Most WordPress website operators focus on building effective SEO strategies. To know if you’re on the right track with your strategy, you need to know how many people visit your website, who they are, where they come from, and what exactly they do when they land on your WordPress website.
In other words, you need to track the page views of WordPress users. This will help you determine which pages visitors prefer to visit and which articles attract them to your site. Based on this, you can develop the best plan to attract more visitors and improve your website’s ranking.
Today we’re going to introduce you to 3 plugins that will help you track page views on your WordPress website.
How to track WordPress user pageviews
Different website configurations require specific tracking methods. In this section, we will introduce you to 3 different plugins you can choose from.
- Track total pageviews with MonsterInsights
- Track the page views of users based on user roles with User Insights
- Track user views based on passwords entered with PPWP Pro
Track total page views with MonsterInsights
When it comes to tracking user page views, Google Analytics is the most popular tool.
With Google Analytics, you can find out the number of visitors to your website. You can also retrieve data and metrics for your website, such as the total number of visitors, topics of interest, and demographics.
Google Analytics is the most powerful website analytics service on the market. However, it is a bit complex for beginners. This is where the MonsterInsights plugin comes into play. This plugin helps you organize Google Analytics statistics in a much more intuitive way.
Below you will find a step-by-step guide on how to use this plugin.
Step 1 – Install the MonsterInsights Plugin
The plugin is available in both a free and a paid version, so you can use the plugin that suits you best. The free version offers you basic features, while the paid version offers advanced tracking options.
You can install the free plugin directly from the official WordPress plugin repository by typing MonsterInsights in the search box. This is available under Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin dashboard.
If you have a premium version, simply go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin to install and activate it on your website.
Step 2 – Connect MonsterInsights with Google Analytics
Once you have activated the plugin, you need to connect it to Google Analytics. To do this, go to Insights > Settings in your WordPress admin area. Here, click on the Connect MonsterInsights button.
That’s it! Once the setup process is complete, Google Analytics will start collecting information about visitors to your website. Accordingly, you can see how many visitors are on your WordPress site.
Here are the 7 most important Google Analytics reports that display the data about the page views of your WordPress website.
- Overview report
- Real-time reports – The number of visitors currently on your website
- Publisher report
- E-commerce report
- Search Console Report
- Custom dimensions report
- Report on forms
As a side note, it may take a few hours for Google to show you the tracked data for the first time.
Track users’ page views based on user roles
If you want to track the activities of specific users who have landed on your website, you can use the Page Visit Tracking module of the Users Insights plugin.
With this module, you can find out which pages your WordPress users visit while they are logged in. You can also specify which post types should be tracked and for which user roles this feature should be activated.
Once activated, Users Insights records the visit every time the user opens one of the tracked pages/posts. You can make the most of the plugin by following the steps below.
Step 1 – Install the User Insights Plugin
As this is a premium plugin, you must first purchase a license for the User Insights plugin. Then you need to upload the plugin to your website by going to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin in your WordPress dashboard.
Don’t forget to activate the plugin afterwards.
Step 2 – Activate the page visit tracking module
Navigate to the “Module options” page and activate the “Page visit tracking” option. You can then select the roles of the users whose visits you would like to record.
You can also select specific post types that you want to track from all public posts on your website. Click on “Save changes” and you are done.
Now you can view the tracking by either searching your users based on page visits or viewing the page visit data in the user profiles.
Note that Users Insights tracks users’ page views as soon as the feature is activated. This means that data about previous visits will not be available. Users must also log in for their visits to be recorded.
Track users’ page views based on the passwords they enter
If I want to protect my pages with passwords, can I track who has visited them with the correct passwords? Yes, you can do this with the PPWP Pro plugin and its PPWP Statistics extension.
The PPWP Pro plugin allows you to protect your content with a password, including the entire website, individual pages, or partial content. Only those who have the correct password can access your private area.
Let’s say you are organizing an online giveaway to increase your brand awareness. Only those who have the right codes can access it and place orders with you. Of course, you also want to get the visitors’ data to use for the upcoming marketing program.
For this you need real-time tracking. Let the PPWP Statistics extension help you. Here is the step-by-step guide on how to achieve this.
Step 1 – Install PPWP Pro and PPWP Statistics
Once you have purchased the PPWP Pro plugin and the PPWP Statistics extension, you will receive 2 zip files.
At this point, navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin in your WordPress dashboard to upload the plugin files.
Then click on Install and activate now to set up the plugin on your website.
Step 2 – Protect content with PPWP Pro
PPWP Pro allows you to protect the entire website, individual pages, and partial content.
Protect the entire website
To protect the entire website, go to Password Protect WordPress > Sitewide Protection submenu in your admin dashboard.
Activate the Password protect sitewide option here and then enter your passwords.
Protect individual pages
After activating the plugin, you will see a new column “Password protection” under the Pages or Posts screen.
Click on Password protect and then on Password protect this page below the popup to protect your private content. Our plugin will automatically generate a new password after protection.
Partially protect content
To protect a part of a page, you just need to include it with the shortcode below:
[ppwp passwords= "password1 password2"] Your content [/ppwp]
Replace “password1” and “password2” with your own passwords. That’s all there is to it. As soon as users access your protected content with passwords, the statistics are recorded in the PPWP statistics extension.
Step 3 – Show password usage tracking
In your admin dashboard, navigate to Password Protection for WordPress > Statistics. Here you can select which password types should be recorded.
You can see who has visited the private content, when and from where it was accessed, and how often a particular password was used. All these statistics can also be exported to a CSV file. You can also view IP addresses to find out where your users are coming from.
Conclusion
We’ve shown you 3 different ways to track page views on your WordPress website. Depending on your specific needs, you can choose one or all of the plugins listed.
While the MonsterInsights plugin collects general information about all visitors to your website, UsersInsights provides you with detailed activities of specific user roles. If you want to track who has accessed your password-protected content, PPWP Pro and its extension PPWP Statistics are worth checking out.
