If you are a blogger or you have a website, the website is very important to grow your business. That website can be a very effective tool for your income. For this, it is very important to keep track of the performance of your website. The number of visitors helps you understand what content resonates with your audience. Also, how fast your site loads tells you a lot about the quality of your web hosting provider as well as the themes and plugins you use on your site.

Google looks for the tools that can help you monitor your website’s performance. However, accessing those reports requires logging in and leaving some extra tabs open that can be annoying.

It really depends on how your website is performing with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). To check how WordPress plugins help to rank your website, please read my article “Top 8 must-have WordPress plugins for SEO to boost your ranking“.

What if I say that you can access those analytics right in your WordPress dashboard? Yes, you heard it right. Amazingly, the plugin comes straight from Google.

What Is Google Site Kit for WordPress?

Google Site Kit for WordPress is a free WordPress plugin by Google. (You can download it from here). It currently integrates four of their main tools and products that will help you grow, optimize, and monetize your WordPress website.

After installing this open-source plugin on your WordPress website, you can track the performance and visitor insights of your website on your dashboard. Plus, since Google has created it, you can add a lot of things to it without any issues and hassles.

Now you know the basics about Google Site Kit. Let us now know its features.

Google Site Kit for WordPress Plugin Features

Now that we’ve covered what the Google Site Kit for WordPress is, let’s take a look at the features it comes with.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console will be the first important service that’s enabled once you install and configure the Google Site Kit for WordPress plugin. This integration will allow you to see how Google discovers your content and how they index it.

You will also be able to see which search terms people used to come to your website. This can help you understand how your site appears to visitors in the search engines and it can guide your content creation process.

The Google Search Console service was formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools. Now its name has been changed and some tools have also been improved.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights allows you to test how fast or your website loads on desktop and mobile devices. Once you enable it within the GoogleSite Kit for WordPress plugin, you’ll be able to easily see the page speed load times for your homepage.

You can then click the link to see a more detailed report in Google PageSpeed Insights page. There, you will find a list of all issues that are causing your site to load slow. Google also suggests solutions to fix the errors.

Google AdSense

As of now, you probably know that you can monetize your website with Google AdSense. After installing Google Site Kit for WordPress, you will be able to easily monitor how much money your site is making.

The plugin will display which ads are performing best and you can get even more data from the Google AdSense dashboard which is only a click away.

Google Analytics

The Google Site Kit for WordPress plugin makes it very easy to access your Google Analytics data. Once you connect your Analytics account, you can track how much traffic your website is getting regularly, a snapshot of where your audience is coming from, and which pages or posts are getting the most views.

As with other Google’s tools and products on this list, you can easily get more details about your website traffic by clicking a link that takes you straight to your Google Analytics dashboard.

Google Tag Manager and Optimize

Lastly, once you connect Google Analytics, you will gain access to two additional tools from Google: the Tag Manager and Optimize.

Tag Manager will allow you to create custom tags so you can track various events on your website such as PDF downloads, cart abandonment, offsite links, and more.

Optimize will help you run A/B tests on your site so you can see which version of a page on your site performs better. You can create test versions of your checkout page, homepage, or any other page on your website with Optimize and the analysis data will show up in your WordPress dashboard. 

Google Site Kit for WordPress Plugin Installation and Configuration

With that out of the way, let’s briefly go through the installation and setup process for Google Site Kit for WordPress plugin.

Step 1: Search the Plugin

The first step is to go to Plugins>Add New> and search the plugin. The plugin is compatible with all major versions and available in the plugin repository.

Step 2: Install and Activate the Plugin

Once you find the Google Site Kit plugin, click on “Install Now” button and then activate the plugin. So, you will now land on the Setup wizard on the Dashboard.

Step 3: Start the Setup

Now that the plugin has been installed, you will need to configure the plugin. You can click the Start the Setup button and you’ll be taken to screen that outlines the steps you’ll need to go through. 

Step 4: Authenticate and Verify URL

To start the authentication process, simply click the “Sign in with Google” button and you’ll see Google account login window. While this may sound scary, it’s a lot easier than you might expect. 

All you have to do is log in with your Google account (or Gmail account) and the plugin will pull all the necessary information from your site.

Google will now connect your site to the Search Console and you will need to grant it access so go ahead and do so. Once the process has been finished, you’ll see that the setup process is done. 

Step 5: Connect Additional Services

After the Search Console has been connected, you can now connect other services to your site. This includes Analytics, AdSense, and others. Keep in mind that each service will ask you to authorize access to your site and your account so be sure to grant all the necessary permissions. 

Final Thoughts

Keeping track of your website traffic and performance will give you plenty of insight into your visitors’ preferences and help you optimize your website for the best user experience. With the help of Google Site Kit for WordPress, you can easily monitor the important stats right from your WordPress dashboard. Download and install it on your WordPress website and track your website’s performance.