How to use Google Analytics with WordPress

This article discusses several ways you can use Google Analytics with a WordPress site.

Adding Google Analytics to WordPress

Google Analytics provides detailed statistics about visitor traffic to your site. To use Google Analytics with WordPress (or with any other type of site), you must first sign up for a Google Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics and obtain a unique Tracking ID.

After you have set up a Google Analytics account and have the Tracking ID for your site, you can configure it for WordPress. There are two ways to do this:

• Use a WordPress plugin.
• Edit the WordPress theme.

Method #1: Use a plugin

There are numerous plugins that enable you to configure Google Analytics for a WordPress site, and they all function in essentially the same way—all you have to do is specify your Tracking ID, and the plugin takes care of the rest.

Here are some popular Google Analytics plugins for WordPress:

• Google Analytics for WordPress
• Google Analyticator
• Google Analytics

Method #2: Edit the theme

Plugins are convenient, but they also carry processing overhead with them that can affect site performance. If you prefer not to use a plugin, you can edit the WordPress theme directly to enable Google Analytics.

To enable Google Analytics by editing the theme, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account, click Admin, click Tracking Info, and then click Tracking Code. Copy the entire text in the tracking code box, including the starting <script> tag and the ending </script> tag.
2. Log in to WordPress as the administrator.
3. Under Dashboard, click Appearance, and then click Editor. The Edit Themes page appears.
4. Under Templates, click Header (header.php).
5. Locate the ending </head> tag. Just above the </head> tag, paste the Tracking ID code snippet from Google Analytics that you obtained in step 1.
   Make sure you include the starting <script> tag and the ending </script> tag.
6. Click Update File. Google Analytics is now enabled for all pages on your WordPress site.
   It can take up to 24 hours for Google Analytics to change its status from Tracking Not Installed to Receiving Data.

More Information

For more information about Google Analytics, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics.