We’ve been working hard on our Google Analytics plugin and are proud to release version 5.0, with universal support, today. With all the changes Google had made to Analytics and with our improved development experience we decided we’d be better off with a full rewrite. We’ve redone some of the features, killed a few minor features and added the most requested features. Read on:

Support for Universal Analytics

It seems as though most sites have been “auto-moved” to the new Universal Analytics tracking by Google. If you don’t see a “Universal Analytics Upgrade” button in your Google Analytics admin, all you have to do to switch to the new tracking code is check the box in the admin:

If you still have to upgrade, read our knowledge base article.

Demographics and Interest reports

One of our most requested features besides Universal support was support for Demographics and Interest reports. It’s as easy as checking a box on our end now, as you can see in the screenshot above.

For a full tutorial, check this knowledge base article.

Coming soon: Analytics Dashboards & Premium

Another often requested feature is for an Analytics Dashboard inside the WordPress Admin. We’ve recently taken over development on the Google Analytics Dashboard plugin and will be merging that into this plugin in version 5.1.

Another feature we’re really looking forward to ourselves is the use of Custom Dimensions and Metrics. Unfortunately, Google has shipped that feature without an API to create custom dimensions, so we’ll be releasing a premium version of Google Analytics by Yoast that has the features needed for these custom dimensions and comes with support so we can help people set them up. This will allow for reports per author, per category, per year, etc. etc. etc.

eCommerce tracking

Also coming soon is an updated version of our eCommerce tracking plugin. This new version will support Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce, and will allow for 99% reliable tracking of eCommerce transactions through Google’s new Measurement Protocol. This allows us to measure transactions server side, so they’ll still be tracked properly if people never reach the success page and even allows us to track refunds.

WordPress 4.0 compatible!

WordPress 4.0 ships today as well, this new version of the plugin has been fully tested with WordPress 4.0 and works well with it!

So, go upgrade now!

This post first appeared on Yoast. Whoopity Doo!