1 Installing Google Analytics On Your WordPress Website A Comprehensive How-To For Business Owners To Better Inform Your SEO and Marketing Strategy this complimentary offering from Mongo LLC SEO Analysis, Pay-Per-Click Campaigns & Reputation Marketing Solutions www.mon-go.com
2 Our Overall Agenda 1. Learn what Google Analytics is. 2. See why Google Analytics is important. 3. Set up and investigate Google Analytics. 4. Identify and avoid some common mistakes. 5. Yoast, and why you should use it. Dear Colleague, Client or Friend,
3 The notes in this document were taken from a podcast appearance I made in May of 2015 with Talmar It Up LLC. Please give it a listen at www.businesssideofbiz.com. Listeners to the podcast are eligible for one free month of Reputation Monitoring services with a 6-month min. contract. Contact us via our form at Mon-Go.com with the code 'Talmar'. I am ready to assist your business in maximizing its Internet marketing potential. Your call is welcome via Skype at MongoLLC, or phone at (571) 386-4-SEO. Yours Truly, Mimi Davidson Founder & SEO Expert Mongo LLs
4 1. What is Google Analytics? It is a service of web analytics, offered by Google on a freemium basis. By web analytics, we generally refer to the tracking and reporting of website traffic, which is of paramount importance when performing a thorough and useful analysis of a website's marketing impact 1. Google Analytics is now the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet. Simply put, it is a must-have for every business website. Knowing how your audience interacts with your website is crucial for your success. The best way to know your audience is through your traffic stats and this is what Google Analytics can tell you for free. 2. Why is Google Analytics important? Because it can tell you who visits your site, where they come from, what they do once they get there, and a whole host of highly useful data provided by Google Analytics to you, the business owner.
5 Who visits your site? This part of analytics covers what the geographical location of your audience is, which browser they used to visit your site and many other important information like: screen resolution, JavaScript support, Flash support, language and more. This data is extremely useful, and it can help in numerous ways. You can use the user data to make sure that your site will be compatible with your audience. For instance, if most of your users are on 1280 screen resolutions, then you ll want to make sure that your site is compatible with that resolution or smaller. What do they do when they're on your website? You can track where the user/customer is going on your website, how long they stay on your website, and what the bounce rate is (the percent of users that exit your site on the first visit). Bounce rates could mean the following; a. your site isn t optimized for SEO b. not good-quality content low-quality pages c. your user experience isn t good
6 By using this information, you can make efforts to decrease the bounce rate and increase the engagement with your audience on your site. You should: 1. make sure your site is SEO-optimized 2. use tags and metadata 3. have quality content When do they visit your website? By looking at the peak hours in the day for your site, you might choose to publish any posts for your site at that time. If that time zone is not compatible with yours, then you can schedule your post to meet that time frame. How do they get to your website? This section of Google Analytics shows where your prospect came from (search engines, direct links, referral links from another site, etc.). It also shows you what percentage of your visitors came from each of these sources. Google Analytics gives you the breakdown of each of these categories. The breakdown of referral sources show you which sites you need to work with
7 the most. If your top referral source is Twitter, then you know that you need to include Twitter in your social media strategy. If your top referral source is an external website, then you might want to consider having a partnership with that website (link exchanges or something else). How do they interact with your site s content? Google Analytics shows how your users interacted with your site s content. It shows you what percentage of users clicked on which links, and much more. You can also run A/B split testing, creating content experiments to understand what content works best. By employing the tools of Google Analytics, you can develop a more keen sense of how your customers, clients and prospects are interacting with your website's content. You can use that sense to tailor your content to your users' preferences. This feedback allows you to focus on strategies that work for your site and eliminate those that don t work.
8 3a. How to install Google Analytics? Note: This guide has been designed with the needs of businessowners in mind. Therefore, the information presented herein covers aspects of Google Analytics important to the marketing goals of businessowners. Step 1: Create a Google Analytics account. To do this, visit Google Analytics Signup Page at http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html. You will see a screen like the one below. If you already have a Gmail account, then use that to sign-in with. If you do not have a Gmail account, then you would have to create an account for yourself.
9 Step 2: Once you have signed in with your Gmail account, you will be prompted to a screen like the one below. This is where you sign up for Google Analytics with your Gmail account.
10 Step 3: On the next screen, you will be given a choice between website or mobile app. Make sure website is selected. (Currently, Google is offering a Universal Access account, which is in beta and comes with extra features beyond those of a classic Google Analytics account. Either will work, but Universal Analytics has expanded metrics that relate specifically to mobile devices, so it s definitely the up-and-coming version. Consider going with that option but you can feel free to choose either of them. Even if you choose classic analytics, you will be upgraded to new features once they come out of beta.)
11 Then you ll enter some other basic information, such as your website s URL, account name (anything you want), country and time zone. Once you have entered this information, click on the Get Tracking ID button. You will be presented with the Terms & Service documentation of Google Analytics. It is compulsory to agree to these terms in order to use the service, so click the I Agree button. Step 4: Now you will be presented with Google Analytics tracking code. Copy this tracking code because you will need to enter it in your WordPress or other site. (Leave the Google Analytics browser tab open - you will need to revisit it after you've installed the code on your WordPress site.)
12 3b. How to install Google Analytics in WordPress? Three ways: direct paste funtions.php document in backend easy-to-use plugins (recommended)
13 Installing via Plugins There are many plugins available for a non-technical business owner to add Google Analytics to your site. I recommend Yoast for its SEO functions. INSTALLING GOOGLE ANALYTICS VIA YOAST PLUGIN CODE Log in to your WordPress website. From the menu on the left-hand side of the WordPress dashboard, click Plugins. You will see a list of any plugins already installed. Click 'Add New' and type 'yoast google analytics' in the search bar (as in below graphic), and search. This will give you a page of search results. The Yoast plugin 3 should be the first result. Click 'Install Now' to start installing the plugin, as shown below: 3
14 4 Click 'OK' on the popup: 5 After that, you will see the following screen. Click 'Activate Plugin':
15 Once you've successfully installed the Yoast plugin for Google Analytics on the WordPress backend for your business website, you'll need to set up some basics. 6 There should appear a link inside an WordPress message, near the top of the dashboard window (as shown below). Use that to get to the basic setup page.
16 7 Next, it's time to authenticate with Google.
17 8 If you're not logged in with your Google Account, you'll have to do that first. Once logged in, the following window appears. Click Accept to allow our plugin
18 to connect to Google Analytics. 9 If you clicked Accept, copy the generated key. 10 Paste the key and press Enter.
19 11 Select the right profile for your website.
20 You have the option to allow the plugin to track anonymous data. This permits Yoast to get info needed to improve their plugin. I believe this is a safe choice to make. 12 Save your changes to finish the installation of the Yoast plugin for Google Analytics.
21 Installing via Direct Paste Copy the code that you received in Step 4, and paste it in your WordPress theme s header.php right after the <body> tag. Installing via functions.php (Warning: Suggested only for the technically advanced) Add the following code in your WordPress theme s functions.php file, also including your Google Analytics code. You should be familiar with how to
22 correctly paste snippets from the web into your site s code. 1 <?php 2 add_action('wp_footer', 'add_googleanalytics'); 3 function add_googleanalytics() {?> 4 // Paste your Google Analytics code from Step 4 here 5 <?php }?> Once you have installed Google Analytics on your site, go back to the screen from the earlier step and click Save. It generally takes Google about 12 to 24 hours to start accumulating numbers on your website and providing the highly useful stats you need, in order to get the most from your web presence. Click the Reporting tab to see your site s analytics overview. 2
23 That's it. It's done. You've now successfully installed Google Analytics, and you now have the power to monitor and analyze the traffic that comes to and through your business's website. For more assistance or a deeper consultation about Google Analytics, selfhosting a website or blog, making your business website more SEO-friendly or getting the most from your investment in your business's on-line presence, please reach out to the website optimization experts of Mongo LLC. Phone: 571-386-4-SEO Skype: MongoLLC Web: www.mon-go.com Email: info@mon-go.com
24 References: 1 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/web_analytics 2 WPBeginner: http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-install-google-analytics-in-wordpress/ 3 Yoast: http://kb.yoast.com/article/118-installation-guide-for-google-analytics-for-wordpress