In order to understand how to market your business online most effectively, it is beneficial to know your visitors behaviour from when they land on your website. Google Analytics is a FREE software from Google which tells you all sorts of useful information about your visitors. For instance, what they are searching for, how they find your site, what they do on your site and possibly why they might leave your site. In this post, I will show you an easy to follow guide on how to install Google Analytics on your WordPress website.
Google Analytics is a handy tool to have especially if you plan to run ads via AdWords or promote your business on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. By incorporating Google Analytics you will see how many interactions and number of visitors you have, giving you an insight into whether your marketing tactics are working or not.
What Is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free service by Google that generate detailed statistics about the visitors that come to your site. It is one of the most widely used statistics services, and currently used by 57% of the world’s websites.
Google Analytics Usage Statistics by trends.builtwith.com
Google Analytics can track your visitors from all referrers including, social media, search engines, ad services, pay-per-click networks, and email marketing just to name a few.
Once it’s installed it will show you more in-depth data which enables you to identify your content which work and which isn’t working to drive even more traffic to your website!
What Information Does Google Analytics Provide?
As a business owner looking to attract customers online is your priority. You should be creating valuable content that drives traffic and engagement to your website. But to understand how your audience interacts with your content, you will need to add a tracking tool that will give you this information. That’s where Google Analytics comes in. Google Analytics will provide this data and give you detailed insights including but not limited to the following:
- Who is on your website in real-time & what are they looking at
- The number of people that visit your website
- How many visitors are returning
- Your visitor’s geographical location
- What device your visitors are using (desktop, mobile or tablet)
- How long do your visitors spend on your website
- What platforms are sending traffic to your website
- What marketing tactics drive the most traffic
- Which pages or posts are most popular with your visitors
- How many of your visitors are converted into leads or customers
- Which pages did your visitors entered and leave from
- What keywords your visitors are using
- The type of OS (operating systems) your visitors have
- Which search engines are they searching from (Google, Bing, Yahoo)
How To Get Your Google Analytics Code
Setting up Google Analytics on your website is a straight forward process. Here are 6 easy steps that you need to follow to install Google Analytics on your WordPress website :
1. Register or Sign Up
Go to Google Analytics. Enter your Google Account email and password and click to sign in. If you do not have a Google Account, click Sign Up to create one.
Sign Up For A Google Analytics Account
2. Validate Your Account
Once you have gone through the process of signing up, Google will require you to verify your email address. A code will be sent to the email that you have registered with and you will need to enter this to validate your account.
Google Analytics Email Verification Code
3. Enter Your Website Details
Once you have validated your email, you will be taken to the dashboard where you will be able to enter your website’s URL.
- Add an Account Name – this can be your business address or your own name.
- Enter your website URL – make sure to select either HTTP:// or HTTPS:// from the dropdown list. If you are not sure or are not using HTTPS, then read my article on ‘How SSL Affects Your Google Search Rankings’.
- Select your Industry Category – select your website’s niche. This will allow you to understand how your website is performing compared to your competitors.
- Select the correct timezone – this will show you exactly from where and when your website gets the most traffic.
- Read and agree to the T&Cs and then click Get Tracking ID to continue.
4. Your Website Tracking Code
Click on the Admin Tab on the bottom left and click on Tracking Info and Tracking code.
Your tracking ID will start with UA– and then a long number. For example UA-123456789-0.
Copy the Global Site Tag code and head over to your WordPress site.
5. Installing Google Analytics Code To Your WordPress Website
Log in on your WordPress admin area and navigate to your Appearance tab and click on Theme Editor.
WordPress Dashboard
From the Theme Editor, you will see your website theme files on your right. Find the header.php file and click on it.
Theme Editor
Once the header.php file is open paste the tracking code after the <head> and before the </head> tag, as shown in the screenshot below. Click Update File and your GA Analytics code is installed!
WordPress Header PHP
6. Check If Your Code Is Installed Properly
Just in case you’re wondering whether you have done everything right, go back to the Tracking Code page where you will see a Status section. Click on ‘Send Test Traffic’ and a small pop up will appear. If installed correctly your website will show on the pop-up window.
Send Test Traffic
Things To Remember
- Once your tracking code is installed, it can take Google Analytics up to 24 hours to display any data.
- Make sure that you filter your own IP address so it can exclude your visits. You can find out how to do that here.
Summary
Installing Google Analytics on your WordPress website is a straight forward process. Give it at least a week and then check to see what is happening on your website! While you may already have some idea of what works best for your business, Google Analytics will give you a more in-depth analysis that will make you better understand your audience. If you need some help on this topic or would like me to install GA on your website get in touch I’d be happy to help!