Well it’s arrived! Google’s official WordPress plugin is now available.
As a Knutsford web design agency, we were curious to see how Google’s official WordPress plugin works. Inside this article, we will explain what Google Site Kit is and take a test drive to see what features and benefits it offers.
What is Google’s official WordPress plugin?
How are users finding my website? How are customers using my pages? These are all questions you have likely asked your web design agency.
By integrating with other Google products such as Analytics, Search Console and Adsense, Google Site Kit will help answer all these questions for you, straight from your website dashboard! Once configured, Google Site Kit provides insights about how your customers find and use your website over a set time period. It also provides further tips where you can improve and analyse how users interact with your content.
Most importantly, you can access all this data from Google by directly logging into your WordPress dashboard.
How to install and set up Google Site Kit
If you are already on any of our WordPress support packages, simply contact us and we will install and configure the plugin for you. It’s that simple.
However, if you are not and aren’t familiar with installing plugins on your WordPress website, get in touch with your developer to install the Google Site Kit plugin for you.
If you have full control of installing and updating your plugins, here’s three simple steps to follow on how to install Google Site Kit on your website.
- Return to your WordPress dashboard, once you have clicked on Site Kit dashboard, simply click on ‘Start Set-Up’.
- Next, you will be prompted to sign into your Google account. Follow the steps and agree to the T&C’s and permissions. Once configured, you will be redirected back to your dashboard.
- On your dashboard, you will already be presented with data from Search Console which you filter on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Just follow the same steps to connect other Google products you are signed up to. For example, if you do not have any AdWords, you do not need to set up AdSense.
Instant Google data on your WordPress dashboard
By pulling together data from a range of Google products including Search Console, Analytics, Tag Manager, Page Speed Insights, Optimize, and AdSense, Google Site Kit can offer a snapshot of data as soon as you login to your WordPress website.
As soon as you login to your website, you are presented with a visual check on how your website has been performing over the last 28 days. Including snapshot data such as impressions, clicks and popular pages, you can filter the data to the last 7, 14, 28 or 90 days of data.
Here is what it looks like as soon as I log in to my WordPress working environment, with the Site Kit configured to display top and centre in my WordPress dashboard:
Google Site Kit – Web Design Agency Verdict
Speaking as a professional web design agency based in Knutsford, it was only matter of time before Google implemented their own WordPress plugin. While the idea of implementing this to visually see a snapshot of data sounds appealing, numerous users have found the plugin isn’t the easiest to configure when trying to connect certain Google products.
As part of our website care packages, we provide a similar kind of service where you can easily access data from your dashboard by using MonsterInsights. Along with providing more analytical based data, you are also not limited to set days, you can customise where you can see your data.
If you wish to discuss Google Site Kit in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact us.