Would you like to add a dashboard of statistics on your WordPress site? Google Analytics helps you find out how people find and use your website. So you can bring them back. In this tutorial, we will show you how to easily add a dashboard to statistics on your WordPress site.
Why you need a WordPress stats dashboard
Normally, you can install Google Analytics and view your reports by logging into your Google Analytics account. This sounds great, but most people forget to check the statistics from their blog on a regular basis.
The two main reasons are:
- You must sign in to a separate website (Google Analytics) to check the statistics.
- You must explore Google Analytics to find what you are looking for.
While Google Analytics is a powerful tool, it is often necessary to dig deep to get the right parts of the reports that you want to show. Most beginners never dig far.
Adding a stats dashboard to your WordPress website fixes this problem. You will be able to quickly view the statistics that are displayed on your WordPress admin area, and make its operation much easier.
That being said, let's take a look at how to easily add a stats dashboard to your WordPress site.
Add a statistics dashboard in WordPress
The first thing to do is to install and activate the plugin MonsterInsights. For more details, see our step-by-step guide to way to install a WordPress plugin.
When activating, you must visit the page Insights »Settings to enter your license key. You can find the license key under your account on the MonsterInsights website.
Next, you need to connect your website to your Google Analytics account. You can do this by visiting the page Insights »Settings and clicking the "Authenticate with your Google Account" button.
This will redirect you to Google Accounts where you'll be prompted to sign in or select a Google Account if you're already signed in.
You must click “Next” to continue.
After that, you will be asked to authorize MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account. This step is necessary, so that MonsterInsights can bring the report back to your WordPress dashboard.
Go ahead and click the "Allow" button to continue.
The last step is to select the profile you want to follow. You need to select your website here and then click the “Full Authentication” button to continue.
You will now be redirected to your WordPress site.
This is all you have successfully installed and configured Google Analytics on your WordPress site. If you haven't already installed Google Analytics on this website, you may have to wait for Google Analytics to start showing your statistics.
View statistics on your dashboard
Now that you have configured Google Analytics using MonsterInsights, you can view your WordPress statistics by visiting the page Insights »Reports .
At the top of the stats dashboard, you'll see a graph of your WordPress pageviews and visitor sessions for the past 30 days. This gives you a quick overview of the incoming traffic to your blog.
Below you will see a comparison of your website statistics compared to the last 30 days. It will display the number of sessions, the page viewed counter, the session duration and the bounce rate.
After that, you will see graphs showing new visitors versus visitors and the devices used to access your website. This is tracked by the top countries that visit your website and the top referral sites sending you the most traffic.
MonsterInsights also acts as a pageviews counter and displays your most popular WordPress posts and pages. This helps you find your top performing content, allowing you to plan your content strategy accordingly.
See more statistics WordPress with MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights also displays custom reports based on your settings. You can switch to publishers, ecommerce, search console.
The Publishers tab displays reports created for content-rich websites, such as blogs, news, or magazine websites. It will show you the following statistics:
- The best landing pages
- Top of the exit pages
- Top outgoing links
- Top Affiliate Links
- Top download links
- Age, gender and interests (visible only if you have enabled them in Google Analytics)
Track e-commerce statistics on WordPress with MonsterInsights
If you have an online store designed with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, then you'll love MonsterInsights eCommerce tracking features.
You must first consult the page Insights »Addons to install and activate the MonsterInsights eCommerce addon.
Then you have to visit Insights »Settings and click on the monitoring tab.
In the Tracking tab, you need to scroll down and select eCommerce settings and then check the box next to 'Use enhanced eCommerce' option.
Don't forget to click the Save Changes button to save your settings.
Now you can see your WordPress ecommerce stats by visiting the page Insights »Reports and clicking on the tab E-commerce.
E-commerce reports will show you the distribution of the following statistics:
- Conversion rate, transactions, revenue and average order value
- Best products
- Main sources of conversion
- Total add to cart and remove total from cart
- Purchase and session time to purchase statistics
That's it for this tutorial, hope it helps you use your Google Analytics reports on your dashboard.
