You probably already run Google Analytics on your blog so why not view some of that data inside WordPress?
If you’re not already using Google Analytics, you can sign up and use it for free. It’s the most common and one of the most powerful web analytics packages you can use. There are several plugins available to help view this data inside your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
WP Engine Content Performance Plugin
WP Engine offers the Content Performance plugin for Business-level plans and higher. This tool offers unique insights by bringing data from Google Analytics into WordPress. Content Performance cross-references information like unique page views, user sessions, and bounce rate, and compares how different categories, authors, or posts and pages stack up. The Content Performance plugin allows you to:
- Optimize content relevance to increase audience engagement, conversion, and revenue partnerships.
- Plan your content calendar by understanding which topics are getting traction or require a refresh.
- Improve call to action for high-performing content to drive signups or conversions.
- Repurpose popular content and categories into ebooks or whitepapers.
- Improve content for posts with high bounce rates.
- Adjust author assignments based on user page views or engagement levels.
- Track overall performance/growth of your publication over time.
Content Performance is an invaluable tool to help inform your site’s content strategy. Read About Content Performance for more information.
You can use the Configuring Content Performance article for more help getting the Content Performance plugin setup on your site.
Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin
If you use Google Analytics, you can also use the Analytics Dashboard plugin to help view Google Analytics data in WordPress. The free Analytics Dashboard plugin gives you:
- Blog overview statistics on your WordPress home page
- Per-post and per-page statistics on those listing pages
Head over to the plugins area:
Then click on “Add New” near the top of the screen:
Then search for the plugin, e.g. “analytics dashboard”:
Find the “Google Analytics Dashboard” entry in the search results (which at the time of this writing is the first result), and click “Install Now”:
This is the confusing part, because although now you have the plugin, it’s not activated yet, which means it’s not actually installed and running. I know! But this is the way of WordPress. So the next step is to “Activate” the plugin, which makes it live:
Next you have to configure the plugin to be able to access your Google Analytics account. To do that, find the plugin’s admin options link under “Settings”:
There you’re prompted for your Google Analytics username and password. You’ll probably also want to check the “Save my Password” box.
Save, then follow the on-screen instructions.
Now you’re done! You’ll see a nice site overview on your WordPress dashboard and nifty statistics on each of your posts and pages.