Analysing website traffic is one of the most essential parts of a website owner. There are plenty of website reporting tools and services online, however, since 2005, Google Analytics has been the method of analysing website traffic.
Google Analytics is a part of Google’s Marketing Platform, Google Analytics is a free hosted analytical service that gives you a detailed overview of who’s been visiting your site, what pages they’re seen, and where they viewing the site from, and more.
This information is essential when making decisions about your website, whether you are deciding what kind of content to produce or what products to sell.
Tracking your website’s traffic with Google Analytics, you’ll need to add the Google Analytics Global Site Tag (gtag.js) tracking code into the <head> area of each page you wanting to track or you could do this by modifying your WordPress theme’s header.php template, however, this is not effective, as the tracking code would be overwritten whenever your theme is updated.
Thankfully, most WordPress themes have a field for adding your website’s Google Analytics tracking code to your website header but if your WordPress theme doesn’t have this, you can find a useful WordPress plugin to add the code.
This WordPress Wednesday, I’ve got five Google Analytics plugins available for WordPress I would like to show you, these plugins do more than just add the Google Analytics tracking code to your website.
They allow you to access statistics directly from the WordPress admin dashboard and provides a more extensive integration with the Google Analytics service.
1. Lara’s Google Analytics
If you want to see your site statistics directly from the WordPress dashboard, then you should consider installing the Lara’s Google Analytics plugin.
Once you’ve connected to your Google Analytics account and selected your profile, you will see the Google Analytics box at the top of your WordPress dashboard.
This plugin will integrate your Google Analytics tracking code and show detailed reports for 7 categories: Sessions, Pages, Browsers, Languages, Operating Systems, Devices, and Screen Resolutions.
You can upgrade to the full version of the plugin at a cost of only $14.99, where you can unlock eCommerce graphs, WordPress Multisite support, and advanced permissions. This plugin allows you to see a full 12 months of data and not just 30 days.
Price: Free
2. WP Google Analytics Events
The goal of this plugin called WP Google Analytics Events is to give you more control over what is tracked on your site, not to view reports directly in the WordPress dashboard area.
This plugin allows you to integrate the Google Analytics tracking code into your website by simply entering your GA tracking ID, and it lets you anonymise IP addresses.
Theres two event tracking options that are also available for tracking clicks and scrolls, this will give you a better understanding of how visitors are interacting with your website.
There is a pro version of WP Google Analytics Events which cost from $79.00 and it adds support for link tracking and placeholder variables and gives you more control over what permissions other users on your site have.
Price: Free
3. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights by far is a popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress you’ll find on the internet.
This plugin allows you to see detailed statistics directly from the WordPress admin dashboard area and add additional tracking for popular plugins such as WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and MemberPress. Also, you can add tracking for affiliate links and advertisements, and see statistics at a post and page level.
When you first activate MonsterInsights, you will be guided through the initial setup with a user-friendly “Launch Wizard”. Once you have permitted MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account, you can select which site profile you want to access and what you want to track.
Like other plugins on this list, you’ll find there’s a pro version of the plugin starting at $199.00 for a one-website license, and MonsterInsights adds support for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles, improved compliance with GDPR, detailed page insights.
Price: Free
4. Analytify
Analytify is a user-friendly solution that shows general statistics, top pages by views, demographics, top referrers, system stats, and more.
All reports are displayed in one main dashboard, however, you can also see your stats within the WordPress dashboard via the Analytify widget add-on.
Once you have authorised the plugin, you can choose whether the plugin installs the Google Analytics tracking code for you and let you select which Google Analytics profile you want to draw stats from.
There are dozens of additional settings that allow you to change what is tracked on your website, settings include excluding user groups from tracking, forcing analytics traffic over SSL, 404 error tracking, and scroll depth tracking.
Like all of the other plugins so far there’s a premium version ranging from $39.00 for a one-website license. The premium version provides many additional statistics, but you are also required to upgrade to the pro version to use any of the premium add-ons that are available.
Price: Free
5. Site Kit by Google
Site Kit is the official Google WordPress plugin. Site Kit allows you to connect your site to six Google services: Search Console, Adsense, Analytics, PageSpeed Insights, Optimize, and Tag Manager.
Once you’ve given permission for Google to access your site, you will see a new admin menu item called Site Kit in the WordPress admin area and a dedicated page for each module you have activated.
There, not many settings for you to configure beyond connecting your site. As Site Kit will automatically add the Google Analytics tracking code to your site and knows not to add the code if it has been added elsewhere.
Site Kit is a simple solution that adds your tracking code and gives you a quick one page overview of your site traffic, but you need to visit the main Google Analytics website to see full traffic stats.
Price: Free
