How to Set Up Google Analytics for WordPress Websites 

Do you want to set up Google Analytics for your WordPress website? Knowing why people visit your site and use your content is crucial for increasing your traffic and subscribers.

Analyzing your site’s statistics is the easiest way to learn more about your audience. The Google Analytics tool lets you do that for free.

This article will share why website analytics are important and how to set up Google Analytics in WordPress step-by-step.

In the end, Google Analytics gives you all the information you need to make the right decisions to grow your business, with advanced options to test and optimize your site.

We’ll explain how you can sign up for Google Analytics before showing you how to set up Google on your website.

How Do I Get Google Analytics?

Before you learn how to set up Google Analytics on your WordPress website, you need to sign up for a Google Analytics account. Follow the steps below to learn how.

Step 1: Visit the Google Analytics Homepage

First, go to the Google Analytics homepage to sign up.

You’ll then see a popup where you can use your Gmail credentials to sign in if you already have a Google account.

Otherwise, click the Create Account button to start a new account.

Next, you’ll see a welcome with an overview of what an analytics account can do for your business. Click the Set up for free button to get started.

Step 2: Enter Your Account Details

The next screen asks you to enter an account name and choose your Account Data Sharing Settings. Click your preferred settings and click Next.

On the next screen, you can choose between adding:

• Website
• App
• App and website

Choose the Website option and click Next.

Step 3: Enter Your Website Details

The next page is where you can create a Google Analytics property and enter the details for your sites, such as your property name, website URL, reporting time zone, and currency. You can track more than one website in Google’s analytics dashboard and pick a name appropriate for each site.

Then, toggle the “Create a Universal Analytics Property” option to the ‘On’ position.

You also need to click the checkbox next to the heading “Create a Universal Analytics property only.” Otherwise, you may face issues connecting to MonsterInsights, which we’ll show you how to do later.

Now click Next.

Next, you’ll have to accept and agree to Google’s terms and conditions. So click, I Accept to move on.

Step 4: Copy Your Google Analytics Tracking Code

After that, you’ll see a screen with your Google Analytics Tracking ID and tracking code. Go ahead and copy your tracking code, as you’ll need to add it to your website, depending on which method you use below.

It’s a good idea to leave this page open in your web browser, as you may need to refer to it once you’ve installed the Google Analytics code on your website.

Now that you’ve set up your Google Analytics account let’s look at how to add Google Analytics to your website.

How Do I Add Google Analytics to my WordPress Website?

There are several ways to add Google Analytics to your WordPress website. Below we’ll show you 5 different methods. The first method involves using a Google Analytics WordPress plugin, while the last is more difficult to achieve for beginners.

You’ll only need to use one of these methods to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

Method 1: Set Up Google Analytics in WordPress with MonsterInsights

We’ll use a plugin to set up your tracking information for the first method. MonsterInsights is the best WordPress Google Analytics plugin and the easiest way to add Google Analytics to WordPress for beginners and experts.

MonsterInsights is super easy to use, and it only takes minutes to set up Google Analytics on your WordPress website. This powerful analytics plugin also has heaps of advantages over manual methods, including:

• WordPress analytics reporting: Actionable website data and insights within the WordPress dashboard
• eCommerce tracking: Set up tracking for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, and MemberPress with 1 click
• Affiliate tracking: Use Google Analytics reports in MonsterInsights to find out which affiliate links are getting the most clicks to maximize your revenue
• Google AdSense tracking: Easily see who’s clicking your ads
• Download monitoring: See how many downloads your files are getting with custom reports
• Author stats: Find out traffic and engagement statistics for each author on your blog
• Advanced Tracking: with optional Addons
• Dual Tracking: Connect to Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) simultaneously.

And you can do all this without knowing or understanding how to code, which can be tricky for small business owners.

Note: MonsterInsights used to be known as Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast. WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi, acquired the plugin in 2016 and changed it to MonsterInsights. Now it’s part of their family of premium WordPress plugins.

Follow these simple step-by-step instructions to set up Google Analytics in WordPress with MonsterInsights.

Note: There is a free version and a paid version of MonsterInsights. For this guide, we’ll be using the paid version.

Step 1: Download and Install MonsterInsights

You can download the Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights here if you haven’t already done so. Then save it to your computer and install and activate the plugin.

Install the MonsterInsights plugin by navigating to Plugins » Add New from your WordPress dashboard. Then click Choose Now to find the plugin .zip file on your computer and Install Now.

When you purchase your copy, you will have received a license key that you can view in your MonsterInsights account area.

Copy that key and add it to WordPress’s blank License Key area. Then click Verify.

Step 2: Connect MonsterInsights

Once your license is verified, scroll further down the page where you’ll see 2 options labeled:

1. Connect MonsterInsights
2. Launch Setup Wizard

For this step, you’ll need to click the Connect MonsterInsights option.

After this, you’ll go to another page where you can authenticate your Google account. Then you’ll see a message from MonsterInsights asking permission to access your account.

To provide access, go ahead and click the Allow button.

You can select the website you want to collect data for on the next page from the dropdown menu.

To complete the process, click on the Complete Connection button, and that’s it.

If you have both a Universal Analytics property and a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property, you can also set up dual tracking with MonsterInsights.

Go to the main Settings page, scroll down to Google Authentication, and find the Dual Tracking Profile box to set up dual tracking.

Enter your Universal Analytics Tracking ID or your GA4 Measurement ID, whichever one you didn’t authenticate in the setup wizard.

Step 3: View Your Google Analytics Reports in WordPress

Now you can check Google Analytics reports directly on your WordPress dashboard.

To do this, click on Insights » Reports from within the WordPress admin area. You’ll then see the reports right on your screen.

And if you scroll down your page, you can view more details, including your top referrals, top posts and pages, top countries, bounce rate, and more.

There’s no more logging into other websites to view your stats now. Instead, the information you need to track visitors and make informed decisions about your site is all on your dashboard.

For Google Analytics to start tracking your website visitors, you’ll need to add the code above to every website page. Here are some different methods to help you set up Google Analytics manually.

Method 2: Add Google Analytics to Website with Headers & Footers Plugin

The following method isn’t as useful as MonsterInsights because you can’t use advanced tracking and see your analytics data in your WordPress dashboard.

First, copy the analytics tracking code you saved when setting up your analytics account.

Then install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin on your website.

After activating the plugin, navigate to Settings » Insert Headers and Footers from your WordPress dashboard. Then in the Scripts in Header section, paste your Google Analytics tracking code.

Finally, click the Save button. Now you’ve successfully added Google Analytics to your website!

Method 3: Set Up Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a tag management system (TMS) that lets you manage different tags on your website. It also helps you deploy different code types, like your Google Analytics tracking code, without having to edit your website.

Follow these simple steps to add Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager to your WordPress site.

Step 1: Create a Google Tag Manager Account

First, you need to sign up for Google Tag Manager and create a new account by entering an Account Name.

Now move on to the Container Setup. Enter your Container Name and your website, and select Web as your Target Platform.

Click Create to continue.

Now click yes to agree to Google Tag Manager’s Terms of Service. Then you’ll receive the tracking codes to add to your website.

Step 2: Add the Tag Manager Snippet to Your Header

The next step is simple. Copy and paste the code snippet into your header.php file in WordPress.

To do this, follow the steps we explained in Method 1.

Step 3: Add a New Tag in Google Tag Manager

To get Google Analytics connected to Google Tag Manager, start by clicking New Tag.

You can rename your tag if you’d like to, and click the Tag Configuration icon to choose your tag type.

Then choose Google Analytics: Universal Analytics.

You’ll have to enter your Tracking ID, which we explained how to find earlier, and your Tracking Type.

For this example, let’s choose the Pageview tracking type.

Now, click the icon under the Triggering section to open up the settings.

You’ll need to choose the All Pages page view for adding Google Analytics.

Now click Save, and you’re done!

This method is for users familiar with editing their site’s code. However, it’s an unreliable solution because the tracking code goes in your WordPress theme header. You’ll lose the changes you make if you update your WordPress theme.

First, you’ll need to copy your analytics tracking code and add the code to your theme files. There are 2 ways to do this, which we’ll highlight next.

But before you try these methods, you must make sure you’re using a WordPress child theme to make these changes. Otherwise, when you update your parent theme, you could overwrite your tracking info, resulting in your global site tag (gtag.js) being removed from your site.

Method 4: Add the Analytics Code in Your header.php File

To do this, you need to find the header HTML section of your site. In WordPress, this is your themes header.php file; you can find it by going to Appearance » Theme Editor.

Then scroll through the files until you find the right one and click to open and edit it.

Paste your Google Analytics tracking code into the file right before the closing </head> bracket, as shown below.

Then click Update File, and you’re done!

Method 5: Add the Google Analytics Tracking ID to functions.php

Another way to set up Google Analytics in WordPress without a plugin is to use the functions file. This will add your tracking id to every page of your website.

To find where to place your Google Analytics tracking code, locate your theme’s functions.php file. You can find it by navigating to Appearance » Editor from the WordPress dashboard.

Then scroll through your theme files until you locate the one labeled functions.php, which is your Theme Functions.

Then add the following code snippet into the file using your tracking ID.

<?php

add_action('wp_head', 'sp_add_googleanalytics');

function

sp_add_googleanalytics() { ?> 

// Paste your Google Analytics tracking code from Step 4 here 

<?php } ?>

Click Update File when you’re finished, and Google Analytics should start working immediately.

How to View Your Google Analytics Reports

Now that you know how to connect Google Analytics to WordPress, you can start checking your data.

However, it takes Google time to collect and report the information through the Google Analytics dashboard.

So wait for at least 48 hours before looking at the collected Google Analytics data.

Once the waiting period is over, you can check your Google Analytics data by going to analytics.google.com. Then, you can even get a glimpse of your real-time stats, which you can use as part of your SEO strategy.

Some of the information you can gather includes:

• Demographics – The age and gender of your audience
• Geographics – Visitor languages, locations, and time zone
• Behavior – New vs. returning visitors, frequency, engagement, and conversions
• Search Console – Learn what people are typing into Google to find your site

But if you’ve used the manual method, you won’t be able to see any stats in WordPress. We suggest using method 1 to connect Google Analytics to WordPress with MonsterInsights.

That’s it!

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up Google Analytics in WordPress easily.

If you liked this tutorial, you might want to check out our guide on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode so you can hide your site while making updates. And if you’d like to know how to add a contact form to WordPress, take a look at this tutorial.

Thanks for reading. Please follow us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more helpful content to grow your business.