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Google Analytics Dashboard – A Powerful Wordpress Traffic Monitoring Plugin


Google Business Solutions All-in-One For DummiesAre you running a Wordpress blog?  One very important aspect of the blogger’s job is to keep track of his web traffic.  It is good to know how many visitors you have and whether that number is climbing or tanking.
It’s also good to know as much as you can about your visitors.  Where did they come from?  What are they reading on your site or blog?  What kind of changes do you need to make in order to get, keep, or grow that readership?  If you want more reasons to analyze your traffic, check out 7 reasons why your website won’t last without analytics.
Many people reach for one of the most powerful tools out there to do the work for them.  That tool is Google Analytics.

We have covered Google Analytics many times before here on MakeUseOf including Ryan’s recent article abouthow to put Google Analytics to work for you with email reports.  Google Analytics is probably the most popular traffic analyzing tool there is for webmasters and bloggers.
Sometimes it can become a pain signing into Google Analytics to see what’s going on.  Ryan is right, one way to save some time is by setting up email reports.  Another option you have is to use a Wordpress traffic monitoring plugin that gives you the traffic analysis right in your Wordpress dashboard.
wordpress traffic monitoring pluginWhat if you could have the best of both worlds?  What you want is the power of Google Analytics with the convenience of a dashboard widget.
Well, let me show you the Google Analytics Website Dashboard Wordpress plugin.  I think it can be the answer and can give you the power and convenience that you want.

Setting Up Google Analytics Website Dashboard

The plugin is hosted on the Wordpress plugin site.  That makes downloading and installing it a breeze from within your Wordpress dashboard.  Just head over to the Manage Plugins section and click “Add New.”  Run a search for “Google Analytics Dashboard.”  It should show up as the top result but make sure it is the one by Carson McDonald.
wordpress traffic monitoring plugin
Once you activate the plugin, you will find a Google Analytics Dashboard option in the settings menu.  Just head over there and sign in with your Google Analytics account and choose the profile to display.
wordpress traffic monitoring plugin
That’s about all there is to installing it.

The Wordpress Traffic Monitoring Plugin

Head to the dashboard and have a look at the Google Analytics widget you have just installed.  You should see the graph displaying the visits you’ve had for the past month.  This should give you a good overall look at how your traffic has been doing.
google analytics for wordpress plugin
You’ll also notice some other information including number of visits, pageviews, and pages per visit. I also like the fact that it shows the tops posts, referrers and the top searches.  This gives some good basic information about what’s been popular recently.

Analytics Information For Pages & Posts

Head on over to either the pages or posts section of your Wordpress backend and you’ll see some stats for each page or post on the list.  The plugin actually adds a column called “Analytics” and makes the pageview/exit/unique visitor stats very accessible.
google analytics for wordpress plugin
The Google Analytics Wordpress traffic monitoring plugin doesn’t show all of the data Google Analytics has to offer (visit Google Analytics for more in-depth information).  I think the power of the plugin lies in its ability to save you a trip to Google’s site by displaying just the basics.  What do you think?
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Comments

  1. annaAugust 1, 2011 at 12:42 AM

    thanks for the info.

    when they say 'unique visitor' that means a new visitor for that day?

    thanks

    ReplyDelete

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