Wondering how to set up author tracking in WordPress?
Then you are in the right place.
Check out this post and learn how to set up author tracking on your WordPress site.
Why You Need to Set up Author Tracking
If you have multiple authors on your blog, it will be difficult to track the performance of each author.
If you set up author tracking, it helps you:
- Find top-performing authors on your blog.
- View authors by total page views.
- Check which authors write the best content on your blog.
- Discover the most popular posts on your site.
How to Set Up Author Tracking in WordPress?
You can track your blog author’s performance in Google Analytics. But there are no default settings for that. You need to add some custom settings to enable that feature.
With the MonsterInsights plugin, you can set Google Analytics up to enable author tracking automatically.
Install MonsterInsights for Author Tracking
MonsterInsights is one of the best plugins for your WordPress Site. It is also the best Analytics plugin.
You can track the audience in real-time directly from your WordPress dashboard itself.
You can also monitor digital downloads, affiliate links, banner ads, and outbound links with this plugin.
Setup the plugin using the steps given below:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Click “Plugins” and select “Add New”.
- Type “MonsterInsights” in the search box.
- Click on “Install Now” and activate the plugin.
Connect Google Analytics to Your Site with MonsterInsights
To connect your Google Analytics with MonsterInsights, click “Connect MonsterInsights”.
Google will collect information about your site visitors and send it to your MonsterInsights account.
Follow the onscreen steps to permit for MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account.
Select the correct website and click “Complete Authentication”.
Now, you’ve successfully set up and installed Google Analytics on your WordPress site.
Set up Author tracking in WordPress with MonsterInsights
To enable Author Tracking in MonsterInsights, you need to add the Author as the custom dimension in the plugin.
Follow the steps below to enable the custom tracking in the MonsterInsights plugin.
- From the dashboard of your WordPress, go to “Insights” and click on “Settings”.
- Select the “Tracking” tab from the upper row, and then click “Custom Dimensions” in the left-side menu.
- Click “Add new custom dimension”, select Author, and save the changes.
Once custom dimensions are added to the plugin, you need to set it up on Google Analytics.
Follow the steps below to set up custom dimensions in Google Analytics.
- Login to your Google Analytics account, and select the website you want to set up the Author custom dimension.
- Navigate to the “Admin” tab on the left menu, and then click “Custom Definitions” > “Custom Dimensions”.
- Then click on the New Custom Dimension tab.
Create a new custom dimension by adding the author in the “Name” field. Click “Create” and click on “Done”.
The last thing you need to do is to match the index number in Google Analytics with Custom Dimension ID in the MonsterInsights settings.
Note the index number for the author in Google Analytics and match it with the custom dimension ID index number in Monsterinsights and make sure it matches.
Else, enter the same number you noted from Google Analytics’ index column for the Author dimension and click on the ‘Save Changes button.
How to Find Your Blog Author Stats in WordPress?
You can start tracking the performance of your authors with the MonsterInsights Custom Dimension Report.
On the MonsterInsights plugin, click on “Reports” and click “Dimensions”.
It will show the popular authors and the traffic to your site.
How to Track Author In Google Analytics?
To track the author in Analytics, you need to add custom reports.
On your analytics account, create a custom report by clicking “Customization” > “Custom Reports”.
On the Report Content tab, specify at least one metric that you want to track such as page views, bounce rate, etc.
In “Dimension Drilldowns”, add Author as your dimension and click “Save”.
Once the changes are saved, you can view the traffic report for your author dimension.
How to Customize Your Traffic Report in Google Analytics?
To track your blog author further, you need to create a custom author report in Google Analytics by selecting “Author” as a secondary dimension.
- In your Google Analytics account, go to “Behavior” > “Site Content” > “All Pages”.
- Choose any primary dimension that you like. For example, Page Title.
- Next, select “Author” from the Secondary Dimension dropdown.
Now, you can see that there’s a new “Author” column on your custom report, next to each article title.
You can then sort the order, change the settings and create more personalized reports for your blog authors.
If you prefer, you can also export your reports as spreadsheets from Google Analytics.
Final Words
That’s all about the easy steps to set up author tracking in WordPress with MonsterInsights.
If you wish to track multiple authors, MonsterInsights is a great tool.
