Back in 2019, when Google released its official WordPress plugin, the excitement within the blogging and development communities was palpable. For the first time, Google was providing a first-party solution to help WordPress users seamlessly leverage its powerful suite of tools.
Site Kit was designed with the site owner in mind. Instead of hopping between different tabs, you can now view consolidated data from services like Search Console and Analytics directly within your WordPress dashboard. This data is pulled straight from the source and presented in easy-to-read graphs, pie charts, and lists.
Currently, Google Site Kit allows you to connect your site to:
What is Google Site Kit
Google Site Kit is a powerful, lightweight plugin that acts as a bridge between your WordPress site and Google’s marketing and analytics tools. It helps you discover how people find your site, how your content is performing, and where you can improve – all from a single interface!
For years, webmasters had to log into separate platforms to track performance or manage monetization. By making Site Kit official, Google has simplified the workflow for WordPress users, proving how much they value the ecosystem. Once configured, you no longer need to leave your site to check your stats; everything is available via the dashboard widget or its dedicated page in your WordPress admin area.
Note: While Site Kit is incredibly convenient, power users seeking deep, granular data might find the dashboard reports a bit simplified. It is primarily designed for beginner to intermediate users who need a high-level overview of their site’s health without leaving WordPress
Key Features and Benefits
Unified Analytics
Site Kit helps you understand the full user journey. By leveraging data from both Search Console and Google Analytics, you can see:
- How users find you (Organic search, social media, or direct traffic).
- Which keywords are driving the most clicks.
- Your top-performing posts and how long visitors stay on them.
Unmatched Ease of Use
While advanced plugins like MonsterInsights offer deep-dive features, Site Kit wins on simplicity. It is arguably the easiest way to set up Google Analytics on WordPress. It provides the essential “north star” metrics like top pages, visitor locations, and bounce rates without a steep learning curve.
Monetization Tracking
If you rely on Google AdSense for revenue, Site Kit is a game-changer. You can view ad impressions, estimated earnings, and identify which specific pages are generating the most income, helping you optimize your content strategy for better ROI.
Real-Time Performance Audits
Instead of manually running tests on the PageSpeed Insights website, Site Kit automatically pulls that data for you. You can see your “Core Web Vitals” at a glance, helping you understand how real-world users experience your site.
Looking to boost your scores? Check out my comprehensive guide on WordPress performance optimization to supercharge your site speed.
Streamlined Tracking
For many WordPress users, adding tracking codes, conversion pixels, or “tags” to a site is a technical nightmare that usually involves editing theme files or installing yet another plugin. Google Site Kit solves this by integrating Google Tag Manager (GTM). Google Tag Manager acts as a single “container” for all your marketing and tracking scripts.
How to install and set up Google Site Kit on your site
Time needed: 30 minutes
- Install and activate Google Site Kit
Install and activate the Site Kit by Google from your WordPress dashboard.
- Start configuring Google Site Kit
Once you have activated the plugin, click on the Start Setup button from the Site Kit activation notice on your dashboard.
- Verify site ownership
You will now be greeted with the welcome screen listing out the steps required to connect your WordPress site with Google Site Kit. Click on the Sign in with Google button to start your site ownership verification process.
- Choose your Google account
If you are logged in to more than one Google account, you will be asked to choose the desired Google account with which you would like to associate your website.
- Grant Site Kit permissions
Site Kit will now request two permissions to ‘view and manage Search Console data for your verified sites’ and ‘manage the list of sites and domains you control’ respectively. Click on the Allow button for both the permissions.
- Confirm your choices
You will now be asked to confirm your choices and allow Google to share your information with Site Kit. Once you click on the Allow button, you will become the verified owner of your domain name.
- Allow access to Google account data
You will now be returned to the Google Site Kit welcome screen where you have to click the Allow button again under Step 2 to allow your site to display metrics on the Site Kit dashboard.
- Set up Search Console
You will now have to add your site to Search Console. Note that if you had previously added your website to Search Console (previously Google Webmaster Tools), there are no extra steps for you to take other than clicking the Add site button. If not, just follow the on-screen instructions to add it manually.
- Complete basic Site Kit setup
You have now successfully configured the basic steps required for configuring Google Site Kit on your site. That is, integrating it with Search Console and your WordPress site. Click on the Go to my Dashboard button to be taken to the Site Kit dashboard.
- Connect more services to Site Kit
From the Site Kit dashboard, you can get an overview of your site and connect other Google services like AdSense, Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights. Now, click on the Connect Service link under Analytics to connect Site Kit with Google Analytics and display the analytics data on your Site Kit dashboard.
- Connect Site Kit with Google Analytics
Grant Site Kit all the four permissions it requires to function properly and confirm your choices by clicking on the Allow button.
- Choose Google Analytics account and property
If you had previously created a Google Analytics property for your website, you can use it here by choosing the correct Google Analytics account and property. If not, Site Kit can help add a new tag for you.
- Connect PageSpeed Insights and AdSense
You have now successfully integrated Google Analytics with Site Kit on your WordPress site. It’s time for you to connect PageSpeed Insights and AdSense by clicking on the Connect Service links under each of them to integrate it with Site Kit. With that, you have fully set up the Google Site Kit plugin on your WordPress site.
I’m not covering them here as it is somewhat similar to the above steps and PageSpeed Insights doesn’t need any new permissions and it will get connected automatically while AdSense requires a few extra steps to start working.
- View Site Kit dashboard
Click on the Site Kit option from your WordPress menu to open the Site Kit dashboard. From here, you can view the data from all active Google services in an easy to understand format – like traffic sources, the total number of impressions, clicks and visitors, popular pages, top search queries, and site speed.
You can also view data from each of these services separately by clicking on the respective service from the Site Kit menu.
- View Site Kit Settings
You can view your connected services and connect more services like Google Optimize and Tag Manager from the Google Site Kit Settings page. Or, if the need may arise, you can also reset Site Kit and start over under the Admin Settings tab.
- Disconnect Site Kit from Google
If you no longer wish to use Site Kit on your site, you can easily disconnect Site Kit integration from Google and uninstall it.
Verdict
Because it is developed and maintained by Google, you can trust the code quality and performance. If you are looking for a “personal assistant” to handle your site’s data for free, this is an essential addition to your WordPress toolkit.
And with over five million active installations, the numbers speak for themselves. Site Kit is the most efficient way to configure Google’s ecosystem on your site without bloating your backend with four or five different plugins.
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I setup Google Site Kit, very nice… but why is each WP admin asked to setup Google Site Kit when they log in?
I would think once it is setup, it’s done for anyone with Administrator access, no?
Hello Will, thanks for stopping by. I wish I could help you with that but I don’t own any sites with multiple users/administrators. So, I couldn’t test it from my end. Maybe you can try asking it in the support forum so that you can get help directly from the developers.
Cheers.