How To Install Google Analytics Into A WordPress Website

How To Install Google Analytics Into A WordPress Website

BIZ OWNERS

arnold on Oct 28, 2018

***Updated 11/04/2024***

This tutorial is going to show how to install Google Analytics into your WordPress website.

With Analytics we are able to learn a plethora of information about our websites. On a basic level, analytics will tell you how many people are visiting your site, how they found your website, how long they stayed, which content they viewed, where they are from, what devices that are using,  etc. There are thousands of different things that Google Analytics will tell you about your website.

Before we sign up for Google Analytics we are going to first install a plugin into our WordPress website. Plugins make it very easy for us to install different functionalities into our website without knowing how to code. Without the plugin we are installing today, we would have to insert code onto each page in our website. That wouldn’t be too hard on a single page website, but imagine if we were building a 10 or 20 page website. And what about an E-commerce website with thousands or products, each with their own page?

Sign Up For A Google Analytics Account

Sign up for a Google account if you do not have one. If you have Gmail then you have a Google account.  If you need a Google account then go to this link: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp  and get signed up.

Do not use your CSU email or email account.  It will cause you a lot of problems later in the semester.  Make sure you are using a @gmail.com  account.

Now go to: https://analytics.google.com/

Click Sign Up:

Signing Up For Google Analytics

Your account setup screen should look pretty close to the next screenshot. If you have other accounts set up you will see an “Organization Link” option which you would leave unchecked.  Enter your account name which can be the name of your website and then click NEXT. You can choose if you want to share info with Google or not.

Setting Up Google Analytics 4

 

Now we need to create a property.

What is a Property in Google Analytics 4? In Google Analytics 4, a “property” is like a bucket where all the information about your website or app is collected. It’s where you see how people are using your website or app, like what pages they visit or what buttons they click on. When you set up a property in Google Analytics, it’s like saying, “This is my website (or app), and I want to keep track of what happens on it.” Each property has its own special code that makes sure the right information goes into the right bucket.

Since I am setting up a website I will just put the URL as the property name. Switch the timezone to something relevant to your location. Set property name in Google Analytics 4

 

You may be asked to enter your industry and number of employees.   Fill this out however you want and click NEXT.

Number of employees in google analytics 4

 

Next pick some business objectives. These should be specific to your business but for some general objectives you can select the option to “Get Baseline Reports”

Select Baseline Reports In Google Analytics

 

You will need to accept their terms of use:

Accepting Google Analytics Terms Of Use

You should then see something like this where you can click skip for now:

Skip For Now

 

You will then see this screen where you can click to “Set Up Data Collection”

Set Up Data Collection Google Analytics 4

Since we are going to set up a website property you should click the WEB option below.

Set up website in google analytics 4

Now configure the property as shown below:

Setting up a stream in Google Analytics 4

You have now signed up for an Analytics Account. But we still need to link it to our websites so our websites can send data to our Analytics account. Luckily we have that plugin installed that will make this very easy.  You may see a screen pop up that suggests some different plugins.  Click on the “MonsterInsights Plugin” and it will expand.  Copy your tag ID. You may need this later. Once you have it copied go back to your website where you want to

 

 

Use The Monster Insights Plugin for GA4

How To Install The MonsterInsights Plugin in WordPress

The first thing we need to do is get logged into the dashboard of our websites.

We then need to go to the plugins page which we access from the left side of the tool bar where we will click “Add New”:

Adding New Plugins WordPRess

Installing The MonsterInsights Plugin

The plugin we are installing is called “Google Analytics For WordPress By MonsterInsights.”  We can find it easily by searching for the keyword “monster” on the top right. It should be the first plugin that comes up.  Please click “install now” and then click “activate

How To Install MonsterInsights Plugin

How To Install Google Analytics Using The MonsterInsights Plugin

Now that we have the plugin installed we will be able to easily install Google Analytics into our website.

After you click activate Launch the Monster Insights plugin by clicking INSIGHTS.

Monster Insights dashboard look

Then click LAUNCH SETUP WIZARD. (Sometimes the setup wizard does not launch.  If you see CONNECT MONSTER INSIGHTS then just click that and continue below.)

Launch the setup wizard Monster Insights

You will be taken to the following screen.  Click on “Business Website” and then “Save And Continue

Setting Up Monster Insights - Select Business Website

The click to “CONNECT MONSTERINSIGHTS”

Setting Up Monster Insights - Connect Monster Insights

Select the option to “Continue & Connect to Google”

Continue and connect to Google

 

You will be asked to select your analytics account.  Make sure you select the correct account. In the screenshot below I select my gmail account.

Setting Up Monster Insights - Select Which Gmail Account

You will then have to accept some permission to continue.  Click on ALLOW to continue as shown in the screenshot.

Setting Up Monster Insights - Accepting Permissions

You then need to select the correct analytics account.  If you have multiple accounts you will need to pick the correct account to link.  Once selected please click on “Complete Connection”

Select The Property You Want To Track

You will then have a few more steps to complete. On the next screen that pops up you can leave the options as is and select “Save and Continue”

Setting Up Monster Insights - Accepting More Permissions

 

If you get a box asking about which features to enable you can click skip for now.monster insights which features

 

monster insights which features skip for now

 

It will then give you a screen saying everything is set up.  At the bottom you can click COMPLETE SETUP WITHOUT UPGRADING

Awesome tracking and analytics are set up

Awesome tracking and analytics are set up complete setup

 

You will know it worked correctly if you see the Congratulations message and your website profile on the next screen as shown below.

Monster insights analytics installed correctly

 

 

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