How to install a plugin on WordPress, Example: Ultimate Google Analytics
Plugins are the WordPress way to allow for extension of the Core Application with additional functionality. The WordPress.org website maintains the central place where plugins are available to WordPress installation. The Core Admin section ties into this central repository and allows for download of Plugins and installation from your own site.
This article walks you through the identification of a plugin and the screens of finding, downloading, and activating it. Most plugins also have setting screens so they can be configured to this particular site configuration.
Quite a few people want to use the free service Google Analytics to track visitors and hits on their WordPress website. In order to have the tracking code added to each page, quite a few plugins are available on the WordPress repository. We have used the plugin “Ultimate Google Analytics” before and found it is easy to install if you want to have basic functionality and also easy to add advanced functionality once more details are needed.
In this example, we assume you already established a Google Account, signed up for Google Analytics and created a profile for your website. If you haven’t yet , please do before you install the plugin.
Short Version of the Five Steps
1. On Plugins screen click on “Add New”,
2. Search for “Ultimate Google Analytics”,
3. Install Plugin
4. Activate Plugin
5. Configure Plugin ( Add Google Analytics ID to settings page. )
Step 1: Click on “Plugins” And Click on “Add New”
In your dashboard navigation to the left, click on the Main Menu item “Plugins” in Image 1 you see a screen shot showing a list of all plugins.
To install a new plugin for your site, click on “Add New” on this page. (1)
If you’d like to check if the desired plugin is already installed, use the Search box and search for it by typing a relevant keyword. (2)
Step 2: Search for Plugins
This screen is actually a combination screen between your menu items from your site in the left and the content of the WordPress.org Plugin installation page on the right side.
In general, you can search all the plugins registered with WordPress.org. , which is particularly helpful when you are searching for added functionality and you do not know the name of the plugin but muliple keywords will get you there.
For this example, please Type “Ultimate Google Analytics” into the Search box as displayed in the green box on Image 2
Step 3: Install the plugin
The search returns a list of matching plugins in a table display. You can learn more about the plugin clicking on the “Details” link and more about the author/developer of the plugin by clicking on the name.
As I mentioned before, WordPress is an open source product and provides the hooks to plugin additional code, to expand functionality. Not all plugins are created equal. It depends on the skills of the developer and the attention to details if your usage of the plugin will be successful. It’s also the responsibility of the developer to make sure that the plugin stays compatible with WordPress through all new versions.
The star rating comes from WordPress Site owners like you voting on the plugins on WordPress.org. You, too, can leave your rating once you register for WordPress.org.
To install the plugin on your site, click on the “Install Now” link underneath the plugin’s name. In Image 3, the link has a green frame. When you click on it, the site request a confirmation of your intention. Click on ok on that screen if you are sure to want to go ahead.
Step 4: Activate Plugin
With the started installation, the system will show you the progress of the installation. In the background, the installation package is downloaded to your server, provided in a *.zip file, to increase download speed, it automatically un-zips the package and stores the files in the assigned directories on your server and acknowlege that the plugin was successfully installed.
In Image 4 you see an example. Now you would need to activate the Plugin by clicking on the Activate link, located on bottom of the screen.
In below image you see your site’s plugin page you also looked at in step one. On the top you see the confirmation message that the plugin was activated, (1). The system added the plugin to the list of installed plugin (2). For the fifth and final step, Configure the plugin, click on the link “Ultimate GA” in the “Settings” menu
Step 5: Configure the Plugin
On the settings page for the “Ultimate Google Analytics” Plugin, the most important setting is your sites Google Profile ID. See image 6 for an idea where to find the correct ID:
Once you entered the Account ID, click on “Update Options”. Now the installation of the plugin is completed and the tracking code is added to all WordPress pages and post. Google will track your site statistics within a few hours. You should be able to access the statisitcs on the Google Analytics page the next day. Of course, it will only show the numbers since you installed the plugin.
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