In this post, I will show you how to track visitor conversions by installing Google Analytics on your WordPress website.
When you’re marketing your coaching business, it’s easy to feel like your content is going into a black hole.
Sure, sometimes the various social media platforms and other places you create content will give you some analytics you can examine.
But other marketing methods, like participating in in-person events or online summits, don’t give you any kind of metrics to track.
So how can you know what’s working in your marketing and what isn’t? How are people actually finding you?
That’s where Google Analytics comes in.
Why use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that makes it easy to track how many people are coming to your website, how long they’re hanging around, and where they’re coming from.
It answers questions like:
- How many visitors came to my website in the last month?
- How long did they spend on my blog or homepage?
- How engaged were they compared to the month before?
- Where did those visitors come from? (i.e. social, Google, or another website)
This makes it much easier to see which marketing channels are working for you.
For example, a lot of my website traffic comes from Google. That helps me know that my SEO strategy is working well, and is a channel I probably want to keep putting effort toward.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a service that tracks and reports website traffic data on a website. It uses that data to generate reports for you, the website owner, that you can use to make decisions in your business.
This service is offered by Google (of course), and the best part is that it’s completely free.
Google Analytics is like having a program that keeps an eye on everything that’s happening on your website for you.
For it to work, all you have to do is put a small bit of code on your site. This code tells Google Analytics when someone comes to your site or clicks on something.
Google Analytics then collects the information and gives it to you in a report. It’s a great way to learn about your business and know what to do to improve your marketing.
If you don’t already have Google Analytics installed on your WordPress website, I’ll give you a rundown of how to do it in this article.
You don’t have to have WordPress to use Google Analytics, but WordPress is what I specialize in so in this article that’s what I’m going to explain how to do.
How to set up Google Analytics on your WordPress Website
Step 1: Create a Google Analytics account
- To create a Google Analytics account, go to the Google Analytics website. You’ll be prompted to log in to your Google account.
- Note: You must have a Google account or Gmail to use Google Analytics. If you don’t have one yet, go ahead and create one first, then proceed with the next steps.
- Click the gear icon in the bottom left of the page, then choose Create Account.
- Give your account a name. This can be any name, it’s just for you to internally reference this account. Usually I use my client’s business name for this.
- Click Next to add a property to your new account.
Step 2: Set up your Google Analytics 4 property
- The next part will be choosing what you want to measure in Google Analytics. In this case, we’ll be tracking your website conversions, so choose Web.
- Then fill in your property name. Again, this is just for internal reference. I often use the same name as the client’s GA account.
- Select the timezone that you operate in, typically the same timezone as your website.
- Click next, then choose your industry category, business size, and how you intend to use Google Analytics. This helps GA to tailor the reports it generates for you so they’re more useful.
- Once everything is filled out on this Property Setup page, click Create.
- After that, Google Analytics will ask you to accept the Google Analytics Terms of Service Agreement. You have to accept to proceed with the setup, so if you’re good with the terms go ahead and click I Accept.
- Now, you have a Google Analytics account set up! You just need to add it to your website.
Step 3: Connect your GA4 property to your WordPress website
- First, log in to WordPress (usually at yourwebsite.com/wp-admin). In your Dashboard, go to Plugins >> Add New, and type MonsterInsights on the search bar.
- Find Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights from the results. Install it, then Activate.
- Then, click Connect MonsterInsights. This will allow MonsterInsights to connect with Google Analytics.
- The page will then redirect you to a Google account login page. Be sure to choose/login with the same Gmail account that you used when setting up your Google Analytics account earlier.
- There will also be a prompt asking your permission for Google Analytics to view data and other information from your Gmail account, which you’ll need to Allow to proceed with the GA set-up.
- After you hit “Allow,” you’ll be directed back to the final step in the Google Analytics set up. In the dropdown, choose All Web Site Data for your website, then complete the connection.
- After that, review all the recommended settings before clicking Save and Continue at the bottom. I don’t usually find the need to change anything on this page.
- Next, MonsterInsights will try and upsell you on some of their Pro add-ons. Good marketing, but you don’t need any of those add-ons to set up Google Analytics. You can just choose “Skip for Now” and move on.
- Lastly, finish the setup by clicking Finish Setup & Exit Wizard.
And, you’re DONE!
When You’ll be able to see Reports
Within 24 hours you should be able to see the data or the stats of your website on your WordPress Dashboard.
If you don’t see any of it, you can go to the left-side panel of your WP Dashboard and find Insights and click on Reports.
You can also access these reports if you hover over the Dashboard and click Insights.
But actually, for even more in-depth reports I recommend viewing data directly on the Google Analytics website.
The integration with your website will pull information into that Analytics dashboard directly, and it gives you much more information than the MonsterInsights reports.
Next Steps
Feeling a little overwhelmed? It’s totally normal. Google Analytics reporting is a huge well of information that might feel a little difficult to process. Thankfully, Google has got our backs.
To learn everything you need to know about Google Analytics, you can check out the Google Analytics Skillshop for FREE online courses about this tool and how you can use it to grow your coaching business.
