Google Tools To Enhance WordPress Installation

As I mentioned, these tools are so easy to use, they do not really merit step-by-step instructions, though I will do this for some of the reporting features that I use elsewhere. The tools are important, as they give you management tools (covered at Shrewdies Web Business Management), and technical development tools covered throughout this site.

Of course, you may prefer tools from other companies, and I’m always happy to discuss the comparison, or help with other tools. Just use the forum to discuss alternatives, or ask for help.

The essential tools I cover here are Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools.

Analytics gives you vital information about how traffic arrives at your site, where it comes from, and what happens to your visitors once they arrive at your site. Though much of this is for management use, technicians will find some of the information crucial for making decisions about navigation. Note that Analytics cannot be used on WordPress.com sites, which do have some free site usage statistics, but none that will help you monitor navigation paths.

Webmaster Tools gives you a wide range of information about site performance and interaction with the rest of the Internet. Though some of this is vital for management use, most of it is crucial to technicians to determine and fix weaknesses, and to make the most of your strengths.

The implementation screens for both these services are very simple, so I will not spend much time explaining them. There is plenty of flexibility about the way you enable them, and I will present what I believe is the optimum sequence.

Google Analytics

It pays to start with Analytics, as Google will use that account to verify Webmaster Tools later (though there are several other options). Once your Google account is open, you need to add a new Profile in Google Analytics, and you need to choose the option for a new domain.

Your first question, after entering your website domain address, is to choose a time zone. As all information is summarized by day (and other time intervals), you need to choose something that suits you best. This is normally your local time zone, but if your market is predominately located elsewhere, then it might help to chose that location. Ideally, you would choose the same timezone as your webserver location, but this is not critical. I find that, once in use, most of your time is spent comparing current time periods with historical positions to see if you are improving, so it doesn’t particularly matter where each day starts. If you plan to use AdSense or AdWords on the same website, then it really does help to have consistent timezones, but it will not harm you if you do not.

Note that the Country selector is a little strange – common countries are listed at the top, followed by less populous countries.

After entering your timezone, the next screen gives some code to add to your website.

The simplest way to add this to your website is to copy the code, and add it to the footer.php file in your theme (Admin – Appearance – Editor – footer.php). This has drawbacks because it means you have to repeat this edit if you change your theme, and you cannot easily use advance features without adding your own PHP or JavaScript code.

The better way is to use a WordPress Plugin to add Analytics code to your site simply by setting your profile Web Property ID, and other optional choices. I’m currently testing three plugins on various websites, and will report back on them in due course. In the meantime, you can discuss your own plugin choice or experiences in the Hosting forum.

Once your plugin options have been set, and your site starts generating traffic, and this will be monitored by Google Analytics. Remember, if you have set options not to track your own visits, you will not generate any Analytics data until you, or somebody else, visits the site without being logged in. There will be a few minutes delay between your first visit, and the Analytics screen reporting you as verified. As ever, if you have problems, please use the hosting forum.

Google Webmaster Tools

On your self-hosted WordPress.org website, enabling Google Webmaster Tools is as simple as adding the site URL, and choosing the “Link to your Google Analytics account” option. (Update: for this to work, it requires Asynchronous Analytics code in your page header. Not all plugins do this, as you will see in my forthcoming review, so probably best to choose one of the other options – I prefer uploading a file. I will do a further in-depth report on Webmaster Tools soon)

If you have a free WordPress.com site you can enable WebMaster Tools by choosing the “Add a meta tag to your site’s home page” option. This will reveal a meta tag, and you need to highlight the content part of that tag – excluding the quotes. Paste this into the Tools (Admin – Tools) box labeled “Google Webmaster Tools” and save your changes.

For both these options, you click the Verify button next, and Google will report your site as verified, though you might have to wait a few minutes.

Though neither of these tools will provide much value until you publish some pages, you will soon find the data, especially from Webmaster Tools, to be indispensable. Please discuss your experiences with these tools, and any other similar services, on the hosting forum.