Want a bird‘s eye view of your website‘s performance?
Adding an analytics dashboard to WordPress allows you to monitor important metrics directly from your admin dashboard.
In this in-depth guide, we‘ll show you how to easily add website statistics tracking in WordPress using MonsterInsights.
Why You Need Website Analytics in WordPress
Let‘s first understand why analytics visibility is crucial for your WordPress site:
Spot Trends and Optimize Site Content
Analytics helps you identify popular posts and categories over time. For example, you can see pages getting consistent traffic versus ones need improvement.
This allows you to double down on what converts and enhance or remove underperforming content.
Increase Returning Visitors
According to statistics from Neil Patel, 40% of website visitors will return to a site if there‘s new and updated content.
An analytics dashboard that tracks returning visitors helps you understand if site visitors are coming back.
Identify Top Referral Traffic Sources
By seeing your top referrers in WordPress, you can focus efforts on sources sending quality users.
For example, you can guest post on websites driving conversions or partner with influencers matching your audience.
Improve User Experience
Analytics provides behaviour flow reports that reveal usability pain points. For instance, you can see high exit pages that need enhancement.
Addressing user experience issues through analytics leads to stickier site engagement.
There are many other ways detailed analytics informs smart optimization. Simply put, not monitoring website metrics leaves you flying blind.
WordPress Plugins for Website Analytics
When it comes to adding analytics tracking in WordPress, you have a few options:
- Manually insert analytics code
- Use a basic analytics plugin
- Leverage an intelligence plugin like MonsterInsights
Here is a comparison between different methods:
| Method | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Plugin | – Quick setup – Free | – Limited reporting – No customization |
| Manual Insert | – Free | – Requires coding skills – Tracking issues |
| MonsterInsights | – Beautiful reports – Customizable – Support team | – Paid plans (worth the investment) |
We recommend MonsterInsights because it effortlessly connects your WordPress site with Google Analytics and places beautiful, easy-to-understand reporting directly in your dashboard.
Plus, MonsterInsights integrates with popular WordPress plugins, enhances data accuracy, and provides superior support.
Now let‘s see how to properly set it up.
How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress
The first step is installing and activating the MonsterInsights plugin:
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New
- Search for MonsterInsights and click Install Now
- Activate the plugin
- A welcome screen appears – click Launch the Wizard
Next, follow the setup wizard to connect MonsterInsights to your Google Analytics account.
The process takes just minutes and handles the technical stuff behind the scenes.
Once connected, MonsterInsights will begin tracking analytics data and displaying reports in your WordPress dashboard.
Understanding the MonsterInsights Dashboard Widget
Your main MonsterInsights overview widget shows key metrics like:
- Sessions
- Pageviews
- Top pages
- Top referral sites
- New vs returning visitors
For example, over the last 30 days one site saw:
| Metric | Total | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 1,753 | 4.5% ▲ |
| Pageviews | 2,312 | 3.7% ▲ |
Glancing at the dashboard widget gives you an instant pulse on performance.
You can also expand the widget to see more in-depth analytics, like traffic channels driving conversions:
This allows assessing at a high-level if traffic levels are up or down.
Viewing Advanced Analytics Reports in WordPress
While the main dashboard widget provides top-level metrics, you can access advanced analytics reports directly in WordPress at Insights > Reports:
Overview Report
See traffic volumes, top pages, referrers, and content analytics over time. For example:
- Sessions graph over past 30 days
- Landing pages getting most traffic
- Demographic data on visitors
- Top traffic sources bringing visitors
Publishers Report
Get intelligence into your website content with publishers reporting:
- See which blog posts generate most traffic
- Identify categories and writers converting readers
- Find top-exit pages that need improvement
- Assess value of affiliate programs
eCommerce Report
For online stores, get analytics on:
- Sales volumes and revenues
- Top selling products
- Conversion funnels
- Engagement levels across site pages
And more! MonsterInsights eliminates needing to switch between tools to access essential site analytics.
Additional MonsterInsights Features
Beyond the reporting above, MonsterInsights has extra capabilities that level-up your analytics:
🔎 In-depth post and page insights
📊 Goal and conversion tracking
⚡ Performance suggestions
⏱️ Form and video analytics
✏️ Custom dimensions tracking
Plus:
- Google AMP integration
- Advanced ecommerce tracking
- Search console data
- Author tracking
- Customizable dashboard widget
- Notifications and email summarizes
MonsterInsights equips you with enterprise-grade analytics worth far more than the affordable price.
Get WordPress Analytics Supercharged with MonsterInsights
Understanding detailed analytics is no longer a luxury reserved only for experts. MonsterInsights makes robust reporting understandable for everyone.
You get the power to:
- Spot content optimization opportunities
- See traffic growth areas
- Improve site speed and engagement
- Boost conversions
Simply put, MonsterInsights gives you an informational advantage over the competition.
Stop guessing about your website‘s performance. Add MonsterInsights and unlock analytics superpowers today.
