HW9 WordPress & Google Analytics

Transcription

1 HW9 WordPress & Google Analytics MSCI:3400 Data Communications Due Monday, December 14, 8:00am Late submissions will not be accepted. In this individual assignment you will purchase and configure a DNS domain and a VPS (virtual private server). On the server you will install and configure a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySql, and PHP). You will then install and configure WordPress (popular content management system) and Google Analytics to learn about your visitors. Purchase a DNS domain for 1 year ~$12 For this assignment I would suggest purchasing your domain from GoDaddy, but you could use any domain registrar you choose. I would also suggest getting the privacy protection. You will be prompted to create an account for the Domains by Proxy. This step is not covered in the video.

2 Purchase a VPS for 1 month ~$5 For this assignment you will need to purchase a virtual private server (VPS) instance from Digital Ocean. A. Visit and create an account. Verify your account . B. Update Billing and add a credit card or PayPal under Manage Payments C. Create a Droplet. A Droplet is what Digital Ocean considers a VPS instance. Hostname: Select Size: HW9hawkid (ie. HW9Colbert) 512MB RAM, 1CPU, 20GB SDD, 1000GB Transfer ($5/month) Select Region: New York Select Image: Ubuntu x64 (64bit, Ubuntu LTS) D. Connect to the Droplet Download Putty and SSH into your VPS. SSH server is installed and configured by default. E. Initial Configuration of the Ubuntu Droplet F. Additional Configuration of the Ubuntu Droplet servers Install the LAMP stack LAMP is an acronym for: Linux (CentOS is installed so this is already done) Apache (web server) MySQL (database server) PHP (dynamic web programming language) G. How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Ubuntu

3 Connect your DNS domain to this VPS web server 1. Log in to GoDaddy. On the center menu, click Domains à Manage My Domains 2. When the Domains list opens, click into the domain you are using for this assignment. 3. On the Domain Details screen, click the DNS Zone File tab. 4. Edit A record. Change the IP address to the address of your VPS server it is found on the Droplets page after logging into Digital Ocean. Note: If you scroll down and look at your CNAME records, you can see ftp and www is the blank hostname A record. You can browse to and it will resolve to the IP address of you VPS server. Give if anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The goal is for you to type ( in a browser and have your web server s default page display.

4 Install and Configure WordPress H. How To Install WordPress on Ubuntu Custom permalinks (Which ones & why) 2. Install and activate a custom theme on your WordPress site. 3. Add three posts and 2 pages to your WordPress site. 4. Install and activate the plugin - Google Analytics by Yoast. 5. Delete the Hello Dolly plugin and the Akismet plugin. 6. Sign up for a Google Analytics account (analytics.google.com) a. Track a Website b. Account Name: c. Website Name: d. Website URL: e. Industry: Other f. Reporting Time Zone: Central Time (GMT-06:00) Get your Tracking ID 7. Go back to the plugin - Google Analytics by Yoast a. Put the tracking ID from your Google Analytics account into the Yoast plugin. 8. Allow hours for the tracking to activate. While you are waiting, you can add a few posts or pages. 9. Using social media, try to drive traffic to different web pages on your web site. It typically take 24 hours or so, after a visit, for Analytics to start displaying your site statistics. You must have more than 15 unique visitors. a. Review your statistics. i. What city/state did you have traffic? ii. How many visits did each of your web pages generate? iii. What is the most common browser visiting your web site?

5 Deliverables 1) Take three screenshots of the three different statistics listed above and post the three as images into a WordPress post. 2) Send me an letting me know you are ready for me to grade your assignment. Include your domain name. 3) I will visit your site, running on your Digital Ocean VPS, using your domain name, view your WP theme, and review your Google Analytics post to see your site statistics.