Time and time again, we’ll ask our business partners, “what are you currently tracking on your website?” and we’ll get a response like, “we aren’t doing anything.” If you’re running a business, there’s absolutely no reason for you not to have an analytics package, such as Google Analytics, implemented on your business site. Without Google Analytics, you’re 100% operating blindly; you don’t know who your customers are, which web pages they’re spending most of their time on, and what’s actually working from your marketing efforts. For us at Uplancer, this is considered a big miss for any website development project!
If the above is you, continue reading for instructions on how to integrate Google Analytics with your WordPress website.
Installing Google Analytics with a Plugin like WordPress Monster Insights
This is as basic as it gets. They have a quick and dirty plugin that can get your Google Analytics (GA) up and running in minutes. WordPress comes with Monster Insights already installed so what you’ll need to do is activate and update the plugin, and then follow the wizard. The catch is when you use Monster Insights, you’re limited to extremely basic analytics. In our opinion, it’s a watered-down version of what you actually need.
Although the basic package is a great starting point, you’ll quickly grow out of it due to the limited reporting functionality. When you’re ready and want more robust analytics reporting, you’ll have to either pay for an upgraded Monster Insight plugin or install GA manually. Either way, you’ll need to pony up some resources for a deeper analysis through GA. Just remember, plugins are great, but they can introduce other issues to your site, such as poor website performance and broken website functionality.
Installing Google Analytics the Manual Way
One less plugin on your WordPress site is always a good thing because it declutters and improves your website. And by integrating the code on the head or body of your website, you’ll gain access to the full Google Analytics suite.
To start implementing, follow the below steps. We’re assuming that you’ve already created a Google Analytics account:
- First, you’ll need to confirm that you have a valid domain with an SSL certificate installed to ensure that the analytics can work.
- Second, you’ll need to set up a data stream on your Google Analytics account. Link this data stream to your website. In doing so, you’ll need to verify your website domain to approve the submission of analytics data from your website to your account.
- Third, you’ll need to implement the tracking code on the head or body of the website. There are multiple options to do so, but we typically go with using html code.
- After you’ve integrated the analytics, the final step you’ll need to do is confirm that it’s working! Fortunately, Google Analytics provides this through its real-time analytics. You can click across your pages and perform different actions to confirm functionality on the real-time report. Note, it can take 24+ hours for your Google Analytics data to show up on your account. So don’t stress if you don’t see anything because you likely did everything correctly.
Although the manual method is not as quick as the Monster Insight route, it’s still not super complicated. It’s a lasting method that doesn’t put your website at risk of plugin conflicts or an over-reliance on them.
Installing Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Together
Google Analytics is a one-size-fits-all solution for all websites and provides high-level tracking and analysis of your website. GA doesn’t provide an easy way or make it possible to collect certain data, such as click location, different downloading events, and designating custom conversions. For instance, you may want to track a click or a form submission.
In these situations, you’ll definitely need Google Tag Manager (GTM). Google Tag Manager can be complex but is broken down into three parts:
- Tag – think of where you’re data is being sent, such as Facebook
- Trigger – the action that occurs to a variable to send the tag, such as a click and scroll depth
- Variables – the different parts of the page, which could be buttons and links, among many others
At its core, Google Tag Manager tracks variables (Variable) and the actions taken on them (Trigger) to transmit data to a source (Tag), like Google Analytics, Facebook, or LinkedIn. It’s such a powerful tool that allows you to focus on the actions that are relevant to your business. To install GTM, you’ll follow similar instructions for Google Analytics:
- First, sign up for a GTM account
- Generate the installation script from GTM
- Navigate to your WordPress instance and install the GTM scripts on the head and body of your website
- Start mapping out your variables, triggers, and tags on the manager
- Test in debug mode to confirm that the tags are firing triggers
- That’s it!
We’ve oversimplified the installation for GTM but compared to software development and data science, this is something we believe many businesses can do. However, if you’d rather someone else do it or need help, feel free to reach to our Uplancer team for help!
*Pro Tip: when using Google Tag Manager, you’ll want to avoid duplicating the GA script and running it twice. Your GTM code script should already include your Google Analytics script. Therefore, you can remove the duplicate GA script generated from here.
The Bottom Line / TLDR
Without analytical tools like Google Analytics, you risk operating blindly about what’s happening on your website. If your website doesn’t have GA installed, you can use plugins, such as Monster Insights, for a quick setup. However, these plugins are usually limited in reporting functionality and may require an upgrade later. Alternatively, a manual integration of Google Analytics offers a more comprehensive solution without the clutter of installing additional plugins on your website. For advanced tracking needs, Google Tag Manager is invaluable, allowing you to customize data collection on user actions, but it requires a bit of setup.
Whether you use GA or GTM, implementing these tools is essential for understanding and improving your website’s performance. Connect with our analytics team today to start or upgrade your current data collection efforts to drive and uncover deeper insights for business decisions.
