The first of the series of How to articles will cover the topic How to install Google Analytics on WordPress. But first, a quick explanation on what is web analytics and why is it good for.

Having a website without analytics tool is like driving a car with your eyes closed – you know you are going somewhere but not exactly where.

Analytical tools are like a fitness equipment – if you do not use them, they give you no benefit. If you use them in a wrong way, they can harm your site.

Well, I am sure you could find a better comparison, but the importance of having appropriate analytics on your site remains. If you do not know who’s coming to your site, where is he come from, how long is he engaged with your content and what he looks or is looking for, then it is almost the same as if the site does not exist. It is that simple. Ok, maybe I am a little overreacting, but you get the point.

What should interest us about our visitors?

For bullet list fans, this is a quick list of the most common topics every beginner (actually every webmaster) should follow:

• visitors
• pageviews
• sources
• most visited sites
• time on site
• bounce rate

In short: We need to know how many people visit our website (visitors), how many pages they read (pageviews, or even better average pages per visit), how long they remain on our site (Avg. time on site) and where (most visited sites), where they come from (sources) and at what point they leave our site (bounce rate).

The next question is of course Why do I need all that? It is actually quite simple. By using web analytics tools we measure visits to a particular website and with that we are able to see what users are interested in and what not. With this knowledge and insights we can further improve our website and make it more user friendly.

Why Google Analytics on WordPress?

Well, why not? Just kidding. Today there are many web analytics tools available online. My personal choice is Google Analytics, because I am familiar with this tool for quite some time now and I believe it can give you all the needed information to further and further improve your online project of any kind (blog, store, …).

How to install Google Analytics on WordPress

Watching this great video will hopefully answer all of your questions on the topic How to install Google Analytics on WordPress. It was everything I needed to start using it on this blog. I first watched the video from start to finish to get an insight into what was waiting for me (it will not steal a lot of time from you since it is only 1 minute and 24 seconds long). During the actual installation I was clicking on pause after each step and that is it. Really simple.

Thank you for your time and I hope to see you in my next How to guide. Bye