WordPress Plugin for Google Analytics

I will show you how I inserted Google Analytics tracking code to this web site today.

I chose to write a WordPress plugin to accomplish this task but since I only manage 2 WordPress sites, I didn’t develop it with a lot of bells and whistles.

gid-wp-google-analytics.php

Using my favourite text/PHP editor, I created a PHP file: gid-wp-google-analytics.php. This is how it looks:

<?php

/*
Plugin Name: GID WP Google Analytics
Plugin URI: https://www.gidblog.com/wordpress-plugin-google-analytics/
Description: Inserts Google Analytics tracking code to web pages, in the header.
Author: J de Silva
Version: 1.0
*/

// Replace "NNNNN-N" with your Google Analytics site tracking ID
define( "GID_GAID", "NNNNN-N" );

function gid_google_analytics()
{
	// <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --> ?> 
  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-<?php echo GID_GAID; ?>"></script>
  <script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());

    gtag('config', 'UA-<?php echo GID_GAID; ?>');
  </script>
<?php
}
add_action( 'wp_head', 'gid_google_analytics', 10 );

Do not forget to paste your own Google Analytics tracking code ID in the PHP code before uploading the file. See line no. 12 above.

Upload gid-wp-google-analytics.php

Save the file and upload it to the /wp-content/plugins/ folder of your WordPress site. On my Linux laptop, with the scp command, this is as simple as:

scp -v $HOME/gid-wp-google-analytics.php [email protected]:/var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/

Finally, go to the Plugins page inside your WordPress site’s admin dashboard to activate this plugin.