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Insert Google Analytics Tracking Code in WordPress without Plugin

Google Analytics is a free website tracking tool that helps track the anonymous data and user’s behavior on your site. We need to add the simple tracking code in the website head section and start analyzing the website performance. WordPress allows inserting this tracking code directly into the head tag without a plugin.

Google Analytics is the ultimate online program for analyzing user and website traffic. By using the Google Analytics tracking code on our WordPress blog, we can understand how our blog is performing and judge the most exciting topics for our users.

Google Analytics is a free web-based tool; anyone with a Google account or Gmail ID can sign up and benefit from the tool.

In this article, we will learn how to sign up for a Google Analytics account and set up the tracking code in the WordPress blog for User behavior analysis.

If you’re following us, this is the ninth article and video tutorial in the #WordPressBlog series. We previously published the Free CDN for CSS Styles and JS Scripts.

Let’s dive into getting Google Analytics Tracking Code for our WordPress Blog —

Sign up for Free Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool; anyone with a Google account can sign up and take benefit of this fantastic tool. Follow the below steps to sign up for Google Analytics:

Google Analytics Sign up Page
  1. Access analytics.google.com on your favorite browser
  2. On the Signup page, click on the Sign Up button and log in with your Gmail ID
  3. Fill in the form with basic details about your site and category type of site
    Google Analytics Sign Up form Industry Category
  4. Submit the signup form and accept the terms & conditions along with the GDPR compliance policy
    Google Analytics Data and GDPR Terms and Conditions
  5. That’s it; you will now navigate to the Google Analytics Administration page

You’ve now successfully signed up for a free Google Analytics account.

Get the Google Analytics Tracking Code

Once you’re on the Administration page after the first-time signup, you will either display the Google Analytics tracking code to implement on your site. Or may need to navigate to get the tracking snippet.

Follow these steps to get the Google Analytics tracking code:

  1. Login to Google Analytics account
  2. Click on the Admin tab with the Gear icon — there will be three sections: Account, Property, and View.
  3. Select Tracking Info > Tracking Code under the Property section
  4. Under the Website Tracking section within the Tracking Code, you will find the Global Site Tag (gtag.js)
  5. That’s your Google Analytics Tracking Code with tracking ID: UA-XXXXXX
Google Analytics Tracking Code

Copy the tracking snippet and paste with <head> ... </head> tag in your website.

Inserting Google Analytics Tracking Code

We can easily insert the Google Analytics tracking code into a WordPress site without extra plugins. Follow the below steps to insert the GA Tracking code:

  1. Login to WordPress Dashboard
  2. Navigate to Theme Editor under the Appearance menu
  3. Open the header.php file in Theme Editor
    WordPress Theme header.php file location
  4. Lookup for the closing head tag – </head>
  5. Copy and paste the Google Analytics Tracking Code just before closing </head> tag
  6. Update and Save the header.php file in Theme Editor
  7. That’s it!
Google Analytics Tracking Code in WordPress header.php file

The GA tracking code is inserted into WordPress <head> across the site.

Refresh and Test the Real-Time Visitor

Once the GA tracking code is installed, you can check your visit session in the Real-time overview report.

  1. Login to Google Analytics account
  2. Hover and click on the left-sidebar tab with the name – Realtime
  3. And select the Overview Report within the Realtime tab
Google Analytics Realtime Overview Report

Here you’ll be able to check all the pages you’re interacting with your site in real-time.

Quickly navigate some pages or posts on your site and notice the Per second graph for the number of Pageviews. The Top active pages will display the page that you’re currently visiting.

You can also check other reports tomorrow to see your complete interaction aggregated with other visitors you received on the website. However, you cannot identify yourself unless you’re the only visitor on your new site.

Google Analytics is also available as a native smartphone app on Android and iOS devices.

Watch Google Analytics Setup for WordPress

Video tutorials on how to get the Google Analytics Tracking Snippet and also insert it into the WordPress <head>. You can also view the real-time visits in an instant.

Easily insert Google Analytics tracking code in WordPress 🌐 without Plugin

I hope you liked the video; please subscribe to our channel.

What’s next in the #WordPressBlog Series?

Now that we have installed the Google Analytics tracking code in our WordPress blog, we will next add and set up Rank Math plugin for the On-Page Search Engine Optimization plugin.

Kushal Azza

Kushal Azza

Kushal Azza is a Google Certified IT Professional, Digital Content Creator, and Go-To Digital Marketer. He has over a decade of experience solving tech problems, troubleshooting, and creating digital solutions. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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