Category: Blog

How to Setup Google Analytics on Your WordPress Website

Posted on by Lyndon Veale

In this post we’ll be explaining how to setup Google Analytics on your WordPress website. It is a very easy process that you can do in five minutes once you are familiar with your chosen plugin and the setup process.

Why Should I Use Google Analytics?

We could write an entire article on the importance of using Google Analytics on your website. It is a fundamental part of your website and growing your online presence, not using it is like hiking in heavy fog with no compass: you are just guessing what direction to go in.

Google Analytics tells you information such as where your visitors are coming from, what search terms they are using to find your website, how they found your site and what browsers they are using all of which is invaluable information when trying to grow your online presence.
You can also create goals and funnels to measure the performance of your site in important areas.

This is a great article on the importance of Google Analytics. 

OK, I’m Sold, How Do I Install Google Analytics on my WordPress Website?

The process of setting up Analytics in WordPress is a simple process. There are a number of plugins that take care of the code implementation for you and here at Ezone we favour Monster Insights as it is always kept up to date, and is super easy to setup. There are also various levels of premium subscription available that offer a host more functionality, however, for simply connecting your site with Google Analytics the free version does the job fantastically well.

Step 1: Go to https://www.google.com/analytics and create a Google Analytics account if you don’t already have one.

Step 2: Add your property to your Analytics account:

  1. Sign in to Google Analytics..
  2. Click ‘Admin’.
  3. Under the ‘account column’, use the menu to select the account to which you want to add the property.
  4. Under the ‘property’ column, select ‘Create new property’ from the dropdown menu.
  5. Select Website.
  6. Enter the Website name.
  7. Enter the Web Site URL.
  8. Select an Industry Category.
  9. Select the Reporting Time Zone.
  10. Click ‘Get Tracking ID’.
  11. Copy your tracking ID (Control and C).

Step 3: Install the Monster Insights plugin on your website:

In your website dashboard go to Plugins > Add New and search for ‘Monster’ and install and activate the plugin.

Step 4; Configure settings in Monster Insights

  1. Go to ‘Insights’ > ‘Settings’ and click ‘Authenticate with your Google account’.
  2. Click ‘Next’.
  3. Click the ‘Click to Get Google Code’ button.
  4. You will be asked to allow permission for the plugin to access your Analytics account, click ‘Allow’ .
  5. Copy the code that is created and go back to the Authentication screen and paste in your code and click ‘Next’.
  6. From the ‘Analytics Profile’ dropdown select the property you want to track (if this is your first website you will only have one) and click ‘Next’.
  7. You’re done!

While the above may seem like quite a long process it is actually quite straightforward, especially in comparison to manually inserting the tracking code in the header of your website and once you have done it a couple of times it starts to feel like a very slick process and one that we would strongly recommend is worth taking the time to set up.

Once you have completed the above process we recommend taking some time to familiarise yourself with the Google Analytics dashboard so that you know how to review your data and setup goals and funnels. Google’s ‘Analytics Academy’ is a great place to start: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/

 

WordPress Quick Tips: Distraction Free Writing

Posted on by Lyndon Veale

Do you find the WordPress editor cluttered when you are writing your blog posts? Between the left and right columns and all the information above and below the editor there is a lot going on on the page which can become irritating and this is where distraction free writing comes in.

WordPress features a handy little tool to hide all these extra elements allowing you to really focus on writing your content. This is done by click the ‘Distraction Free Writing Mode’ button in the top right of the editor:

Distraction Free Writing Button

Clicking this button hides all the excess panels, however, should you need them you don’t need to click the button again, simply mouse over where the panels used to be and they will reappear.

Distraction Free Writing

 

 

In this series of posts we will be covering tips and tricks to get the most out of WordPress, be it simple post editing, suggestions of useful plugins and themes, or working with widgets. Check back regularly for our most regular updates. 

 

 

Do I Need an SSL Certificate?

Posted on by Lyndon Veale

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Do I Need an SSL Certificate?

A question that many business ask is whether or not they need an SSL certificate for their website. Until recently the answer has been that if your users were entering sensitive information on your website such as name, address or payment details then you absolutely should be using an SSL certificate. However, if your users were not entering sensitive information on your site then it probably wasn’t necessary to have an SSL certificate.

But this all changed recently with Google announcing that they would be aiming to create a safer web:

“To help users browse the web safely, Chrome indicates connection security with an icon in the address bar. Historically, Chrome has not explicitly labelled HTTP connections as non-secure. Beginning in January 2017 (Chrome 56), we’ll mark HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure, as part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure.”

Not secure credit card

This means two things: Firstly, as stated, Google will mark http pages that collect passwords and payment details as non-secure in search results. Secondly it indicates that this will be expanded to include all http pages regardless of content in future.

“Eventually, we plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure, and change the HTTP security indicator to the red triangle that we use for broken HTTPS.”

Google Logo - SSL Certificate

This means that although it may not be immediately necessary to have an ssl certificate from the point of view of being marked secure or not there will come a time in the near future where it is essential.

However, Google have also announced that, in addition to marking sites as secure or not, they are penalising non-https sites position in search results.

This means that whether you are handling sensitive information or not if you want to continue to rank highly in Google search you need your website to be on a secure SSL connection.

What Actually is an SSL Certificate?

Put simply an SSL certificate is a small data file that binds a cryptographic key to an organisation’s details. When installed on a server this allows the website to pass information between the user and the server in a scrambled format that is only decipherable using the cryptographic key. In this way it is possible to pass sensitive information in a much more secure way making your site less susceptible to hackers using methods such as man in the middle attacks.

When an SSL Certificate is active on a website you will see the padlock symbol in the address bar and https (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) in the web address instead of plain http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

address-bar SSL Certificate

How Do I Get an SSL Certificate?

SSL Certificates are available from a number of different providers including RapidSSL and Symantec and many hosting providers also offer SSL Certificates.

If you don’t want to have to spend the time working out how to set up an SSL Certificate yourself then check out our SSL Certificate setup service. We’ll guide you through the purchase of your SSL Certificate and then do all the leg work installing and configuring it for you.

 

 

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Ezone at WordCamp Europe 2016

Posted on by Lyndon Veale

Here at Ezone Interactive one of the reasons that we use the WordPress platform is because it is open source, meaning that there are millions of people working and contributing to improving it all the time. This means that any security problems, or compatibility issues are usually fixed extremely quickly after being identified and, just as importantly, keeps WordPress on the leading edge of content management systems. Continue reading “Ezone at WordCamp Europe 2016”

The Importance of Mobile Friendly Websites Just Got Even Greater

Posted on by Ezone Interactive

Is your website mobile friendly? If not you could be missing out on more than 50% of your website’s potential as the importance of mobile friendly websites continues to grow. In 2015 the rise of smartphones is continuing and it is vital that you ensure you are catering to this market. Continue reading “The Importance of Mobile Friendly Websites Just Got Even Greater”

New gTLDs launching every week – why are they needed?

Posted on by Iain Taylor

So, this week I am going to explore the world of domain names. Specifically I will write about the weekly launch of the New gTLDs (otherwise known as domain name extensions) and will ask why we need them? Domain name extension (gTLD) refers to the end part of the domain after the final dot e.g. .com or .co.uk Continue reading “New gTLDs launching every week – why are they needed?”

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