Google Analytics for Bloggers by a Blogger

Setting Up and Reading Blog Metrics in Google Analytics

There are seemingly endless ways to use data from Google Analytics for bloggers. It shows you things like:

exactly how well your blog is doing, which you need to know to share with brands,
what people are searching to get to you,
how they’re finding your blog,
and even gives you your next blog post ideas!

Yes, it’s a powerhouse, and best of all, GOOGLE ANALYTICS IS FREE!

You do NOT need a paid plugin like Monster Insights to get all this amazing data for your blog.

Furthermore, since it is the industry standard for website and blog analytics, brands will be asking for numbers from GA (Google Analytics), not Jetpack or any other service.

Here’s the basic information you need from Google Analytics for bloggers to see how well your blog is doing and what information to get for sponsored work with brands.

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Signing Up for Google Analytics as a Blogger

Creating a Google Analytics account is easy, and again, FREE.

Before you sign up, it’s good to know that Google Analytics has been rolling out its new beta dashboard for GA4 (Google Analytics version 4). Until GA4 becomes the standard, you’ll be signing up with GA3. Stay updated on when you should upgrade to GA4 by joining my free blogging help group.

Because of this, you may see the old or new way to sign up. Please quickly look at both while you’re signing up to see which is best for you. Also, let me know which directions worked for you by commenting below. It would be very helpful. Thank you!

Here’s how to sign up the old way:

Click https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/ to go to Google Analytics. (Note: If you have a Google account, and are not signed in, click Sign in. If you do not have a Google account, click Create an account.)
Once you have signed in to your Google account, click Access Google Analytics.
Click Sign up.
Fill in your Account Name, Website Name, Website URL, and select an Industry Category and Reporting Time Zone.
Under Data Sharing Options, check the boxes next to the options that you want.
Click Get Tracking ID.
From the Google Analytics Terms of Service Agreement that opens, click I Accept.

Here’s how to sign up the new way:

Click https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/ to go to Google Analytics. (Note: If you have a Google account, and are not signed in, click Sign in. If you do not have a Google account, click Create an account.)
Once you have signed in to your Google account, click Access Google Analytics.
Click Sign up.
In Admin (gear on bottom left of the screen), in the Account column, click Create Account.
Type in an Account Name.
- This can be anything. For example, you can write your name.
In Admin, in the Property column, click Create Property.
In step #1, enter a name for the property (i.e your blog name) and select the reporting time zone and currency.
Click Show Advanced Options.
Toggle the Create a Universal Analytics property option.
Click Create both a Google Analytics 4 and a Universal Analytics property.
Click Next.
In step#2, fill out the information and click Next.
Accept the Terms.

You’re all signed up!

Setting Up Your Google Analytics Account the Right Way for Bloggers

Now that you’ve signed up for a Google Analytics account, let’s make sure it’s set up the right way for bloggers by making this very important change!

You want to exclude your own home IP address from Google Analytics information because we don’t want GA (Google Analytics) to count us visiting our own blogs from our home as part of our page views.

This will skew the data, and we want to make sure the data is precise as possible so we can better use it in the future for our blog strategy!

Here are the steps to exclude your IP address from your GA:

Go to https://whatismyipaddress.com/. You will get a long string of numbers and/or letters. Keep this tab open for later.
Go to your Google Analytics Admin dashboard, which can be accessed by the Gear symbol in the bottom left of your screen.
On the third panel titled View / All Website Data, click on ‘Filters’.
Click ‘Add Filter’.
Name your filter ‘IPv6 Home IP Address’ (see screenshot for reference).
Select ‘Exclude’, ‘traffic from the IP addresses’ and ‘that are equal to’ (see screenshot above for reference).
Copy and paste your IPv6 address from Step 1 into the IP address box that pops up.
Click ‘Save’.
Repeat for the 2nd IP address, IPv4, from https://whatismyipaddress.com/.

You also want to make sure to:

turn on analytical features,
set up the feature that’ll allow you to see what people are searching for to get to your site,
and install the custom engagement report that I created so you can better promote your blog posts.

You can get detailed instructions on how to do these three things in my Google Analytics for Bloggers course, where I also share how to get blog post ideas that’ll do well, strategically market your posts on social media, and update old posts with keywords all with Google Analytics data.

Adding Google Analytics to Your Blog

Google analytics for bloggers - tips by Sarah Chetrit, a blogger — *– tap once to pin for later –*

Now that you’ve set up your Google Analytics the right way for bloggers, you’ll want to add the code to your blog so that GA tracks your website traffic properly.

(1) If you have an SEO-friendly, mobile responsive theme like one of these feminine WordPress themes I have, then adding your Google Analytics code to your blog is easy.

Pop the code into the Theme Settings –> Headers/Footers Script area.

(2) You can add the code in with a plugin like the plugin called ‘Insert Headers and Footers’.

A benefit to having a plugin like this is that you don’t need to mess with the coding on your site at all. However, having too many plugins on your site can slow it down.

That being said, this plugin will probably come in handy in the future when you need to add code from affiliate marketing programs and ad networks so it’s not a bad idea to add it!

(3) You can add the code in without a plugin, which may seem daunting because the smallest typo can bring your down your entire site. But at the same time, it’s not that hard, and you won’t have an extra plugin on your site just for this.

The specific area to add your code in without a plugin is under Appearance –> Theme Editor –> Theme Header (header.php) file.

Important: Make sure to backup your website before you add the Google Analytics code in! That way if anything happens, you can call your hosting provider and have them bring your site back up.

Get the detailed instructions on how to install the Google Analytics code to your blog without a plugin here. You’ll also learn how to get blog post ideas that’ll do well, strategically market your posts on social media, and update old posts with keywords all with Google Analytics data.

Seeing Blog Visitors from Google Analytics for Yourself and Brands

Learning how to track blog traffic in Google Analytics will be key to helping you track how well you’re doing and get sponsored work.

screenshot of google analytics information

Users, Sessions and Page Views will be the most looked at metrics for you to benchmark off of and see how you’re doing.

Figuring out how to see your blog visitors will be super helpful since this will be the most frequently asked for stats from your Google Analytics by brands.

Learn how to use google analytics for wordpress blog

You’ll either be e-mailing them directly or including them in a media kit to send as an attachment to brands that you’re pitching to and working with.

Here’s what Users, Sessions and Page Views mean:

Users: A user is a person that comes to your site. He/she can come to your site multiple times and will only be accounted as one person by Google.
Sessions: A session is a person’s visit to your site. He/she can read one blog post or go through five posts or pages on your blog, and it’ll count as one session.
Page views: A page view is when a person views one of your pages. If a reader goes to multiple pages in one session, then each page view will be counted as a separate view by Google. Thus, a reader can have multiple page views in one session.

You can find these numbers in your dashboard under Audience –> Overview where most likely, your data will show numbers for the past 30 days (the timeframe can be changed).

Demographics are other key blog metrics from Google Analytics that you’ll be looking to learn about your audience and write better for them, which in turn should bring more traffic from a similar audience base.

These metrics are also key for brands as they’ll want to know if your blog’s audience is similar to their perspective customer. Basically, they’ll use demographics to check if it’s worthwhile to work with you.

It’s not just about your page views! They want to make sure their product or service is something your audience would be interested in.

Demographics that you and brands may be interested in include but are not limited to:

Country
Age
Gender

You can find Country in the same Audience –> Overview section as the numbers above where Age and Gender you’ll find under Audience –> Demographics –> Overview.

In addition to the above, you may want to send specific blog post data to brands depending on what you’re pitching. Learn why you want to do this and where to find this data in my Google Analytics for Bloggers course.

Increasing Your Page Views with Google Analytics Data

Maybe it’s because I used to be an accountant, but I love going through Google Analytics information to help increase my page views!

I can see exactly how well my blog strategy is working, what my audience is like so I can better write for them and even how to update old posts with keywords people are using to find my blog.

You can learn this and more in my Google Analytics for Bloggers course, which is specifically designed to help you, a blogger, blog smarter and take the guessing game out of whether or not the way you blog is working.

Learn all the amazing things that Google Analytics can help you with!

I hoped learning how to install and track blog traffic in Google Analytics helped you get started on the right foot. Let’s dig deeper into Google Analytics together as I teach you everything I know about it.

Thanks for stopping by and please comment below with any questions about Google Analytics for WordPress blog!

xo, Sarah