Easy How To: Track File Downloads in Google Analytics
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Do you offer eBooks, Word documents, or samples in your online writing portfolio? Do you have downloadable resources on your website? If so, tracking how many times your visitors download your resources can help you determine what’s attracting more views and making people stick around.
Why Should You Track File Downloads?
Tracking file downloads provides essential data to help you better understand your audience. Knowing what your viewers want will help you create content that connects to their specific interests and needs, and of course, increase the number of downloads you get from your website.
This way, you can save time, effort, and money by focusing on creating valuable content that your visitors really want. The only problem is since most website owners use Google Analytics, it, unfortunately, doesn’t track file downloads. But that’s where MonsterInsights comes in!
MonsterInsights is one of the best Google Analytics plugins for WordPress, and we’ll show you how to set up file download tracking on your WordPress website as easily as possible. By adding a file download tracking plugin, you’ll get the following benefits:
- See the most popular downloadable resources on your website;
- Know which downloadable items are interesting to your clients;
- Save time and increase revenues by producing the most appropriate downloadable material for your audience;
- And boost your digital marketing strategy.
Related Post: How to Easily Set Up Form Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
How Can You Track File Downloads in Google Analytics?
Setting up file download tracking in Google Analytics is not always easy for writers. In fact, if you’re someone with zero technical skills, it can be a pretty confusing and difficult task. Fortunately, a plugin like MonsterInsights makes it very easy to set up file download tracking in Google Analytics without learning how to code.
This plugin is perfect for writers. It just takes a few minutes to complete the setup. With the MonsterInsights plugin (in its plus version or higher), you’ll be able to view analytics directly from your WordPress dashboard. Let’s go through the step-by-step process to track file downloads on your website.
Step 1. Install MonsterInsights
First of all, you have to integrate MonsterInsights with Google Analytics. This is a very easy task. If you already have a Google Analytics account, then head on over to your WordPress dashboard and click on Plugins » Add New.
Find the plugin by typing “MonsterInsights” in the search box. “Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights” will appear in the top results for the keyword search. Click Install Now and activate.
Alternatively, you can go to MonsterInsight’s website and download the WordPress plugin.
Just log in and click on Downloads to get the plugin.
After downloading MonsterInsights from their site, go back to your WordPress dashboard and click on Upload Plugins. Activate the MonsterInsights plugin.
Step 2. Connect Google Analytics to MonsterInsights
After activating the plugin, you will need to connect your Google Analytics account to your WordPress using MonsterInsights.
To do this, you’ll have to click on “Authenticate with your Google Account.” By doing this, Google can collect information about your website’s visitors.
In any case, you will be directed to a Google login page where you’ll be asked to sign in to your Google account. Log in and click Next to continue. Similarly, to give MonsterInsights permission to access your Google Analytics account, you must click Allow.
Now, just enter all your website details, until you complete the MonsterInsights six-step process.
Step 3. Add More File Extensions to Track as Many Downloadable Resources as You Want
Now, go to your WordPress dashboard, click on Insights » Settings and go to Engagement in the top menu, then scroll down to File Downloads. Here, you can see that file tracking is already selected for you. You don’t have to make any changes.
By default, MonsterInsights lets you track downloads with file extensions including doc, pdf, ppt, zip, xls, docx, pptx, and xlsx. But, if you’d like to track more file extensions, go ahead and add them.
It’s that simple! You have now successfully enabled file download tracking on your website using MonsterInsights. Once you set up download tracking on your site, Google Analytics will automatically start tracking file downloads.
Step 4. Track File Downloads in Real Time
One great thing about MonsterInsights is that it allows you to see all your important statistics in real-time, from the convenience of an intuitive dashboard. You don’t need to log into your Google Analytics accounts to view your reports. You can view the file download report in WordPress.
Now you can see your top downloads on the list. Based on this list, you’ll be able to make decisions and modify your marketing strategy to attract more traffic to your writing business.
Are You Up to the Challenge of Trying MonsterInsights for Your Writing Business?
Every time you check your downloads and the data of your users, you have the opportunity to optimize your website and personalize your content to your target audience. Additionally, you can eliminate content that doesn’t add real value to your clients.
MonsterInsights will help you keep your audience interested in your content and optimize your whole website and your marketing strategy based on this data. For a writer or a writing agency, having MonsterInsights can make the difference between being successful and reaching a larger audience or not being read by anyone.
This plugin is probably the most complete web analytics plugin for tracking file downloads. And, if you need an exhaustive analysis of your website traffic, this is undoubtedly the most suitable plugin for your writing business.
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