Aah, data, the holy grail of digital marketing. While it excites some people and terrifies others, data and digital marketing go hand-in-hand like any powerful duo – Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Kristen Bell, and Dax Shepard. You get the idea.
When it comes to data, Google Analytics packs a real punch. You can turn your website into a compelling platform with the right tools, strategy, and expertise.
This article looks at some of the best Google Analytics plugins for WordPress. Before we do, though, let’s first unpack what Google Analytics is.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics helps you better understand how visitors interact with your website as a web analytics tool. It can track things like what pages people visit, how long they stay on each page, and what actions they take while they’re there.
This information can improve the user experience on your website and make sure that your marketing efforts are reaching your target audience. Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google, and it’s one of the most popular web analytics tools available today. Thus, if you’re not already using it, you should consider setting it up for your website.
Google recently launched Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a significant update to the platform. GA4 introduces several new features and changes, so you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version if you’re already using Google Analytics.
At its heart, Google Analytics tracks website data. Let’s look at why it is essential to track this data.
Why is it Important to Track Website Data?
As a business owner, you know it’s essential to track your website data. But do you know why? And more importantly, what data should you be monitoring? Let’s look at some crucial website data to track and explain why it’s so important.
- Get to Know Your Visitors Well and Enhance User Experience. If you want to get to know your visitors better. Then you need to track your website data. This data can give you insights into your visitors, where they come from, what they do on your site, etc. With this information, you can enhance the user experience on your site by catering to the needs and wants of your target audience.
- Know Your Best Content and Focus on It. You can also see which pieces of content are performing the best by tracking website data. Once you know what content resonates with your audience, you can focus on creating more of that type of content. This will help grow your business by attracting more visitors and keeping them engaged with your site.
- It Helps Your Site’s SEO. Website data can also be used to improve your site’s SEO. You can see which keywords drive traffic to your site and optimize your content accordingly by tracking the correct data. This will help you attract even more visitors from search engines like Google.
- Track Top Referrals and Build Strategies to Gain More of Them. Referral traffic is one of the most important types of traffic for any website. And by tracking referral data, you can see which websites are sending the most traffic your way. You can then build strategies to get more referral traffic from these top referrers with this information.
- Utilize Your Top Outbound Links as Partnership Opportunities. Finally, you can see which outbound links get the most clicks by tracking website data. These are the links that you should be utilizing as partnership opportunities. By reaching out to these websites and partnering with them, you can get more traffic and exposure for your business.
There are many other benefits of tracking website data, which we’ll save for another article.
Why Should you be Using Google Analytics to Track Data?
Google Analytics is an essential tool for any business that wants to make the most of its online presence, and it can be used to track data across multiple devices and channels.
There are many reasons you should use Google Analytics to track your website data. Here are just a few:
- You Can Get Detailed Information About Your Website Traffic. Google Analytics provides detailed information about where your website traffic is coming from, what pages they’re visiting, how long they’re staying on your site, etc. This valuable data can help you understand what’s working well on your site and what areas need improvement.
- You Can Track Conversions And Goal Completions. If you’re selling products or services online, it’s vital to track how many visitors complete your desired actions (such as making a purchase or filling out a contact form). Google Analytics lets you set up conversion tracking to see which marketing efforts result in sales and leads.
- You Can Segment Your Data. Google Analytics allows you to segment your website data in various ways, including geographic location, device type, traffic source, etc. This makes it easy to tailor your marketing efforts to specific groups of users and see how they’re responding.
- You Can Create Custom Reports. Google Analytics lets you create custom reports that show the most critical data to you. This is a great way to get quick, easy access to the information you need to make informed decisions about your website and marketing campaigns.
- You Can Use Google Analytics Data To Improve Your Paid Search Campaigns. If you’re running paid search ads, Google Analytics can be a valuable tool for tracking their performance. By linking your Google AdWords account to Analytics, you can see how your ads perform in clicks, conversions, etc. This data can help you refine your paid search campaigns to be more effective and efficient.
Overall, Google Analytics is a potent tool that every business should be used to track its website data. By taking advantage of all that Analytics offers, you can gain valuable insights into your website traffic, conversions, and marketing campaigns.
Now that you understand what Google Analytics is and why tracking data is so important, let’s look at some of the best WordPress plugins for Google Analytics.
How to Create a Google Analytics Account
Creating a Google Analytics account is very easy if you follow these simple steps:
- Firstly, you need to have a Gmail account.
- Go to the Google Analytics website and click on “Start measuring.”
- Enter your account information. You will need to provide your website name, URL, and time zone.
- Next, you need to accept the terms and conditions.
- Finally, click on “Create Account.”
And that’s it! You will have successfully created your own Google Analytics account in just a few minutes.
Once you make the analytics account, a unique tracking code will be assigned to your property. It will look like UA-XXXXXXXX-XX or G-XXXXXXXXXX (with numbers instead of X). We will need to use it with the plugins listed in the next section.
Best Google Analytics Plugins for WordPress
There are plenty of WordPress plugins to consider regarding Google Analytics. There are so many that you can spend ages trying to work out which of them are the best and which are the most relevant for your business.
The good news is that we’ve done this work for you. Here, we look at the eight best WordPress plugins for Google Analytics.
Setting up the plugins is a relatively easy and similar process for all. We will need to use the Google Analytics UA code generated in the first section.
1. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is rated one of the Best WordPress Plugins for Google Analytics. It easily tracks data across your website and is packed with features.
Here are just a few of the features:
- It gives you details reports outlining your website visitor’s gender, device, country, and more
- You’ll be able to see how users found your website. It shows what keywords they searched to arrive at your site, if and who referred them, and how they interacted on your website.
- It integrates with GA4 as well as Universal Analytics (the older version)
- You can track form submissions and view them with the Forms addon. It even gives you a form conversion rate
- You can ensure your site is EU-compliant as it integrates with the other GDPR plugins
- You can track how many times a file was downloaded with a download tracking feature
It has plenty of other features which make it a favorite for many businesses.
Cost: Free, with a premium version starting at $99.50 per year ($4.99 from us).
2. Beehive
Beehive is a detail-oriented plugin that was craftily developed by the great team of WPMUDEV.
The collected data will be displayed in a beautiful and easy-to-read dashboard to help you understand the necessary actions to improve your website.
Some of the critical features of Beehive:
- Quick and easy Google Analytics connection
- Google Tag Manager integration
- Customize data and dashboards to suit
- Multisite analytics reports
- Monitor posts, pages, and referring links
- Track personal data and comply with GDPR
Cost: Free or pro. The pro version starts at $60 a year ($4.99 from us).
3. ExactMetrics
ExactMetrics is a powerful Google Analytics plugin that makes it easy to collect the data you need and view valuable reports.
The free version of this plugin gives you detailed insights into your website traffic, including:
- Referral traffic sources
- Keywords people used to find your site
- Average session duration
- Bounce rate
- Pages per session
- and more.
It also includes Google AMP support to track the activity on Accelerated Mobile Pages and an integrations add-on so you can link up with popular plugins like WooCommerce, bbPress, and Easy Digital Downloads.
Cost: Free or pro. The pro version starts at $99.5 a year.
4. Analytify
Analytify is a popular freemium Google Analytics plugin that makes it easy to view your analytics reports inside your WordPress dashboard.
The free version of the plugin includes features like:
- View stats for individual posts and pages
- Google Analytics tracking code validation
- Real-time stat display in the admin bar
- Detailed statistics inside your WordPress dashboard
- E-Commerce tracking for WooCommerce stores
Cost: The free version is available. The premium version starts at $59 per year ($4.99 here).
5. Google Analytics by 10Web
This one is simple, but it gets the job done for you. 10Web’s Google Analytics plugin is a comprehensive solution that allows you to collect the data you need and view valuable reports.
The plugin includes features like:
- Google Analytics tracking code validation
- Real-time stat display in the admin bar
- Detailed statistics inside your WordPress dashboard
- E-Commerce tracking for WooCommerce stores
- Let’s you send automated email reports
Cost: It’s free, but the basic pro version starts at $85 for six months.
6. WP Statistics
This is another excellent free Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It includes features like:
- Google Analytics tracking code validation
- Real-time stat display in the admin bar
- Detailed statistics inside your WordPress dashboard
- E-Commerce tracking for WooCommerce stores
- Let’s you send automated email reports
Cost: Free, but you can buy statistics add-ons based on your needs.
7. GA Google Analytics
This lightweight and GDPR-compliant WordPress plugin is simple but effective. The GA Google Analytics plugin allows you to collect the data you need and view its valuable reports.
The plugin includes features like:
- You can get the correct information on the exemplary visitors as it disables tracking of admin-level users
- The tracking code can be customized
- You can configure multiple tracking codes
- With this plugin, you can display an Opt-Out Box automatically, or you can do so via shortcode
- You’ll enjoy priority plugin help and support
Cost: Free, with a premium version that starts at $10.
8. WP Google Analytics Events
This plugin is designed to help you track events on your WordPress site using Google Analytics. When users click on certain parts of your site or scroll to a specific area, the plugin enables you to send events to Google Analytics. Think about buttons or Ajax submit forms, for example).
The plugin includes features like:
- Track button clicks, link clicks, form submissions, and more
- Configure what gets tracked and how it’s reported in Google Analytics
- Generate reports inside your WordPress dashboard
Cost: Free, with a premium version starting from $79 per year.
So there, you have it, our top eight WordPress plugins for Google Analytics.
How to choose the best Google Analytics plugin
All the plugins on our list are very similar and initially were developed to do the same thing: track your website’s data.
Some of the parameters to consider when choosing the right analytics plugin are:
- Easy-to-read dashboard.
- Provide you with actionable feedback based on your data.
- Include eCommerce (if you run a store).
- Exportable reports.
- Updated regularly.
- Affordable price (if you’re buying from the official websites).
Because every business and site owner requires a different kind of data, my best recommendation is to install some free versions and see which dashboard you like the most.
When you’re satisfied with the collected information, reports, and data, consider updating to the pro version of the selected plugin.
Conclusion
This article covered why it is so essential to track your website’s data and what are the best Google Analytics plugins for WordPress.
Leave us a comment and tell us which Google Analytics plugin is your preferred one.
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