How to Track WordPress Category and Tag Analytics the Easy Way in 2023

Want to unlock more traffic from your WordPress site‘s overlooked category and tag pages?

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll explain why tracking category and tag analytics is crucial — backed by latest industry research. Then I‘ll give you an easy, step-by-step walkthrough for setting up tracking in MonsterInsights.

You‘ll learn how to:

• Connect MonsterInsights and Google Analytics
• Configure custom dimensions
• View actionable category and tag reports
• Optimize categories and tags for more organic traffic

Let‘s dive in!

Why You Must Track Category and Tag Performance

Categories and tags organize your content into topics. They aggregate related posts onto dedicated archive pages.

These pages can attract search traffic too if you optimize properly. But most website analytics platforms only showcase data on your regular pages and posts.

Without visibility into categories and tags, you‘re missing key opportunities in your content strategy and SEO.

Significant Traffic Source

Well-optimized category and tag pages can drive over 18% of search traffic, according to Moz‘s latest correlation data:

And Backlinko found categories ranking on the 1st SERP results page 9% of the time.

Clearly category and tag pages attract decent search volume. But without tracking, you‘re missing out on optimizing for more traffic.

Spot Content Gaps

Seeing top categories and tags also reveals gaps in your content strategy.

If a tag ranks well but has a small number of posts, that signals readers want more content on that specific topic.

Guide SEO Priorities

Analytics can showcase categories and tags that underperform compared to their potential.

This helps you double down on the right SEO opportunities to grow organic reach. After optimizing, you can track the impact with numbers.

Improve Architecture

Over time, analytics exposes wasteful categories not driving any traffic. You can eliminate or merge them to streamline your site‘s IA.

Step-by-Step Guide to Tracking WordPress Categories and Tags

Now that you know why tracking category and tag analytics is crucial, let‘s get you set up the easy way using MonsterInsights.

Install MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics integration for WordPress sites with over 2 million active installs.

First, install and activate MonsterInsights from the WordPress plugins directory like any other plugin.

Tip: I recommend the MonsterInsights Pro plan which unlocks advanced tracking functionality and custom dimensions used later.

Next, navigate to Insights > Settings:

And launch the Setup Wizard to securely connect your Analytics account. Grant access following the straightforward prompts.

Set Up Custom Dimensions

The key to tracking categories and tags lies in MonsterInsights‘ custom dimensions functionality. This maps custom traffic data points into Analytics.

Within MonsterInsights, head to Insights > Addons and install the Dimensions addon:

Great! Now navigate to Insights > Settings > Conversions > Custom Dimensions and create new entries for Category and Tags tracking:

Save your changes.

Tip: Make sure to match the exact names Category and Tags for integration with Analytics next.

Match Settings in Google Analytics

The last setup step is matching the custom dimensions in your Google Analytics account.

Under Admin > Custom Definitions, enable new custom dimensions named Category and Tags:

Double check that the indexes match between MonsterInsights and Analytics:

Now Analytics will receive the category and tag traffic data from WordPress.

View Category and Tag Reports

Give your site a few days to populate data reports. Then navigate to Insights > Reporting and select Dimensions.

You‘ll see top categories, tags, pageviews, and other insightful stats:

Use these numbers to guide your optimization efforts for bigger wins.

See low-traffic categories? Merge or remove them. Popular tags? Write more content around those topics.

The tracking unlocks a world of potential growth.

Optimize Categories and Tags for More Traffic

I hope you‘re now set up to unlock the analytics insights hidden within your WordPress site‘s categories and tags using MonsterInsights.

Here are my top 3 optimization tips based on the reports:

• Merge underperforming categories: Combine small categories into related bigger ones for consolidated authority.
• Interlink related posts: Link relevant posts within high-traffic categories together for improved crawlability.
• Create content around popular tags: Write new posts targeting tags with strong performance to maximize interest.

Dedicating efforts towards improving categories and tags can result in a notable traffic increase over time. Measure your progress with the numbers!

Let me know if you have any other questions tracking your WordPress site‘s category and tag performance!