Advanced Settings for Google Analytics

We strongly encourage you to click on the Get Started button to install and use MonsterInsights.

Get Started button in the Google Analytics section in A:aio

You can find an article on How to Connect to Google Analytics on the MonsterInsights site here.

MonsterInsights is the leading WordPress plugin for tracking and displaying visitor data in Google Analytics and it supports the latest Google Analytics GA4 tracking code.

MonsterInsights has a free version and a premium version and you can learn more about it at MonsterInsights.com.

We have already covered Setting up Google Analytics in the documentation here.

Once you've added your Google Analytics Tracking ID to the Google Analytics ID field in All in One SEO Pack you'll see an option to enable the Advanced Analytics Options.

Here we will go over the Advanced Analytics Options highlighted in red below.

Advanced Google Analytics settings

Tracking Domain

The Tracking Domain option is used if you want to set the cookie domain for the Google Analytics tracking code.  By default the cookie domain will be set to auto but you can enter any parameter accepted by Google.  For more information refer to the Google Analytics documentation on domains and cookies here.

Track Multiple Domains / Additional Domains

The Track Multiple Domains and Additional Domains options are used if you want to enable cross domain tracking with Google Analytics.  For more information refer to the Google Analytics documentation on cross domain tracking here.

Anonymize IP Addresses

The Anonymize IP Addresses option tells Google not to track and store the full IP addresses of visitors to your site. Google Analytics will anonymize IP address information by removing the last octet of the IP address prior to its storage. This feature is designed to help site owners comply with privacy policies or data protection rules, which prevent the storage of full IP address information. Note that this will slightly reduce the accuracy of geographic reporting.  More information can be found on Google's website here.

Display Advertiser Tracking

Google Analytics Display Advertiser Features is a collection of features that takes advantage of the DoubleClick cookie so you can do things like:

  • Create Remarketing Audiences based on specific behavior, demographic, and interest data, and share those lists with AdWords
  • Use demographic and interest data in your Analytics reports
  • Create Segments based on demographic and interest data

More information can be found on Google's website here.

Exclude Users from Tracking

You can use this setting if you'd like to exclude the data you or your users generate when logged into your site. Google will track any time a link to a page or post on your site is clicked, even when you are logged in and navigating your site yourself. This setting removes that tracking data from your Analytics so that it isn't skewed.

Track Outbound Links

The Track Outbound Links option is used if you want to track links that lead away from your site (for example links to your Facebook page or to another website you own).  By default Google Analytics ignores these links and doesn't track users who click them. Read their documentation here for more details.  To track outbound links check this box and All in One SEO Pack will add the necessary code to the source of your website.

Enhanced Link Attribution

Enhanced Link Attribution enables you tag your pages to implement an enhanced link-tracking functionality that lets you:

  • See separate information for multiple links on a page that all have the same destination. For example, if there are two links on the same page that both lead to the Contact Us page, then you see separate click information for each link.
  • See when one page element has multiple destinations. For example, a Search button on your page is likely to lead to multiple destinations.
  • Track buttons, menus, and actions driven by javascript.

When you check this option you must make sure you enable enhanced link attribution in your property settings by following the instructions here.  More information can be found on Google's website here.

Enhanced Ecommerce

You can use this to enable Enhanced Ecommerce to provide tracking of a customer's path to purchase on your e-commerce site.  More information can be found on Google's website here.

Track Outbound Forms

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This tracks when a form submission goes to a different domain. By default, Google Analytics can track form submissions when they go to a different page on the same domain. This option adds an outbound form tracker that tracks when the form redirects to a different domain.  More information available here.

Track Events

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This provides declarative event binding to attributes in the HTML, making it possible to track user interactions with DOM elements without writing any JavaScript.  More information available here.

Track URL Changes

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This detects changes to the URL via the History API and automatically updates the tracker and sends additional pageviews. This allows single page applications to be tracked like traditional sites without any extra configuration.  More information available here.

Track Page Visibility

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This tracks page visibility instead of page load, meaning that session duration can be measured more accurately when pages are left open in browser tabs for a long time.  More information available here.

Track Media Query

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This tracks what media queries are used on a responsive site to control the size of the browser window.  More information available here.

Track Elements Visibility

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This allows you to specify a list of elements and then track whether any of those elements are visible within the browser viewport. If any of the elements are not visible, an event is sent to Google Analytics as soon as they become visible.  More information available here.

Track Page Scrolling

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This tracks how far down the page a user has scrolled, as a percentage of the total scrollable height of the page.  More information available here.

Track Facebook and Twitter

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This adds social tracking for the official Twitter tweet/follow buttons and the Facebook like button. If you have the official Twitter or Facebook buttons on your page then user interactions with those buttons will be automatically tracked.  More information available here.

Ensure URL Consistency

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

This allows you to settle on a single canonical URL path for each page and lets you specify a preference for whether or not to include extraneous parts of the URL path, and updates all URLs accordingly.  More information available here.

Google Tag Manager

(Pro Feature - Upgrade Now)

You can find documentation on the Google Tag Manager option here.

Useful Links:

  1. All in One SEO Pack Documentation on Google Analytics
  2. Google Analytics - Universal Analytics
  3. Google Analytics - Domains and Cookies
  4. Google Analytics - Cross Domain Tracking
  5. Google Analytics - IP Anonymization
  6. Google Analytics - Display Advertising Features
  7. Google Analytics - Track Outbound Links
  8. Google Analytics - Enhanced Link Attribution
  9. Google Analytics - Enhanced Ecommerce