There’s a good chance that even if you know very little about starting a website, you’ve at least heard of Google Analytics or seen it mentioned on sites like this one.
If not, give us a moment to give you a brief overview:
In a nutshell, Google Analytics is a powerful free tool that tracks and monitors your website traffic and serves up what it finds in helpful reports that can go a long way to helping you improve your Search Engine Optimisation, reduce your bounce rates and attract even new customers.
It’s compatible with every kind of website, from Google’s own Blogger platform to static, self-hosted websites, and yes, even WordPress.
And whilst it may be a little simpler to install of some sites than others, we’ve found that a number of readers -especially those taking their first steps towards running their own website- have found that Installing Google Analytics on their hosted WordPress site to be somewhat tricky.
Which is why today, we present this helpful, step-by-step guide.
1: Sign up for a Google account
If you already have one (and let’s be honest, many of us do), you can go ahead and skip this step. If you don’t, signing up for a Google account takes a matter of minutes.
Head to the main Google Analytics page and click the orange ‘Create an Account’ button as shown in the image below:
You’ll be asked to fill in a few key details, then taken to the next page, where you’ll be asked to sign up for Google Analytics. Click the appropriate button, and let’s move on to the next stage.
2: Fill in details about your website
On the next page, you’ll be asked to provide details about the website you want to track and monitor. All you’ll need is a few simple details such as the name of your site and the web address.
Go ahead and fill those in now, we’ll wait for you at step three.
3: Get your tracking ID
After agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions, you’ll next be taken to your main admin panel, where you’ll find your tracking ID, it should be a string of numbers preceded by the letters UA:
That’s the code we’re next going to add to our WordPress site
4: Add a Google Analytics plugin to your WordPress site
There are lots of different methods of adding Analytics to your site, but for newcomers, we’ve found that simply installing a plugin is by far the easiest.
Head to the plugins page from your dashboard and search for Google Analytics.
Personally, we find the Monster Insights plugin by Yoast -makers of the popular WordPress SEO plugin used by many major websites- to be one of the easiest to setup and use, but you might want to have a look around, explore your options and pick one that’s right for you.
When you’ve got one you’re happy with, simply install and activate it, and let’s move on, shall we?
5: Authenticate your account
When it comes to actually connecting our WordPress site with our Google Analytics account, we’ve found it the easiest option to simply click the ‘Authenticate’ button in our plugin’s settings, but you can also manually add the UA code by cutting and pasting it in.
Go with whichever one feels most comfortable for you, then go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back, you’ve just installed Google Analytics on your WordPress website.
Enjoyed this tutorial? Need more step-by-step guides on how to make the most of your WordPress website? Let us know on Twitter @WebDesignDIY or join in the discussion on Facebook.
