I am a newbie herfe and I have a question too about adding google analytics to wordpress. I have heard some negativity using google analytics vs. awstats vs wordpress stats.

ric dalberri

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I heard that Google analytics is not as friendly as others stat programs.
Anyone else recommend others?
ric

Is there a reason you're not using a plugin like Google Analyticator?

Inside of wordpress you can just paste it directly into the header. I like google analytics better than awstats because of it's integration with adsense and adwords.

Another cool thing about analytics is that you can see so much data about the individuals that visit your site. A thing that I discovered the other day was the custom reports feature.

I did a little search for custom reports and found - article "3 New Google Analytics Custom Reports a PPC Marketer Should Be Using" from portent (sorry can't post links). With Google analytics you have more data then you can shake a stick at, I love it!

When I first started blogging I did not think anyone was coming to my site, until I found out about google analytics.

Thanks all for your guidance. This is truly a great community
ric

The "Ultimate Google Analytics" plugin no longer seems to be in development, is it still working on the latest WP? Any options for something similar with some support for it?

I agree with those that have suggested using a plugin. When you modify the theme, you have to remember to update any theme you change to or even if you update your existing theme.

It's also important to remember that if you're using any specialized page templates, those might require special handling outside of the plugin. This won't typically be the case with regular page templates that are part of the theme, but if you add custom page templates all the standard wordpress hooks might not be in place.

By the way, Google Analytics now has a real time feature, which really closes a gap that existed in GA.