This week, I read that we are being recommended to set up Google Adsense for our blog posts to track a different sets of data, see how our site traffic is doing, and for potentially setting up advertisements.
Installing the Google Site Kit was an experience for me, as I have no experience monitoring or tracking analytics, despite having built other websites on other platforms in the past.
My first impression was how easy it was to set everything up via WordPress. After installing and activating the plug in, all I had to do was sign into my Google account, verify and accept the terms and conditions, then verify that I owned the Pocket Pail blog. After that, I was greeted with a message stating that my Google Analystics accounts was sucessful, where I was then redirected back to my WordPress dashboard with a tab labeled ‘Site Kit.’
On the Site Kit dashboard, I was impressed by how much data could be collected and shown in a simple and understanding way. I would be able to track data and analytics regarding the traffic to my site, the content (and its engagement, search query results, etc,), the speed (how my visitors are experiencing my site in terms of loading times), and monetization (installing ads to earn some money).
I was especially impressed by the content section and monetization. While the data for everything is still loading (as I have just recently installed the plug in), I am interested in seeing which search queries are associated with my website and how visitors tend to find my site, and how easily, if at all.
Finally, I did the additional required steps to connect to AdSense. While I am still wary about adding my information regarding payment and have decided to not do so yet due to privacy concerns, I was more than happy to see how the ads would look on my site regardless. In the coming week, I’d like to learn how to edit the code to view the ad previews on my site. However, overall, I feel inclined to stay away from ads due to two reasons: 1) I feel like ads, even though they may be related to the site content, make the blog feel less personal and approachable, and 2) I have no interest in monetization from this site. Regardless, I love the concept of Google Analytics beyond this and would definitely use it for this project and future personal websites as well!
