You've got a website, but how do you know if your website is working? It’s important to know how many visitors come to a site, what pages they are clicking on, and where they came from. A website’s analytics are a deciding factor when determining the success of a website. There are hundreds of analytics apps available and below are just a few that work specifically for WordPress sites.
Google Analytics Dashboard
After a quick wizard to connect the plugin to your Google Analytics account, the Google Analytics Dashboard plugin is a breeze to use. Just be aware that you will be asked to get the pro version multiple times and even asked to download another plugin by the same developer. The plugin itself gives you the same information you would see in Google Analytics but in a must more simple and actionable way. If you use Google Analytics, this plugin is one of the best to integrate Google Analytics with WordPress.
"We go beyond the simple analytics script and add the advanced event tracking, so you can see all important user behaviour in WordPress with just a few clicks (without hiring a developer)."
Slimstat Analytics
The Slimstat Analytics plugin is a real-time analytics tool that is also GDPR compliant. You can even display analytic reports on your blog posts or page using shortcodes. You can also set up filters to exclude certain bots and admin users and use the geolocation feature to discover where your site visitors are coming from. A pro version is available for an added cost. Out of all the WordPress analytics plugins on this list, this is my favourite and the one I use on my own sites.
"The leading web analytics plugin for WordPress. Track returning customers and registered users, monitor Javascript events, detect intrusions, analyze email campaigns."
WP Statistics
WP Statistics is a powerful but simple analytics tool for your WordPress site. With the free version, you can see how many hits your site gets, how many referrals you are getting from the search engines, top referring sites, and much more. You can easily exclude logged in users based on assign user roles. All data is stored on your web host server and you can control how often it checks your site for visitors.
"With WP Statistics you can know your website statistics without any need to send your users’ data anywhere. You can know how many people visit your personal or business website, where they’re coming from, what browsers and search engines they use, and which of your contents, categories, tags and users get more visits."
Clicky Analytics
Clicky Analytics will display basic analytics for your website under the WordPress dashboard admin page. You must sign up for a Clicky Analytics account in order to use the plugin. You can track one website for free. The plugin will automatically add the required tracking code to your site in order for Clicky to record visits. Although the plugin is very basic, the most needed analytics information is available. Clicky was the first analytics tool I ever used so it's fab if you are new to tracking your content. Like other plugins mentioned, there is a premium version available for purchase.
"Using a widget, Clicky Analytics Plugin displays detailed info and stats about: online users, number of visits, number of actions, bounce rates, organic searches, time average directly on your Admin Dashboard."
Search Analytics
The Search Analytics plugin tracks the search terms website visitors use on your site through the WordPress search form. The report given is pretty straightforward with a list of terms and how often they are searched on your site. This information can be invaluable and aid in content ideas and making sure users are finding the content they want.
Search Analytics will keep history of the search terms used by your users and group them in a set of statistics including the number of posts resulted from that search term.
It can easily aid you in finding what your users are really searching for on your website and make sure you provide exactly what they need.
Next Steps
Once you've chosen your WordPress analytics plugin the next step is to keep track of your numbers and review what they're telling you.
Reviewing your analytics data means you understand:
When you track your content and your website visitors you'll find that blogging and content marketing become so much easier for you! So go and install a WP Analytics plugin on your website today!