Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Streamlining how you maintain your WordPress website helps save time while letting you focus more on content. And Google Site Kit is just one of those tools that brings basic data from its services to your site’s dashboard.
Today, I’ll show you how to install Google Site Kit and some of the things you can do with the plugin.
It’s merely a time-saver when you just want a few glimpses of quick information.
What is Google Site Kit?
Google Site Kit is a plugin for WordPress that brings some of the most pertinent information directly to your desktop. Although it doesn’t have full-data access, it does show top information for Search Console, AdSense, Analytics, PageSpeed Insights, Optimize, and Tag Manager.
And all of this directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Each integrated Google product has direct links you can use to quickly open up the corresponding page. For example, the Search Console integration has several “See full stats in Search Console” links to give you instant access.
In reality, it’s a quick look at important data from any Google tool you use.
How to Install Google Site Kit
I’m going to assume you have WordPress installed on your web host and are using at least one Google service. This is because you’ll need a Google account to connect with WordPress.
Even if you just use one thing, such as Analytics, you can still use this plugin.
Install Google Site Kit
From the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and click, “Add New.”
Search for “Google Site Kit” in the box provided in WordPress.
Click the “Install Now” button and then activate the plugin.
After installing and activating the plugin, Site Kit will perform a compatibility test to make sure everything is as it should be.
Run Start Setup
When the compatibility test is complete, Site Kit will show a message at the top of the Plugins page.
Click the “Start Setup” button to begin. You can also choose to allow anonymous tracking of usage data to help Google develop the tool. This is completely optional, though.
The first screen you come to is the welcome page from Google. This will run you through the process of verifying you own the website and that Google can send data to WordPress.
Click the “Sign in with Google” button.
Google will then walk you through the process of connecting Site Kit to your website. Since I’ve already given Site Kit access through my other blogs, I only need to click the “Allow” button.
And since I already added this particular site to Search Console, the process for setting up is much quicker. However, the instructions Google provides are quite easy to follow.
Once you are the verified owner of the site, click the “Allow” button. This lets your WordPress website connect with Google to retrieve information.
The last step is to set up your website in Search Console. Again, since this is already complete for me, Google can verify quickly and complete the setup process.
After the website is added to Search Console, you’re done with the setup. Click the “Go to my Dashboard” button.
Search Console is automatically added to Google Site Kit in WordPress as you may have used it to verify your site.
Set Up Other Services
If you have any other services from Google, you can set them up in the Google Site Kit dashboard.
The process is similar for any of the tools you want to add. For this tutorial, I’m going to add Analytics. That’s because I already set up my Analytics account for this particular blog months ago.
Click the “Connect Service” of the tool you want to add.
This will walk you through the process of signing into Google once again.
Google Site Kit is pretty intuitive when it comes to its services. It automatically finds the correct website Analytics account, and I have plenty, and adds it to WordPress.
After authorizing the plugin to connect to Analytics, I have the option to choose which view I want. So, if you set up custom views in Analytics, you can import them into WordPress.
Click the “Configure Analytics” button.
In moments, the service is then connected to WordPress.
Setting up the Google Site Kit plugin is actually incredibly easy. This is especially true if you’ve already set up services in the past. Because I’ve already set up Analytics and Search Console, connecting took literally less than a few minutes.
Adding Services Later On
What if you wanted to add certain services later that you might not have today? For example, I’m going to want to connect AdSense at some point.
To add a new service to Google Site Kit, go to Site Kit on the left and click, “Settings.”
Click the “Connect More Services” option.
From here, you can select which service you want to add.
What Does Google Site Kit Do for You?
In short, the plugin simply brings some of the more vital information from various services into WordPress. This way, you don’t have to open up additional tabs to view surface data from any given service.
For example, I can see:
- Where traffic is most prominent to my website. In the case of WriterSanctuary, 86.73% comes from organic search.
- Impressions, clicks, CTR, and page position. This also includes the top 10 search terms people are using to find my website.
- The most viewed pages on my site.
- PageSpeed Insight data to see how fast my pages are and where I need to improve.
- How much I earn from Google AdSense with that particular website. It also includes what my top-earning pages are on the site.
Of course, the tool wouldn’t be able to import all data from all services into WordPress. That would be a major and convoluted undertaking. However, I can simply click on a link of each corresponding service and open the page to see greater data details.
Think of it more as a jump-off point. You can see the basics of any service you connect. And if you want greater detail, you simply click the quick link to access the main page.
For me, it saves a bit of time as I use all of these services on a daily basis to some extent.
Not to mention how I can run a speed test using PageSpeed Insights directly from WordPress on any page I want. And because it’s linked to WordPress, I can search for pages and posts by title instead of using the entire URL.
Streamline Your WordPress Website
There are a lot of different ways you can streamline how you use WordPress. Google Site Kit is just one example of making things a bit easier on yourself. By having important data pulled in, you don’t have to bounce back and forth between browsers tabs for basic input.
For me, the top search terms and the AdSense data is worth adding it to WordPress.
What do you think are the plugin’s strengths or weaknesses? I’d love to hear from you.
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