How to Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your WordPress Website

Many bloggers and website owners track visitor behavior and digital marketing activities using Google Analytics. With the addition of a few HTML snippets to your website, you can implement the same analytic tracking capabilities on your own WordPress site.

Here’s how to add Google Analytics tracking code to your WordPress site.

What Is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics, or Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s web analytics service, is one of the most popular and reliable service providers in digital marketing. While there are several other services like it, Google Analytics is the most popular because it’s free and very easy to use.

One of the first questions prospective users ask when they find out I’m working on a new blog is, “How much does it cost?” The standard answer is “$0.” But, I then explain that Google Analytics is a free service and they usually reply by saying, “Oh, I thought it cost something.”

Since launching in 2008, the Google Analytics dashboard has become a popular choice for marketing professionals who want to keep an eye on their website’s performance and analyze site traffic.

If you’re interested in implementing Google Analytics on your own website, you can learn more about the service here. Additionally, you can sign up for a free Google Analytics account here.

Why Should I Use Google Analytics?

There are several good reasons why you might want to implement Google Analytics on your own website.

One of the most popularly cited uses of Google Analytics is for website traffic measurement. As a website owner, you’ll want to know how many people are visiting your site and how often they’re visiting. You can use the Google Analytics dashboard to see these metrics in real-time.

Some marketers cite the ability to track user behavior as the primary reason they love Google Analytics. You can see the percentage of users who’ve visited a specific page or set of pages on your site. From there, you can determine whether or not those users stayed on that page or went on to another part of your site. You can then use that data to determine what other pages you should promote or change to fit the behavior of your ideal buyer.

Other marketer’s use Google Analytics for market research. Much like a focus group, you can use the visitor data to identify key points of interest and see how potential users react to various aspects of your product or service. You can use this information to make decisions about what to change or keep in your product or service and how to present it to users to maximize your chances of success.

How Do I Track My Blog’s Performance?

Once you’ve implemented Google Analytics on your web site, you can track the performance of your blog or website using the Analytics dashboard. To begin, click on the “Admin” link in the upper right-hand corner of any Google Analytics page.

From there, you’ll see your blog’s traffic and analytics dashboard. At the very least, you’ll see a graph showing the number of pageviews and unique visitors recorded by Google Analytics over a certain time period.

From this dashboard, you can click on any of the metrics listed under “Pages/” to see more information about that specific metric.

As you can see above, the pageviews and unique visitors recorded by Google Analytics for my blog, Shoshana’s Blog, over the past month are 16,638 and 9,345, respectively. To calculate the bounce rate for my blog, I divide the number of pageviews by the number of unique visitors and then multiply that number by 100.

So, if you’re looking for an easy way to track your blog’s performance, you can use the Google Analytics dashboard to easily see the number of times users have landed on each page and the total number of pageviews for each. Doing this makes it much easier to find outliers in your data and figure out which content is working and which content isn’t.

Is Google Analytics Safe To Use?

When I consult with clients and prospective users who ask me about Google Analytics safety, I always give them the same answer: “It’s completely safe to use and it’s highly recommended by most reputable SEO and digital marketing companies.”

Safer to use than most other analytics services, Google Analytics offers a variety of tools that can help you identify and solve issues with your website and blog. From the search box at the top of the Google Analytics dashboard, you can enter specific keywords and phrases to see search trends, or you can enter a URL to see the digital marketing performance of a particular page.

Additionally, you can use the Analytics API to access site-level data from a variety of platforms, including WordPress. With this data, you can get the number of times users have landed on a specific page, as well as the content they’ve interacted with and the products they’ve viewed while on that page.

So, if you’re wondering whether or not to use Google Analytics on your website, you can rest assured that it’s a safe bet. Plus, if you need a digital marketing tool that’s free, then it’s a no brainer that you should try out Google Analytics.