Google Analytics – Machiine

Step by step strategy on how to grow your blog’s traffic

This is a graph of Machiine.com’s web traffic over the last 12 months (April 2012 – April 2013). You will notice that while the number’s aren’t huge, they show steady growth. I’ve posted on 3 blogs over the last 4 years and noticed some similarities between all of them. Here is a summary of what I’ve learned about blog traffic.

If you have a blog you write content on, it’s probably because you’ve learned something and want to share your experience or knowledge with others. It’s encouraging to see that the time you spend on writing the articles is paying off. Conversely seeing little to no growth in traffic is über discouraging. If you are at this point, before you give up, read this article. I hope it will encourage you to continue. Maybe it’s not the way you write, but the types of articles you are writing. This tutorial will walk you through the steps to grow your traffic.

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Tutorial: How to add Google Analytics to WordPress

Step 1. Sign up for Google Analytics

Step 2. Add a New Account

Once you are logged into Google Analytics:

Create New Analytics Account

Click + New Account.
On the Create New Accountpage, under General Information, enter your account name and the URL for your web property. You may see that the Account Name field has a default value of the URL for your web property. You can change that value to something more meaningful.
Under Data Sharing Settings, select the data-sharing options you want.
Under User Agreement, select your country or territory from the menu, read the terms of service, then select the check box for Yes, I agree to the above terms and conditions
Click Create Account.

Step 3. After creating your account you will see your tracking code. Copy your analytics code for later use.

Step 4. Add code to WordPress

I will be using the functions method.

Login to your WordPress admin.
Expand the Appearance tab and click Editor on the menu.

In the Edit Themes page you will see a list of files on your right. Click functions.php

Now on the top of the functions.php file below the comments add this code. Remember to paste your Google Analytics code from Step 3 here.

add_action('wp_footer', 'add_googleanalytics');
function add_googleanalytics() { ?>
	// Paste your Google Analytics code from Step 3 here
<? }

Now you have installed Google Analytics to your WordPress site. It takes 24 hours for Google Analytics to start showing your results. Log into your Google Analytics account in the next couple of days and you will see your traffic stats.