How to Track WordPress Categories in Google Analytics (The Simple Way)

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Do you want to know which WordPress categories and tags are the most popular on your site? By default, Google Analytics doesn’t track WordPress categories and tags.

But, there’s an easy way to track WordPress tags. All you need is to set up custom dimensions in Google Analytics. Sound hard? It’s not!

In this article, we’ll show you how to track WordPress categories in Google Analytics using a simple method.

Start Tracking Your WordPress Categories Today!

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What are WordPress Categories and Tags?

WordPress categories are used to group and sort content on your website. They are helpful if you cover a wide range of topics and you want to classify them into categories.

For example, categories can include tutorials, news, announcements, marketing, tools, or whatever you decide on.

Now, are you also wondering how to use tags in WordPress?

WordPress tags also help you sort and organize your content, but on a smaller scale than categories. While categories are a broad range of topics, you can think of tags as specific keywords to describe the content. In short, both help with WordPress content grouping.

For more information, you can check out this guide on how to set up categories in WordPress.

With that, let’s take a look at what custom dimensions are and how they can help in tracking categories and tags.

What are Custom Dimensions?

Custom dimensions allow you to collect and analyze data that matter to your website, which Analytics doesn’t automatically track, like Categories, Tags, Author, etc.

Custom dimensions are just like the default dimensions that you can find in Google Analytics (example: gender, region, all pages, traffic sources, etc.), except you create them yourself.

For more details, you can read the beginners guide to custom dimensions.

Video Tutorial

If you’re interested in reading the written step by step process then continue to the next section.

Setting Up Custom Dimensions to Track Categories and Tags

Setting up custom dimensions on your website can be a hassle, especially if you’re not an Analytics expert, since you have to modify your tracking code.

But with MonsterInsights, you can easily set them up without having to touch a single line of code. All you need to do is to install the Custom Dimensions addon and set up Google Analytics WordPress categories tracking.

Follow the below steps to start tracking WordPress categories and tags on your website.

Step 1: Install MonsterInsights

The first thing you need to do is to install MonsterInsights on your site and properly connect it with Google Analytics.

For a step by step tutorial, learn how to properly set up Google Analytics with MonsterInsights.

Now, do you want to know how to track tags in Google Analytics? Then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Set Up Categories And Tags Tracking

To track WordPress categories and tags, you need to install the Custom Dimensions addon.

To install the addon, go to Insights » Addons and click Activate under MonsterInsights Dimensions.

Then go to Insights » Settings. Once there, you can click on the Conversions tab on the upper tab row, and then navigate to the Custom Dimensions.

You can now select the Type from the dropdown menu for tracking. Select whether you want to track category or tags. If you want, you can set up both of them and even more dimension type tracking.

Step 3: Set Up Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics

Now that we’ve set up the Custom Dimensions correctly on your website, we’ll have to set them up in Google Analytics as well.

To get started, you can go to Google Analytics, log in and Access Google Analytics.

Now you can click on the Website Data (or the name you gave your View).

This will send you to the reporting part of Google Analytics. However, since we need to set up Custom Dimensions, you’ll have to click on the Admin tab in the left panel.

On the Admin page, click Custom Definitions and then Custom Dimensions.

You’ll see a table where you can click + New Custom Dimension. Click that.

Now you can fill in the name of your new Custom Dimension based on the dimension type you chose in Step 2. For example, if you chose Author as the dimension type, make sure to add the name as Author.

After entering the dimension name, click Create. You don’t have to change any of the other settings.

On the next screen, you can just click Done.

Repeat the steps above for all custom dimensions you want to add to your website.

Step 4: Match Custom Dimension IDs

The final step is to check that the index number in Google Analytics corresponds with the Custom Dimension ID in the MonsterInsights settings.

First, check the index number for your custom dimensions in Google Analytics.

Next, go back to your Custom Dimensions settings in MonsterInsights. Make sure the Custom Dimension ID corresponds to the index number in Google Analytics. If not, type in the correct number and click Save Changes.

Now you can go to Insights » Reports and click on the Dimensions tab to view your new custom dimension reports.

After you set up WordPress categories and tags tracking, it may take some time to start getting data. Once it is done, you can find the report in MonsterInsights and Google Analytics.

How to View WordPress Categories in Google Analytics

You can customize your traffic report by choosing Categories or Tags as your secondary dimension.

To see Google Analytics categories, navigate to Behavior » Site Content » All Pages. Click on any primary dimension, say Page Title. Then, choose Category or Tags as the secondary dimension. This will add the corresponding column to the report you are looking at.