How to Set up Google Analytics for WordPress

By now you’re done setting up your blog or site’s domain, hosting and SSL certificate.

Next thing you’ll do is publishing high and original content.

After posting some of your content you would want to know:

 

 

• How much traffic are you getting?
• Views on your page,
• Session duration,
• Bounce Rate,
• Know your referrers,
• How much organic traffic are you getting?
• Location of your viewers,
• Searches.

 

All those data above can be seen in Google Analytics.

 

What is Google Analytics by the Way?

 

Google analytics is a free service where you could track and see the reports on your website or blog’s traffic. It helps to track and review your campaign landing pages and conversions. For conversion, it really helps if your site is an e-commerce site or being an affiliate of some products and service.

 

Is Google Analytics Important? Does every Website or Blog Need One?

If your site is an e-commerce site then it’s very much important since Google Analytics can see poor performing pages which can help you devise a strategy and improve on it more. For other niche website or blog, it can be still useful to track where your audience may be located, how they find out about your site through referrers or search engines, what post has the poor performance, check the bounce rate, and know how much time they spend on a specific post or page.

Now you understand how important Google analytics is on your site.

 

So How am I Going to Add Google Analytics to WordPress?

 

There are two ways:

 

A. Installing a Plugin

 

1) Login to your WordPress site.

2) Go to “Dashboard” then click “Plugins” and “Add New“

3) Type on the keyword box Google Analytics

4) Various Plugins will show about Google Analytics. Choose only plugins that are “Compatible” with the theme you chose.

 

 

As you can see at the bottom it’s compatible with the theme I’m using.

 

5) Read instruction how to install or you can watch the video for step by step guide. Sometimes you may not understand all of it but don’t worry I’ll show you also how to activate or start Google Analytics.

 

6)  Install then Activate.

 

B. Download, Upload and Install Plugin through Cpanel

 

1) Login to your Cpanel or click the link where your hosting provider sent you.

 

2) Look for File Manager.

 

 

3) Find Root folder, which can be located through public.html or depending on your hosting provider.

 

 

4) Click the “wp-content” then click “plugin” folder.

 

5) Upload plugin.

 

Setting up your Google Analytics Account

 

Setting your Google Analytics account is important for the GADWP plugin to work.

 

1) Verify ownership first on your website or blog before proceeding to Google Analytics.

 

2) Add your site for Google to acknowledge you as the owner of the site. Click “Add Property“

 

Sample:  “https://YOURWEBSITE.com”

                 “https://www.YOURWEBSITE.com”

                 “http://YOURWEBSITE.com”

                 “http://www.YOURWEBSITE.com”

 

3) Verify using the different methods to verify your site which will be in another post.

 

4) Log in to Analytics account to your email or Gmail account.

 

 

Inputting Details

 

Put an Account name for you to distinguish if you have multiple sites.

On Website URL change it to “https“.

Choose a category for your site.

Reporting Time Zone: your location e.g. Philippines

On “Data sharing settings” below it, tick the box which is the recommended ones

 

5) Click “Get Tracking ID” button

Next thing to do is set up the property created with your tracking ID.

Don’t worry we’re almost done.

 

How to Set the Property and Acquire your Tracking ID and Code?

 

1) Click “Admin” which is located below on the analytics account.

 

2) Click “Property settings“.

 

3) Input property name, default URL to “https“, choose industry category, and click “Save” button.

 

4) Click “Tracking info” then “Tracking code“

 

5) Copy your tracking code in the box with your tracking ID like what is shown below

 

“<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-XXXXXXXX-X‘, ‘auto’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

</script>”

 

Your tracking ID will be shown as “UA-XXXXXXXX-X”. 

 

Note:  Make sure to change it to your own tracking ID

How to add the Code to your WordPress site?

 

Copy the code above and go to your WordPress site.

 

1) Go to “Dashboard” and click “Appearance“

2) Click “Editor“

3) look for “Theme Header” or “header.php“

4) look for the “Head Tag“

5) Place the code just right before the </head> tag

 

<head>

<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-XXXXXXXX-X‘, ‘auto’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

</script>

</head>

 

Make sure there are no spaces between </script> and </head> tag

 

6) Click “Update File” button

 

Now we’re on the last part.

 

How to Edit the Settings in Your Google Analytics Plugin?

 

Go to your WordPress Dashboard—-> Plugins—> Installed Plugins—> Google Analytics plugin and click settings.

 

You can also,

 

Go to WordPress Dashboard—> Google Analytics—> General Settings.

 

1) Click “Authorize Plugin” and click the link to get the “API code“.

 

2) Allow the plugin to connect to your Analytics account.

 

3) Copy the API code and paste it into the box.

 

4) Click the name on the property and click “Lock Selection“

 

5) Click “Save“

 

 

 

Turn on the Automatic updates below it. In the Back-end setting, you can turn on the “enable reports on Posts List and Page List” and “enable the main Dashboard widget“.

 

When you turn on the 2 settings above, you can see and add the option to see the Google analytics per page or post and see the data. On the Dashboard widget, you can see the data statistics or information on your site.

 

Check each result to better understand your site and your viewers. It will help you on how to improve your site by giving you the data you need. For the bounce rate it does not really matter if it’s high or low, what’s important is the conversion if your website is an e-commerce site. If your bounce rate is higher, it shows which page or posts your viewers has spent more time on.