Last Updated on 1 year by Komolafe Bamidele
Setting up author tracking on your WordPress site by MonsterInsights is a great thing to do if you have multiple authors writing for your blog.
This way you can track the performance of each author and get the rights stats that will help you make better future decisions.
If you already have a Google Analytics account, you can go ahead and link the MonsterInsights plugin and enable author tracking immediately.
In this article, I’ll show you how to set up author tracking on your WordPress site by MonsterInsights.
If this is your first time encountering MonsterInsights or Google Analytics and you’re yet to install them on your site, don’t fret. I’ll still put you through.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is one of the free web analytics services (though it has a premium version – Google Analytics 360) offered by Google. It provides tools that allow you to track metrics like
- Your site’s traffic
- Your site’s users
- Your webpages and their performance
- And so much more…
What is MonsterInsights?
MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin and the #1 plugin that integrates perfectly into Google Analytics. This plugin allows you to connect your WordPress site to your Google Analytics.
This way you can view your Google Analytics stats right in your WordPress site dashboard. Its also improves the accuracy of the metrics you get from Google Analytics.
Lastly, it allows you to track many more metrics than you would have if you were using Google Analytics alone.
What Can I Track With Author Tracking On WordPress Site Using MonsterInsights?
By enabling author tracking in your WordPress site using MonsterInsights you will able to
- Discover the best-performing author of your blog
- View which author’s post engage visitors and keep them on your site
- View author’s performance report quickly for optimization
- Sort page views for articles by an author
MonsterInsights Pricing
MonsterInsights comes with a free version that allows you to track basic metrics, however, this version is limited. To use the Author Tracking feature, you will have to upgrade to one of its pricing plans.
While all MonsterInsights plans provide you with access to many beneficial features, you will need to upgrade to either its Pro plan or its Agency plan if you want to use the Author Tracking feature.
As you can see in the picture above, you will not only be given access to the Author Tracking feature but also to other features like
- Ecommerce Report
- Form Conversions
- Custom Dimensions
- Author Tracking
- Category / Tags Tracking
- Google Optimize
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- MemberPress
- LifterLMS
- 5 sites
- Priority Support
There are many more features that come with the Pro plan and we believe these features justify the hefty price of the plan.
How To Set Up Author Tracking On WordPress Site using MonsterInsights?
Step 1: Install and Activate MonsterInsights Plugin
To activate author tracking in your site using MonsterInsights, you will have to install and activate MonsterInsights Plugin
- Log in to your WordPress site dashboard
- Click “Plugins” and select “Add New“
- Type “MonsterInsights” in the search box
- You will see the plugin “Google
Analytics by MonsterInsights” in the top results for the keyword search. - Click “Install” and activate it.
You can learn more about installing and activating MonsterInsights on your WordPress site here.
Step 2: Link Google Analytics to Your Site with MonsterInsights
If you have already linked your Google Analytics with MonsterInsights, you can skip this step. If not, you can follow this guide on how to connect Google Analytics to your site with MonsterInsights. Through this guide, you will also know how to set up the plugin and track relevant metrics.
Step 3: Install and Activate Custom Dimensions Addon
To active author tracking, you will need to add the custom dimensions in MonsterInsights
- Go to your WordPress site dashboard.
- On the menu, click on Insights >> Addons
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Next, navigate to the MonsterInsights Custom Dimensions addon and click the “Install” button.
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Once it is successfully installed, you will be prompted to activate the addon.
- Click on the “Activate” button.
Step 4: Add Custom Dimensions in MonsterInsights
- On your WordPress site dashboard, click on Insights >> Settings.
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Click on “Conversions” on the menu tab. Then navigate to the Custom Dimensions sections.
- Next, click on “Add New Custom
Dimension“. When done, you’ll start seeing many dimensions. -
Click on the drop-down menu and select the dimension “Author“. No need to save changes, MonsterInsights will do that automatically.
With that, you’ve successfully set up a Custom Dimension, Author in your site. But you’ll have to do the same in your Google Analytics to track your Authors’ stats.
Step 5: Set Up Custom Dimensions In Google Analytics
- Login to your Google Analytics account.
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Select the WordPress site for which you have set up the custom dimensions.
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Go to the left panel and click on the “Admin tab. On the Custom Definitions section, click “Custom Dimension“.
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Click on the “New Custom Dimension button“
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Type in the Author in the Name field. Leave the other settings the way they are and click on “Create“.
- Click the “Done” button to completely
Step 6: Match Custom Dimensions IDs
The final step is to confirm that the index number in Google Analytics tallies with the Custom Dimension ID in the MonsterInsights settings.
To this:
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Check the index number of the Author in your Google Analytics account
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Open your Custom
Dimensions settings in your MonsterInsights. And check to see if the Custom Dimension ID there matches with the index number in your Google Analytics. If it’s different, simply type in the correct number and save the changes.
How To Track Author Using MonsterInsights
When done, you can now track author performance on your WordPress site using MonsterInsights custom dimensions report.
The benefits of using MonsterInsights to track author performance over Google Analytics is that you won’t have to create manual repot to search by an author as you would with Google Analytics.
MonsterInsights automatically identifies and tracks different authors on your site. Also, you will be able to view your site authors report straight from your WordPress dashboard.
To view your authors’ report, simply go to Reports and then select Dimensions.
When done, a list of all the authors on your site will appear. Through that list, you will know the most popular authors of your site that generate the highest traffic to your site.
With this data, you can determine which author to promote for which content on your site and the type of content you need to focus more on to get more visitors to your site.
How to Search by Author in Google Analytics
Below, you will find the steps to follow to track authors in Google Analytics.
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Login to your Google Analytics and navigate to Customization >> Custom Reports in the left panel.
- Next, in the Report Content section, click to specify your preferred metrics group
- When done, move to the Dimensions Drilldowns, add Author as your dimension. Then click the “Save” button.
You will be shown a custom traffic report with the Author as the primary dimension
How to Modify Your Traffic Report With Author Tracking
To see more on author performance, choose ‘Author’ as your secondary dimension in Google Analytics.
To do this,
- Go to Behavior >> Site Content. Then click on “All Pages”.
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You will find some primary dimensions on this page. Select any primary dimension, say Page Title. Then, choose “Author” as your secondary dimension.
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When done, you will notice that an author column has been added to the report. This will show the author’s name next to each blog title. Through this report, you can track the posts of the best performing authors.
Benefits of MonsterInsights On Your Site
Surely, the pricing plans of this plugin are everything but cheap and they would make the average site owner turn around without giving them a second look, but there are many reasons why you should not only install MonsterInsights on your WordPress site but also pay for its premium features.
The plugin has been named the #1 Google Analytics plugin not just because it is the only one out there, but because it is effective and allows you to track hundreds of metrics you won’t be able to access with Google Analytics.
Below are some of the features of the MonsterInsights Plugin
- Affiliate Link Tracking: You can easily track your affiliate links with Google Analytics and know how well they are performing on your site.
- Outbound Link Tracking: Linking is very important for SEO and it can help you discover beneficial opportunities. This feature allows you to track your outbound link clicks.
- File Download Tracking: This feature allows you to track your file downloads. Through the metric, you can see which files are getting most downloads, from which countries, pages, etc. It allows you to track, exe, js, pdf, ppt, tgz, zip, and xls files.
- Scroll Tracking: With this feature, you will know just how much of your content your readers go through before moving to another page or leaving your site.
Other features of MonsterInsights
- Page Insights
- Real-Time Report
- Ecommerce Report
- Search Console
- Form Conversions
- File Downloads
- Enhanced Link Tracking
- Banner Ads
- Performance
- Google AMP
- FB Instant Articles
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- Logged-in User Tracking
- Category / Tags Tracking
- SEO Score Tracking
Conclusion
Tracking your authors in Google Analytics with MonsterInsights is the best way to get accurate data on author performance.
This plugin allows you to get stats straight from your WordPress site dashboard without having to use a single line of code. This is one of the many reasons why MonsterInsights is considered the best Google Analytics plugin.