Three Simple Steps to Add Google Analytics to WordPress Blog

Google Analytics provides detailed information about your websites visitors, such as how they found your site, what pages are most popular, and much more. With too many features to mention in one article we will provide a brief introduction, screenshots, and then directions to log into your analytics account.

Google Analytics gives you a closer look at your site’s performance

As a serious WordPress blogger who aspires to greatness, you really can’t afford to be without it. This article shows you how to add Google Analytics to WordPress with minimal fuss and very little effort.

Step One: Get a Google Analytics account

If you haven’t already signed up for analytics, you’ll need to venture over to Google and get hooked up with a free account. Don’t worry, it’s quick and painless.
Once you’ve completed the sign up process, you’ll be given a piece of JavaScript code. It looks like this:

This code allows Google to gather anonymous data on how your website is being used

Step Two: Add the Google Analytics code to your WordPress theme

To do this, you’ll need to open up the footer.php file of your WordPress theme. You can either use an FTP client to access your server, or edit your theme files directly from the WordPress dashboard. Your file editor is located under the ‘Appearance’ tab in the sidebar menu.

In the list of template files to the right of the text editor, find footer.php and open it. To add Google Analytics to WordPress, you now just need to copy and paste your code immediately before the closing </body> tag. Like so:

Make sure you save your footer.php file once you’ve pasted in the new code. Google Analytics should now be able to track every page of your WordPress site and provide you with that sweet juicy data.

Step Three: Double check that your analytics is working

To make sure that the script has installed correctly, go back to your Google Analytics home page and click the admin panel in the top right corner of the screen. Open the relevant account, and click the ‘tracking code’ panel. If the Tracking Status is ‘Receiving Data’, then you’ve successfully added Google Analytics to your WordPress site.

Alternatively, use a Google Analytics plugin

If you’re not comfortable hacking around in your WordPress template files, or you want to explore some additional options and functionality, you can also add Google Analytics to WordPress with the use of a plugin. These plugins will typically give you an interface in your WordPress dashboard where you can add the code directly, without having to delve into your theme files.

There are quite a few Google Analytics plugins to choose from, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend one over the others. Have a look for yourself in the WordPress plugin directory.

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