Getting indexed by Google and having a good page rank is something every website owner worries about. Irrespective of how much effort you put into your site, if you do not get a good rank in Google results, everything might well be in vain. To make matters even more confusing, Google algorithms are a tough nut to crack. Even the most experienced SEO experts are often left baffled and confused due to Google algorithms. This is where Google Site Kit comes into play.
Thankfully, Google recently decided to address the issue and came up with its own official WordPress plugin for website owners and webmasters. In this article, we will be taking a closer look at the Google Site Kit WP plugin.
Google Site Kit for WordPress — Introduction
On October 31, 2019, Google released the first version of its WordPress plugin – Google Site Kit. It is a plugin that positions itself as a one-stop solution for providing data about your site from Google’s core products, such as Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights. Site Kit is ideal for webmasters who want all the data from site analytics to be in one place.
Google Site Kit is a free and open-source WordPress plugin. It provides summary statistics on your site’s posts and pages in total views, average impressions, and average CTR (click-through rate). You can also check individual messages and page information by clicking on the Site Kit tab in the top panel — more on this later.
What is Google Site Kit for WordPress?
Google Site Kit helps you connect your WordPress site to six Google services:
- Google Search Console: The Google Site Kit plugin for WordPress allows you to analyze how website pages are displayed when searching in Google. You can use it to study search queries, track traffic and the number of users who were shown the site when entering queries.
- Google Analytics: The new plugin will help you easily analyze user behavior on your site and monitor the use of metrics, how visitors interact with various elements of the web page.
- Google PageSpeed Insights: The plugin allows you to analyze your site and compare it with other resources, and also gives various hints that can be used to improve the overall score of your page.
- Google AdSense: Site Kit also lets you conduct a detailed analysis of traffic monetization. Of course, you need to have a working AdSense account in order to set things up properly.
- Google Tag Manager: Site Kit makes it easier to create, track, and update tags for a website.
- Google Optimize: This one is a fairly new service that provides a simpler A/B and multi-channel testing process without the need to edit codes.
It is worth noting that in the case of Tag Manager and Optimize, the plugin helps you test your site, but still requires you to manually login to each service in order to make any actual use of the data.
However, for Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights, you’ll actually be able to view the underlying data for your site right from the WordPress dashboard, which is very convenient. For example, you can see a list of your site’s search queries or your most popular pages in Google Analytics.
How to Use Google Site Kit?
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will notice Site Kit as a new menu option in the WP admin panel.
Depending on the services that you have connected, you will see additional services listed therein. You need to manually link Site Kit to each of the Google services that you use.
After a while, once Site Kit has successfully connected to and fetched data, you can start seeing the trends right inside the WP admin panel.
By default, you should see traffic overview:
As well as search insight:
And popular terms:
You will also see PageSpeed metrics, such as performance score and ways to improve your score:
To connect additional Google services, you can head to Site Kit > Settings and manage the connections from there.
As you can see, there are a few obvious advantages that Site Kit brings to the table:
- It allows you to quickly get data from separate sources. You can get all the statistics info right inside the WordPress management page without having to use different resources.
- As such, Site Kit gives you a bird’s-eye view of your data and insight. This can help you assess the performance of your site.
- It’s a good solution even for people who cannot edit code. You do not need to add code to link your PageSpeed or Analytics accounts.
- Information can be obtained as a whole for the site, as well as for individual pages and posts. This option is especially popular for complex and multi-page projects.
Final Thoughts on Google Site Kit for WordPress
Site Kit performs several tasks for the average WP user. The first is combining data from different statistical sources: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google PageSpeed Insights, Google AdSense, and so on. The second is offering actual tips and tricks that can be used by the user to make changes on the web page and promote it more successfully. Third, the Google Site Kit plugin allows you to get statistics on your site and its individual pages for both optimization and monetization at large.
Google Site Kit for WordPress provides extensive opportunities for step-by-step and systematic analysis of all website indicators. It is specially designed to save time and promote websites more effectively. Given all of its above-mentioned advantages, overall, it’s a really handy tool that lets you access all of Google’s major services right from your WordPress dashboard.
As a result, if you are a website owner or webmaster and the vast multitude of Google services is making things difficult for you, Site Kit can be a simple and effective solution that brings everything under one umbrella.
If you have used Google Site Kit WordPress plugin, how has your experience been? Share your views in the comments below!
