As the saying goes, “what is not measured, is not managed.” After setting up a WordPress website, it’s important to see what’s working and what’s not. Who is visiting your website? How long do they stay? What content is resonating with your audience?
The best way to get this information is by setting up Google Analytics, a traffic measuring application. Once set up, Google will start populating dashboards with traffic information on your website.
The only issue is it runs on a separate webpage. Integrating a plugin on your WordPress website gives you the convenience of measuring your website traffic inside WordPress. Here are seven of the best WordPress plugins for Google Analytics that have a range of benefits for all types of users.
1. Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights
Monster Insights are one of the popular freemium plugins on WordPress with almost 15 million downloads. It gives you all your website analytics at a glance. You can install the plugin directly via the WordPress.org plugin repository or by uploading the files to your server. Let’s start tracking!
With a few clicks, the plugin can then be customized to determine what pages and posts you want to track. It can also track inbound links, outbound links, and ignore the website owners who can skew your statistics.
If your site is an e-commerce store, you can track the performance of your store and the products purchased or downloaded. You can also add tracking for files, facebook articles, and ads from Google AdSense. Monster Insights does have a premium version but you can get a lot of the functionality of Google Analytics in the free version.
2. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics (formerly GADWP)
This Dashboard by Exact Metrics is the most popular Google Analytics plugin used on WordPress. It only needs a few steps to be installed. Once you activate and place your Google ID, you get your analytics data immediately. The reason the dashboard is popular as it looks similar to the actual analytics web application.
The plugin has an easy set-up page that allows the user to customize Events (emails, form submissions) and remove administrator activity from generating incorrect data.
It also gives you some extra tools. You can track Affiliate links to see what products are more successful than others. The Exact Metrics Plugin also gives you stats from multiple websites, is GDPR compliant, and gives the demographic and geographic data that makes Google Analytics a powerful tool. Google Analytics Dashboard is free and gives you exactly what you need.
3. Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce
Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce is a plugin that gets you all of the functionality of Google Analytics inside of WordPress and add enhanced ecommerce functions. Once you upload and install the plugin, you can add your Google Analytics ID. You can then see all your website traffic data and which page performs best. Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics Plugin for WooCommerce integrates Ecommerce measurement helping you to track your products performance.
4. Google Marketing Tools
If you’re looking for a complete Google Analytics plugin, you should try Google Marketing Tools. Once you upload and install the plugin, you have a host of Marketing applications that integrate seamlessly with this plugin. If you are only interested in Google Analytics, you can submit your Google ID and get pageviews, demographic data, bounce rate, and other important stats. It works well for blogs or e-commerce sites that use plugins like WooCommerce.
This plugin goes a step further. You can integrate Google Ads, Google Optimize for A/B Testing, Facebook, Pinterest, and other key tracking stats. Because of the number of features, it focuses on making setup easy with a unique code that integrates most of your marketing tools. There is also excellent support with How-To Videos and Developer support for six months.
5. Google Analytics by ShareThis
This free plugin gives you the ability to see your stats without any coding. The set up is simple. Just install from the plugin tab and activate the plugin. Once you put in your Google Analytics ID or website name, you will get data straight to your WordPress dashboard.
Most plugins that track analytics gives you just the basics. This plugin provides you with a lot of features that are native to the Google Analytics application. Share This has made sure to integrate Google Trends, comparing the last seven days to the previous seven days. You can also see Trending Content. This shows which posts, landing pages, and opt-ins are performing best on your site. You will see the usual data like bounce rate but you can change the format you see it. This plugin can also send you email alerts so you know when content is performing well. This is highly recommended if you are new to Google Analytics plugins.
6. Mona Analytics
Mona Analytics is a plugin by MonaMedia that you can provide you with all your Google Analytics in one fluid chart on your WordPress Dashboard. The plugin is easy to install and almost immediately populates data from Google Analytics when you put in your Google ID.
The dashboard is set up with tabs that cover information like Demographics, Geography of visitors, and their activity. The tabs allow you to measure what is needed without unnecessary data.
If you’re looking for a plugin that gives you a host of analytics besides Google, this is the one for you. It integrates Facebook Page Analytics, WordPress posts analytics, Twitter and Instagram Analytics. Unlike some of the other plugins on this list, AdSense cannot be integrated. Nevertheless, it a comprehensive dashboard and an excellent return on investment.
7. Google Analytics WP – Plugin for Specific Pages
If you’re looking for a more granular approach to your analysis, you should consider the Google Analytics WP plugin for specific pages. This is a plugin exclusive to Codecanyon and is popular among Google Analytics power users.
Like the name says, you can set this to track a specific page or specific blog post or content on your website. You get the same data as you would on the entire website from Google Analytics.
The plugin is simple to set up. Once you purchase and upload it, it will generate a script that you can copy and paste onto any page or post. The script will not be visible to the reader, but it will allow you to see how that particular piece of information is performing. You can see where readers are stopping, how fast they are scrolling and the usual content such as demographics, device usage, and bounce rate. This is a useful investment if you need more detail.
Conclusion
A Google Analytics Plugin can give you the efficiency of viewing your search engine and website activity states inside of WordPress. If you just need a simple overview or a deep dive into activity from other platforms, there’s a plugin on this list for you.
