No, setting up and utilizing Google Analytics on your website
isn't as difficult as you may think.
Yes, I'm here to show you everything step by step.
Let's fire up your website
and start this Google Analytics WordPress tutorial.
Today's approach for how to install Google Analytics on WordPress
will use the Google Analytics platform
combined with a very easy and, most importantly,
completely free plugin called Google Site Kit.
Now, it might not look a lot compared to some other analytic plugins,
but I hate when useful metrics are locked under a paywall.
If you're like me,
let's see how to use free Google tools to our advantage.
What if you don't have a hosting plan for WordPress?
Not to worry,
I've left my best discount links for the Hostinger WordPress plan
since I'll be using it for today's demonstration.
Oh, and of course, any other hosting provider will do.
I'm just using Hostinger
since it comes with a modern user interface
and it has amazing value for very small monthly fees.
There are a few requirements to run Google Site Kit,
but these mostly have to do with PHP and WordPress versions.
If you are using good providers like Hostinger,
you should automatically be running new tech.
Grab a plan, install a fresh WordPress, and we can start.
All right, can you continue this Google Analytics WordPress tutorial
without having an active Google Analytics account set up?
Yeah.
The beauty of Google Site Kit
is that it allows you to create everything during the initial Google Analytics setup.
If you have an account already, great,
we'll just connect it instead of creating something new.
First go to Plugins,
then Add New,
type in Google Site Kit,
click Install,
and finally Activate.
Why this specific plugin over numerous others?
The rationale is pretty simple, my friend.
Unlike many other analytic tools with free and premium versions
where some data may be concealed behind a paywall,
the Site Kit WordPress Plugin being developed by Google
is straightforward and lacks premium versions.
All the requisite information is readily available.
Moving on in this Google Analytics WordPress tutorial,
once the Site Kit is installed and activated,
it's time to actually start the main setup.
Look for the banner indicating progress
and click the prominent green button, or go to Site Kit and then Dashboard.
Here, mark this checkbox
and log in with your primary Google account
or the account you want to have the analytic data.
Then confirm everything you see on screen.
Now we're going to go on a little adventure
which will consist of clicking the same button four times.
First, we verify that the website belongs to us.
In the past, this was a bit more complex process
with copying code snippets,
but now it's just one click, and things are improving fast.
Anyhow, the second button is to turn on metrics in our dashboard.
The third is to set up your site Search Console.
Finally, the last click is for the analytic account setup.
All right.
After loading it a bit, you should see this screen.
It's just asking us to do a Google Analytics setup
for a new project.
The great thing about this Google plugin
is that everything should be already filled up.
If it's not correct, or you want to change something,
you can edit these fields,
but I suggest just clicking Create Account.
Log into your account once more
and confirm that yes, you really want to create this account.
On the next page, you'll see lots of legal text.
Now, as an expert,
I highly recommend you to read all of this,
but as a human, I know that most of you won't.
Accept the terms and let's move on.
Finally, you can click this big blue button
to see your brand-new analytics dashboard.
That's it for the how to add Google Analytics to WordPress part.
Next, let me help you out with all these numbers.
Of course, if you just created a brand-new property,
your analytic plugin will look like this,
without any actual data.
Depending on your website popularity,
it might take some time for this info to be active.
Don't get discouraged if you don't see these results for a while.
First thing in my Quick Analytics WordPress tutorial
in the very top right corner,
you can select what time frame you want to analyze
from 7-90 days.
Do keep in mind that there's currently no way of customizing this date
for longer or shorter periods, but it's enough.
Moving down, you can see all visitors' information.
As the name suggests,
it shows you all users who visited your site,
and even has helpful info on how you're performing
compared to the previous period.
On the right side of it,
you can see more info on those users, like how they found your website,
user locations, and devices that they were using.
All of these are very useful.
Channels can tell me whether users come from organic search, AKA Google,
from social media or from direct links,
so I can judge if my marketing works and how well-optimized is my SEO.
The use of location is pretty self-explanatory.
I can assess whether I'm targeting the right region with my ads.
Since Hostinger allows to choose between seven server locations,
I can make sure I'm using the correct server for the task.
Device is probably the most important thing right now.
You need to know how many users browse your site through their mobiles.
It's a waste of time to work
on improving the desktop version of your website
if 95% of users browse mobile, and vice versa.
Below this table, we can find search traffic information.
This is a more expanded version of the info we have seen before.
From the left, we can see the total impressions,
which shows us how many people have potentially seen your website link
in any of Google products— news, searches, or discover.
This will be high.
In the example, we have nearly 40,000 impressions
and way fewer actual clicks,
but this will depend a lot on the industry you're in.
Talking about those total clicks,
they show how many people click the link to your site in Google search results.
What's the difference between unique visitors
and search metrics?
This info is honestly pretty impressive, especially coming for free,
and it basically shows how many unique sessions your website had
within a defined time frame.
If a user clicks on five of your links in Google search results,
it will count as five total clicks.
But if it does it in 30 minutes or so, it might be counted as just one session.
Lastly, conversions show your results from Google Ads campaigns.
Hey, the law of equal exchange.
If this video helped you out, help us out by hitting that Like button
and of course subscribing to the Cybernews channel.
If you want to delve deeper into specific posts and pages,
you can use the third metric seen here.
This just gives you specific content clicks and impressions.
However, if you want to see specific URL info,
you can scroll to the top and just type it here.
Or if you go to that specific post
and hover over this tab in the WordPress admin menu.
The last few items on your Google Site Kit dashboard
are the performance overview and AdSense earnings.
I won't go into details about them,
but I recommend checking out the Performance tab
to understand your website's loading times without other third-party tools.
The numbers should be rolling soon,
and you will know exactly who visited my website.
Again, Google Site Kit gives a lot of valuable information
completely for free,
so study this plugin and use it to your advantage.
Thanks for watching my Google Analytics tutorial video.
If you still have questions or just want to chat,
leave your comments down below.
You can find my full Hostinger WordPress tutorial by subscribing.
I've also left my Hostinger discount
if you're looking for a great valued shared hosting.
Anyhow, I'll see you all later.