Hacks to Unlock Hidden WordPress User Data (8 Methods for 2023)
As a website owner, truly understanding your audience is the key to unlocking growth and making smarter business decisions. But did you know that your WordPress site is secretly tracking all kinds of valuable information about your visitors?
By accessing this hidden user data, you can gain deeper insights into how people find and interact with your website. You can then leverage those learnings to optimize your content, improve the user experience, and boost conversions and revenue as a result.
In this guide, we‘ll show you 8 ways to uncover WordPress user data that you might not even realize you have access to. These tactics are easy to implement with the right tools and will give you a huge leg up on the competition. Let‘s dive in!
- Get to Know Your Audience With Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful (and free!) tool for tracking all kinds of website data. Once you connect it to your WordPress site, you‘ll immediately gain access to information like:
- How many people visit your site
- What country and city they‘re from
- Which devices and browsers they use
- Which pages they view and for how long
- What percentage of visitors are new vs. returning
And that‘s just barely scratching the surface. With the Google Analytics dashboard, you can dig into the details to really understand your audience demographics and behavior.
The easiest way to add Google Analytics to WordPress is by using the MonsterInsights plugin. MonsterInsights lets you view all your most important metrics without even leaving your WordPress dashboard. Plus, it offers enhanced tracking features to make your analytics even more insightful.
To get started, install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin on your WordPress site. Then, go to the MonsterInsights settings and connect your Google Analytics account. For more detailed instructions, check out this guide to setting up Google Analytics in WordPress.
- Unlock Even More User Data With Advanced Tracking
Want to go beyond the basics and enable advanced tracking in Google Analytics? MonsterInsights makes it easy with just a few clicks.
Under the Engagement tab in your MonsterInsights settings, you can toggle on Demographics and Interests Reports. This will start tracking incredibly valuable information for your marketing strategy, like your visitors‘ ages, genders, and interest categories.
You‘ll need to enable data collection for this feature in your Google Analytics account as well. In your Analytics dashboard, go to Admin > Property > Data Collection > Data Settings and turn on "Google signals data collection".
Once you start collecting this demographic data, you can access Age, Gender and Interest reports right in your WordPress dashboard under the MonsterInsights Publisher Report.
Note: Be aware of privacy regulations and cookie consent laws in your target market before enabling demographic tracking. You may need to disclose this data collection and allow users to opt out.
- See Where Your Visitors Are Located With Geolocation Tracking
Knowing the physical location of the people who are interacting with your site opens up all kinds of opportunities for personalizing their experience and tailoring your marketing.
The WPForms plugin makes it easy to capture geolocation data any time someone submits a form on your WordPress site. When you view the form entry, you‘ll see their location plotted on a map, along with other details like their IP address, country, and region.
To enable geolocation tracking in WPForms:
- Install and activate the WPForms plugin. You‘ll need the Pro version or higher to access geolocation data.
- Go to WPForms > Addons and install the Geolocation Addon.
- Create a new form or edit an existing one.
- Add fields to your form and configure the settings as needed.
- Add your form to a page or post on your WordPress site.
Now, any time that form is submitted, the geolocation data will be captured and logged along with the entry. You can view it by going to WPForms > Entries and clicking to View the details of a form submission.
Use Cases and Applications
- Personalize content or offers based on the visitor‘s location
- Analyze which regions generate the most leads so you can focus your marketing efforts
- Automatically route leads to a sales rep responsible for their area
- Restrict content or access for visitors in certain countries
- Identify Logged-In Users With WPForms Hidden Fields
Want to connect form submissions to your existing users? WPForms makes it possible by capturing logged-in user details with hidden fields.
Hidden fields are form fields that are not visible to the user filling out the form, but still collect and submit data. You can use these to store all kinds of information, including default values pulled from the user‘s account.
To track logged-in user data with hidden fields:
- Edit an existing WordPress form (or create a new one)
- Add a Hidden Field to your form
- Click on the hidden field to configure the settings
- Under the Advanced Options, select "User ID", "Name", or "Email" under "Default Value"
- Save your form and add it to your site
Now, when a logged-in user fills out that form, the hidden field will automatically capture and store their account information. This makes it easy to see which existing customers have submitted forms and reach out to them accordingly.
Capture the Referral Source for Form Conversions
In addition to user details, WPForms hidden fields can capture other helpful information about the form submission, including the page it was submitted from.
Under the Advanced settings for your hidden field, you can choose to populate it with the Page URL, Page ID, or Page Title the form is embedded on. This makes it super simple to track which of your landing pages or blog posts are generating the most form conversions!
- Uncover Partial Entries With Form Abandonment Tracking
Are a large percentage of your visitors starting to fill out a form but not completing it? Form abandonment tracking can give you huge insights into what‘s causing people to leave so you can recover those lost leads.
The Form Abandonment Addon for WPForms logs partial entries even if the user doesn‘t click submit. You can see what information they filled out before leaving the page and how far through the form they made it.
To set up form abandonment tracking:
- Go to WPForms > Addons and install the Form Abandonment Addon
- Edit the form you want to track abandonment on
- Go to Settings > Form Abandonment and check the box to enable tracking
- Save your form settings
Abandoned form entries will now show up under WPForms > Entries alongside your complete submissions. The status will show as "Abandoned" and you can click to view the partial details that were captured.
With this information, you can:
- Identify fields that are causing confusion or dropout (e.g. if a large percentage of people abandon the form at the phone number field, you may want to make that optional)
- Recover abandoned carts by following up with interested leads while your brand is still fresh in their mind
- A/B test changes to your forms and see how they impact abandonment rate
- Track Opens and Clicks for WordPress Emails
Want to see exactly which emails your WordPress site is sending, to whom, and how recipients are engaging with them? WP Mail SMTP is a plugin that lets you track and log all outgoing WordPress emails.
Once the plugin is installed, go to WP Mail SMTP > Settings and enable email logging under the Email Log tab. Make sure to also select the option to log open and click tracking if you want that deeper engagement data.
With email logging enabled, you‘ll see a full record of every email sent from WordPress under WP Mail SMTP > Email Log, including:
- Recipient email address
- Subject line
- Content of the email
- Number of opens and clicks if engagement tracking is on
You can click View to see the full details of an individual email log and even resend emails if needed.
Use these email logs to:
- Verify important emails like password resets or order confirmations are sending successfully
- Track open rates and engagement for your WordPress emails
- Identify your most active subscribers based on open and click behavior
- Debug email deliverability issues by seeing which emails aren‘t being delivered
- Analyze Buying Behavior on Membership and Ecommerce Sites
For membership and eCommerce websites, seeing the path that visitors take before making a purchase is incredibly valuable. With the MonsterInsights User Journey addon, you can track every touchpoint from initial visit to completed purchase.
First, install and activate the User Journey addon under the Insights > Addons menu in WordPress. It will then start tracking the actions and pages viewed leading up to each order.
If you‘re using MemberPress, you can see the full customer journey for each transaction under MemberPress > Transactions. Click to view an individual transaction and scroll to the bottom to see the list of pages that member viewed before signing up.
For WooCommerce stores, you can find the eCommerce customer journey under Insights > Reports > eCommerce. The report will break down your transactions to show you the last page viewed before purchase, as well as the number of sessions it took to convert.
With this data, you can identify your most effective entry points and conversion paths. Double down on the content that‘s already working well to drive signups and sales.
You can also look for points of friction where potential customers are dropping off so you can optimize those pages and keep people moving smoothly towards a purchase.
- Bring It All Together With Marketing Automation
As you can see, there are tons of opportunities to capture valuable user data from your WordPress site. But the real magic happens when you start combining all these data points to personalize the user experience.
Tools like Uncanny Automator make it easy to connect your WordPress plugins and create automated workflows based on user behavior. You can sync contact details between WPForms, your CRM, and your email marketing or live chat tools to build a complete profile of each lead and customer.
Then, you can use that enriched data to build segmented marketing campaigns across multiple channels. A few examples of what‘s possible with Uncanny Automator:
- When someone fills out a lead generation form, automatically add them to your email welcome series.
- When a customer makes a purchase for a specific product, send them an automated upsell email for a related item.
- When a member logs into your site, show them personalized content and offers based on their historic activity.
By leveraging user data to power smarter marketing automation, you‘ll create a better experience for your audience while also growing your business more effectively. It‘s a win-win!
Start Uncovering Your Hidden User Data
There you have it – 8 powerful ways to access the user data that‘s hiding in your WordPress site. From basic analytics to advanced behavioral tracking, these insights hold the key to optimizing your website and marketing strategy.
The best part is, with tools like MonsterInsights, WPForms, and Uncanny Automator, tapping into this data is easier than you might think. You don‘t need to be a tech expert or have a huge budget to start leveraging user data in meaningful ways.
So what are you waiting for? Implement these WordPress user tracking hacks and start making data-driven decisions to grow your business today.
