future of your account.
The first field (Account Name) is like a group name. For example: If you manage multiple website that are related to Health & Fitness, you might use “Health & Fitness” as the “Account Name. You Analytics account can have more than one Account Name (group name).
The name of your website is just as it seems. So, you may use the name of your domain in this field.
The website URL is also pretty straight forward. You can simply follow the example they provide. You will need to enter your website URL (the home page URL). If you have a SSL certificate installed on your website, make sure you select “HTTPS” rather than “HTTP” from the drop down menu.
The remaining items (Industry and Data Sharing Settings) are optional settings.
Once you have finished with your selections, simply click the “Get Tracking ID” to move to the next step.
5. Highlight & Copy Tracking ID
You have officially created your Google Analytics account. Now, you will need to add the tracking ID to your website to confirm that you are the owner and to begin tracking traffic data.
You will need to copy the Tracking ID. The format of the ID will be UA-XXXXXXXXX-X. You will need to copy the entire ID, including the “UA”
6. Download the GA Google Analytics plugin
If you have not already, you will need to download the GA Google Analytics plugin. Once you have logged into your WordPress account, you will need to navigate to “Add New” plugins page
Once on the “Add New” page, you will need to search for the GA Google Analytics plugin. Install and Activate the plugin after you have located it through the search tools.
7. Update settings in the GA Google Analytics plugin
After clicking the “Activate” button for the GA Google Analytics plugin, you will be taken to the “Installed Plugins” page. In your list of installed plugins, you will need to scroll down to the GA Google Analytics plugin and click the “Settings” link.
This will take you to the settings page for the GA Google Analytics plugin. You will need to (click) expand the “Plugin Settings” section and paste your Tracking ID into the first field.
The remaining elements are optional. For my own websites, I select “Global Site Tag” for the Tracking Method. This is the new method of tracking.
For the Tracking Code Location, you have the option of having your Google Analytics code in the header (top of the code) or the footer (bottom of the code). Google recommends having the code placed in the header.
Some people will place it in the footer for performance reasons. The Google Analytics code is in JavaScript and many place it in the footer in case the search engines get tripped up on the JavaScript while crawling the code. The footer approach also minimizes the code that must be crawled before getting to the content of the page.
Over the years, I have implemented the code in both the footer and header. I haven’t had issues with either approach. However, I still select the footer.
Click the “Save Changes” button.
8. Test
It is important to always test after implementing changes on your blog. To confirm the Google Analytics code is rendering properly on your blog, you can follow these simple steps.
*Your blog must be live for the Google Analytics tracking ID to appear in your code. If you have a “WordPress Site Coming Soon” landing page, you will need to complete this step once your blog is live.
- Open any page on your blog in the Chrome browser.
- Click “Ctrl + U” This will open the Source Code
- Click “Ctrl + F” This will open the “Find” feature.
- Type in “Google”
- Click the Enter button until you find the code that looks like the example below.
- Lastly, monitor your Google Analytics account for site traffic. NOTE: It can take up to 24 hours for your traffic data to appear in your Google Analytics account.
That’s it……you have officially set up Google Analytics in your WordPress Blog!
These are the essentials that you need for Google Analytics to begin tracking your traffic data. Of course, there are several other customization options within this plugin that can be adjusted as you further develop your blog.
Be sure to check out these related posts for completing your WordPress Blog set up.
How to Install Google Search Console on a WordPress Blog
How to Set Up A WordPress Website on Bluehost
How to Change GoDaddy Nameservers to Bluehost
How to Create a Bluehost Email Address
Why I Fell in Love with the Genesis Framework & How to Install It
How do I set up my Bluehost email address on my iPhone?
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