Google Analytics | MonsterInsights - Wordpress (Plugin)

Google Analytics | MonsterInsights – WordPress (Plugin)

Tool : Technical SEO
Plateform : Wordpress
Price : Pay

Short description : Google Analytics

MonsterInsights is a plugin to easily access Google Analytics data and monitor the evolution of a site directly on the WordPress dashboard.

Long Description : Google Analytics

Description MonsterInsights

Google Analytics remains one of the most popular analytics solutions for a website. However, without proper configuration and interpretation of the data, it is difficult to take advantage of the full analytical capacity of the tool. MonsterInsights is a Google Analytics plugin, i.e. it was designed to make it easier to set up Google Analytics on WordPress sites. In just a few clicks, the tool allows you to link your WordPress website to your Google Analytics account. MonsterInsights also offers a more detailed presentation of Google Analytics data to allow everyone, including beginners, to effectively and easily follow the evolution of their website.

What is MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights is a great Google Analytics plugin for WordPress originally owned by Yoast SEO and was at the time known as Google Analytics for WordPress. Then in 2011, WPBeginner founder Syed Balkhi bought it out and changed the name of the plugin to MonsterInsights. Today, MonsterInsights is one of the top Google Analytics plugins in the WordPress community with over 2 million downloads already. MonsterInsights is able to automatically insert your Google Analytics tracking code on your site so that you can start collecting data on your visitors’ behavior instantly after activating the plugin. This information is detailed to be easily digestible for users, including SEO beginners, and can be viewed directly from your WordPress dashboard. Therefore, you do not necessarily need to constantly check your Google Analytics profile before tracking certain information such as the number of page views, the bounce rate of your site and many other important metrics. MonsterInsights is also able to trace the source of your traffic to allow you to identify the countries, the marketing channels and the main affiliate links which generate the most traffic for you. You can also identify popular categories or authors on your site. MonsterInsights also includes e-commerce data tracking, making it a particularly useful tool for e-merchants. As an online retailer, it is important to track certain key metrics such as your top selling products, your revenue over a given period, etc. MonsterInsights offers an array of useful features and data that you can leverage to track the progress of your online store and continually tweak your marketing approach for better results.

MonsterInsights: How to install and configure the plugin?

Here are the different steps to configure MonsterInsights on your WordPress site:

Step 1: Obtain a license key and download MonsterInsights

Before configuring MonsterInsights, you must first obtain a valid license key and download the plugin.

To do this, go to the MonsterInsights homepage and click on “Get MonsterInsights now”.

Choose a paid plan then follow the various instructions to finalize the purchase of the license.
Once the purchase is made, you will see on your left, the license key. Copy it, we will need it in the plugin activation step.
Now go to WordPress.org and search for “MonsterInsights” or click on https://fr.wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/ to download the plugin directly.
Once the download is complete, click “Activate” to activate it on your WordPress site.
After which, you will be redirected to a new page with a welcome message.

Then click “Launch Wizard” to start MonsterInsights setup.

Step 2: Enter the license key and connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site

On the new page, the setup wizard will show you the different steps to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site.

To start, you will be asked to choose a category for your website.

This will allow the tool to automatically apply the settings that match your choice.

Click the “Save” button to save these settings.
To continue, you will need to enter a valid license key to confirm your purchase and enable automatic MonsterInsights updates.
Once the license key is approved, click “Connect MonsterInsights” to link your Google GA to your WordPress site.
A new window will open on your screen, choose a profile then click on “Finish the connection”.

Now MonsterInsights should be able to access your profile and make all of your Google Analytics data available on your WordPress dashboard.

Step 3: Configure link tracking

At the bottom of the next screen, you will discover a section dedicated to the configuration of the tracking of your affiliate links and your sales. All your external links including affiliate links, email links, and download links are automatically tracked by the plugin. By default, MonsterInsights tracks downloads in common format such as doc, pdf, zip… But if you wish, you can expand the list of extensions and add more. Then enter the address of your affiliate link, assign it a label and click on the “Save and continue” button.

Step 4: Install recommended add-ons

On the last screen of our setup process, you will be offered to install a few MonsterInsights addons needed to track individual posts, forms, ad clicks and more important elements. However, it should be remembered that this is an optional step. You may well decide to return to MonsterInsights settings later to install these add-ons. After which, click on the “Save” button. You will be redirected to this page with a success message. You have now fully configured MonsterInsghter on your WordPress site for Google Analytics. Now you can exit the setup wizard and go to your WordPress dashboard. MonsterInsights features should now be available with your Google Analytics data on your site.

MonsterInsights: The main features

Here is a list of the main features of MonsterInsights:

1. Install Google Analytics

MonsterInsights is the only Google Analytics plugin that allows you to simultaneously link your website to Universal Analytics (GA3) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) versions with its “Dual Tracking” functionality. The advantage is that you can collect valuable analytics data from these two trusted sources. For those who do not yet have a Google Analytics 4 account, it is possible to create one directly from your Wordpress dashboard using MonsterInsights. For those who need to migrate from GA3 to GA4, it will simply be enough to create a GA4 account and then activate the dual tracking feature.

2. Google Analytics tracking on WordPress without entering a code snippet

Setting up Google Analytics on your WordPress site can be a real headache, especially if it’s your first time. MonsterInsights makes this process easy with its interactive wizard-like setup wizard. All you have to do is simply point to boxes and press “Next”. Already after 3 minutes, the Google Analytics setup can be completed without you having to enter a code snippet and find all your analytics data on WordPress.

3. Identify the content that works the most

The “Publisher” report from MonsterInsights allows you to discover your content that performs with Internet users. Which can be useful for knowing what types of content you should focus your efforts on to get more traffic and more conversions.

MonsterInsights also offers a list of your top keywords that you can discover by clicking on “Insights” then “Reports” from your WordPress dashboard.
Then click on the “Search Console” tab. The tool will then present you with the top 50 keywords for which you rank well on Google.

This is data that MonsterInsights collects from your Google Search Console account. This means that to access this plugin report, you must first link your Google Search Console profile to MonsterInsights. For this, you can refer to our MonsterInsights configuration section.

4. Learn more about the behavior of your audience

One of the best ways to learn about your audience is to analyze their behavior in relation to your content. With MonsterInsghts, you can check, for example, how far your visitors reach on your pages when they scroll through your content. And this without the need to manually configure Google Tag Manager scroll tracking events. The plugin also allows you to see:

The areas of interest of your audience
Your different sources of traffic
And the geographical areas of your visitors

5. Access in-depth reports right from your WordPress dashboard

One of the most popular features of the MonsterInsights plugin is the ability to get user-friendly reports of your Google Analytics data right on your WordPress interface. No need to connect to third-party sources anymore. Simply go to your WordPress dashboard and access the most important metrics, all gathered in one summary report: In MonsterInsights reports, you have:

A graphical representation of the percentage of your new visitors compared to returning visitors
A graphical representation of the breakdown of different types of devices connecting to your site
Information about your landing and exit pages
Information about your outbound, affiliate, and download links
Information about your site’s demographics
And more other useful information about other factors of your site.

6. Access real-time analytics and insights

MonsterInsghts also offers a “Real-Time Report” feature that allows you to view your real-time data feeds on your WordPress dashboard. This feature can be very useful for monitoring the evolution of your campaign and knowing how to readjust your strategy to obtain better results.

7. Enable media and file tracking

For sites that offer downloadable files such as e-books, videos, etc. MonsterInsights also offers an automatic tracking feature to help you easily identify the most downloaded files. This feature can be useful for discovering the type of file and media that appeals to your target audience the most. But that’s not all. The plugin also offers the ability to track the performance of YouTube and Vimeo videos that you insert on your WordPress site.

8. Enable e-commerce data tracking

With Google Analytics, e-commerce site data tracking requires quite a bit of manual configuration. With MonsterInsights, you can simply activate e-commerce data analysis thanks to its “Point and click” system and monitor among other things:

Revenues
Transactions
Average order value
Conversion rate.

For Woocommerce or Shopify stores, MonsterInsights helps track important metrics such as:

Top conversion sources
Total number of “Add to cart”
Total number of “Remove from cart” actions
Time to purchase
actionsshopping sessions

9. Automate the analysis of registration forms

Companies that offer services rather than the sale of products generally use forms for their prospecting campaigns. For those companies that use WordPress sites, they certainly have the WPForms, but MonsterInsghts is a tool that also allows you to automatically track conversions and form abandonment rates. And all this without any additional configuration.

10. Create custom filters to get more information

The plugin offers an add-on, the MonsterInsights Dimensions, which gives you the possibility to create your own filters on Google Analytics data to get more specific information. For example, you can decide to display:

The list of your top performing content creators
The best time to publish a blog post
The most successful content categories
The activities of logged-in users.

These are interesting metrics, but not offered by default in Google Analytics that you can generate yourself hassle-free with MonsterInghts.

11. Track Affiliate Link Clicks Affiliate

marketing has seen a surge in recent years generating many thousands of dollars for marketers. However in 2022, only 9% of affiliate marketers manage to earn more than $50,000 per year. As an affiliate marketer, MonterInsights makes it easy for you with its link tracking feature that allows you to keep an eye on the progress of your strategy: With MonsterInsights, you can easily track your affiliates’ earnings and performance from your WordPress dashboard. You will just have to specify the link label and the URL address and the plugin will take care of the rest.

12. GDPR compliance

Under the GDPR, companies must now seek consent before collecting user data. To comply with this regulation, you must make a number of settings such as:

user ID tracking on your site
Disable author tracking
Anonymize the IP addresses of your GA account.

On this aspect too, MonsterInsights makes it easy for you by offering an add-on, EU Compliance, consisting of switches that you can use to activate/deactivate GDPR privacy settings. All you will have to do to access is install this MonsterInsights addon.

13. Take Advantage of Premium Integrations

MonsterInsights offers a palette of integrations that you can use to extend the functionality of the plugin. This integration list takes into account almost all the important plugins for the proper functioning of a WordPress site, including:

WooCommerce
Easy Digital Downloads
All WordPress Form Plugins
WPForms
Formidable Forms
Gravity Forms
Ninja Forms
Contact Form 7
Shortlinks by Pretty Links
MemberPress
LifterLMS
ThirstyAffiliates
Google Optimize
Facebook Instant Articles
CookieBot
Cookie Notice by dFactory
Custom Privacy Regulation Solutions
GiveWP
Restrict Content Pro

And much more

MonsterInsights: Who is the plugin for?

MonsterInsights is a powerful Google Analytics plugin that remains accessible to almost all user profiles: blogger, entrepreneur, e-commerce store owner, web developer, etc. No matter the type or size of your website, as long as it is created in WordPress, you can use the MonsterInsights plugin to learn more about the behavior of your visitors.

MonsterInsights: Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Easy to use plugin
Simple and clean user interface
Several customization options
Displays all Google Analytics analysis data directly on your WordPress dashboard
Ability to connect e-commerce sites and collect specific data
Ability to Import and Export Data

Cons

Limited Free Version: The plugin’s most useful features are only available in paid plans

MonsterInsights: Pricing

MonsterInsights is a free Wordpress plugin that also offers paid licenses starting at $99 to access to more features with a 14-day “Satisfied or Refunded” guarantee. Visit the tool’s homepage to learn more.

Videos : Google Analytics

Images : Google Analytics

Company : Google Analytics

Monster Insights is owned by Monster Insights LLC. This is a company created by Syed Balkhi, also founder of WPBeginner, OptinMonster… It is a company that develops software that allows you to have good statistics for the performance of your website. Thus, the software developed by Monster Insights LLC allows you to make the right decisions for the development of your website and your business. Among said software, the Monster Insights tool of the same name as the company supports you in your content marketing. Precisely, Monster Insights is one of the most popular Google Analytics plugins for WordPress. It assists you effectively in the analysis of your website. In this sense, it is aimed at all SEOs, SEO professionals, but also digital marketers.