How To Set Up Monster Insights

In our previous article, "How to Add together Google Analytics on your WordPress Site," we recommended the new MonsterInsights plugin (formerly known as Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast). In this starting time of a two-part series, we're going to take a deeper dive into the functionality of MonsterInsights and show you what this astonishing plugin offers and how it can brand your website tracking easier.

What Is MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights is a plugin that allows you to easily add, customize, and manage the Google Analytics website tracking services on your WordPress site. In a nutshell, information technology makes tracking your website with Google Analytics simpler.

The plugin was originally created by Yoast, the creator of the WordPress SEO plugin, widely regarded equally the all-time WordPress SEO plugin available. The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin by Yoast was recently acquired by Syed Balkhi — creator of the brilliant OptinMonster and WPForms WordPress plugins — and renamed "MonsterInsights".

There are ii versions of the MonsterInsights plugin: Free and Pro.

The free version allows you to install Google Analytics easily, track all the data you demand on a basic website, and includes the following features:

Elementary installation
Turn on/off unlike types of tracking with a single click.
Visitor metric dashboards and reports within your WordPress admin.
Rail outbound links or downloads on your site.
Anonymize IPs so traffic from countries with stricter privacy regulations can exist tracked.

The Pro version includes all of the above, plus these boosted features:

Popular post/folio tracking.
Runway 404 fault pages on your site.
Rail custom dimensions similar pageviews per author.
AdSense tracking.
Create custom reports.

Though the complimentary version of the plugin more than fits the neb for the bulk of WordPress site owners, consider the Pro version if you are looking for more than customizable reporting information from within your WordPress dashboard.

There is even an eCommerce Addon for eCommerce website owners that connects with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.

Installing the MonsterInsights Plugin

In our last post we covered how to create a Google Analytics account and install Analytics onto your site via the MonsterInsights plugin. In that post we covered 2 methods to connect your Google Analytics account to the plugin. The first method is to "authenticate" your Google account inside the plugin. The other method is to manually copy and paste your Google Analytics user account number into a field inside the plugin.

We recommend that you use the start option, "Authenticate with your Google account". By connecting your business relationship this style, y'all will be able to access the reports and dashboards features of the plugin.

monsterinsights plugin authenticate not manual

Configuring MonsterInsights Settings

One time you take the plugin installed and your Google Analytics account authenticated, it's time to configure the plugin for what yous desire to track. This is done in the "Settings" department.

monsterinsights settings

We're going to run you lot through the principal settings to get you fix at a bones level within the free version of the plugin.

General Settings

The general settings are where you can customize the functionality of the plugin. This is where you lot determine which Google Analytics profile to track and how you want it to track traffic to your website.

TIP: You lot can hover over the question mark icon next to any setting in the plugin to view an explanation of that setting'south functionality.

monsterinsights question mark explanations

ane. First yous need to tell the plugin which of your Google Analytics profiles should exist continued. You may have multiple profiles within your unmarried Google Analytics account, so the plugin needs to be sure which one to pull information from.

One time in the General Settings tab, simply use the dropdown and select the appropriate contour yous would like to connect.

Now allow'due south configure some settings.

2. Rails Outbound Click and Downloads:This tracking selection volition allow analytics to track clicks and downloads on your site as events. Essentially, if you check this box, y'all will exist able to meet what and how many times links on your site were clicked, along with any downloads of PDFs, images, or other documents that can be accessed via a link. You can discover this data nether Behavior >> Events in your Google Analytics account:

3. Allow Tracking of Anonymous Information:This is non really a tracking option, just rather an option that will allow the plugin to rail the themes and plugins you use in guild to provide a better user feel. We recommend you check this box.

4. Anonymize IPs:Equally mentioned in a higher place, checking this box will allow Google Analytics to track data from users in countries where privacy restrictions may not allow for information tracking. We recommend you check this box.

5. Ignore Users:This pick allows you to add in user types so that they are not tracked when logged in and visiting the site. By default, "Administrator" and "Editor" are included. This choice helps y'all get clean analytics data. After all, you don't want all the time y'all or your editors and staff spend on the site to be counted since have to be on the site. We recommend leaving the default settings as is, merely some may want to add together in "Author" or "Contributor" if they want to further make clean their information.

6. Disable Analytics Dashboard:This volition plough off the dashboard functionality of the plugin and stop the plugin from showing y'all the latest analytics data pulled. You can still access all of your information past logging into Google Analytics, but we recommend you leave this box unchecked. A great feature of this plugin is that you can come across your website traffic data immediately subsequently logging into your site, and we think yous should employ it.

Universal Settings

There are 2 types of Google Analytics tracking: Universal and Asynchronous. They both refer to the type of tracking code implemented on your site. Universal Analytics is the latest iteration of analytics and it provides you with the choice to gather more than information nigh visitors to your site. We always recommend that you use Universal Analytics over the older Asychronous version.

1. Enable Universal Tracking:This turns on Universal Analytics tracking and nosotros recommend yous check this box.

2. Enable Demographics and Interests Reports for Remarketing and Ad:By checking this box Analytics will be able to pull demographic and interest-related data almost your website visitors to give you a meliorate thought near your audience. This data can be used to fuel new content ideas. MonsterInsights has a groovy explanatory certificate about how to get-go enable the Demographics and Involvement Reports within the Google Analytics interface.

iii. Enhanced Link Attribution: Checking this box will enable analytics to tag your pages and pull enhanced link-tracking information. Some of this enhanced information includes:

See split information for multiple links on a page that all have the aforementioned destination. For example, if in that location are two links on the aforementioned folio that both pb to the Contact U.s.a. page, so yous see carve up click information for each link.
Come across when one page element has multiple destinations. For example, a Search button on your folio is likely to pb to multiple destinations.
Track buttons, menus, and actions driven by javascript.

Advanced Settings

There are several advanced tracking options you lot tin implement with MonsterInsights. Many of these options will likely not be necessary if you are running a straightforward WordPress site, so nosotros are only going to cover the settings you need to know about. Y'all can observe additional documentation on these advanced settings in the "Docs" department of MonsterInsights located here.

1. Track Downloads Equally: This setting allows yous to specify how a download on your website is tracked. As mentioned earlier, downloads could exist any links to PDFs, .doc files, or even images where clicking on the link results in the download of a file. We recommend leaving this setting as is, otherwise your information may be skewed. If you would similar to track these downloads as goals in Google Analytics, nosotros recommend you lot create a new goal and use "Event" as the goal type rather than irresolute any settings hither.

2. Extensions of Files To Rail As Downloads: This is where you can specify the types of files that will count as downloads. Again, we recommend you leave this setting as is since pretty much every major file type that tin can be downloaded on a site is included.

3. Track Full URL of Outbound Clicks or But The Domain: This setting controls how links to other sites from your site are tracked. For example, if you have a link to a Wikipedia page in i of your weblog posts, Google Analytics tin testify you how many times that link was clicked and from what page.

By default, Analytics will only track the domain (wikipedia.org), simply if you alter this setting to "Total links" so yous will be able to see the total URL of the outbound link.

In Google Analytics, you lot tin can observe this information past going to Behavior >> Site Content >> Content Drilldown. For more data on how to dig deeper into this data, Yoast has an splendid guide hither.

Wrap Up and Role 2

Don't be intimidated past some of the configuration settings in the new MonsterInsights plugin. The plugin is designed to be unproblematic to set up with default settings that cover pretty much everything a basic WordPress website would need.

In Part 2 of our MonsterInsights serial, nosotros'll cover the Dashboard and testify you how to interpret the information it provides and how to pull specific metrics and dimension information to give you more insight into your website's performance.

Stay tuned, and happy tracking!