BlogSynthesis

How to blog better

Updated on November 10, 2014

How to add “Google Tag Manager” to WordPress sites?

Google offers premium services to Webmasters and Bloggers for free like Google Analytics and Google Feedburner. Recently, Google has launched another revolutionary service called “Google Tag Manager” It will boost the page rendering time and increase Page-Speed score.

In the tutorial, we will discuss how to add Google Tag Manager to WordPress. But First of all thank for landing on BlogSynthesis.com. I hope you will have some nice time here.

Now come to the point and add the Google Tag manager to WordPress. I assumed that you have already have the GTM (Google Tag Manager) script. In this scenario We will play with the code.

How to add Google Tag Manager to Genesis Framework (on any child theme).

To add the script we will have to edit functions.php file of the child theme on Genesis Framework. But first of all we should have a backup of the file. Using a FTP client, like Filezilla, download the unedited function.php file from:

<WP DIR>/wp-content/themes/<CHILD THEME DIR>/functions.php

Now, Add the following code to your functions.php and save/upload.

/**
 * Add Add Google Tag Manager script on Genesis Framework
 *
 * @author Anand Kumar
 * @link http://www.blogsynthesis.com/add-google-tag-manager-to-wordpress/#genesis-framework
 *
 */

add_action('genesis_before', 'google_tag_manager');
function google_tag_manager() { ?>
<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
PASTE GOOGLE CODE MANAGER CODE HERE
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->
<?php
}

How to add Google Tag Manager to Thesis Theme Framework v 1.8.x.

If you are a Thesis Theme user then add the following code to your custom_functions.php file.

/**
 * Add Add Google Tag Manager script on Thesis Theme Framework
 *
 * @author Anand Kumar
 * @link http://www.blogsynthesis.com/add-google-tag-manager-to-wordpress/#thesis-theme-framework
 *
 */

function limit_front_page() {
global $query_string;
?>
<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
PASTE GOOGLE CODE MANAGER CODE HERE
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->
<?php
}
add_action('thesis_hook_before_html', 'limit_front_page');

To add the above code to Thesis 1.x you should navigate to “Thesis >> Custom file editor >> custom_functions.php (from drop-down menu)”

How to add Google Tag manager to any other theme by editing Theme file

To add Google Tag manager on other themes simply navigate to edit header.php and find the opening body tag. As shown in the screenshot below.

header.php twenty eleven theme

Add the code in a line after <body> as pointed in the image with red arrow.

To add the above code you should navigate to “Appearance >> Editor >> Template (on the right side) >> Header (header.php) ”

[Please understand this may vary from theme to theme. If you are facing any problem in adding to your blog. You may leave a comment below]

Don’t forget to have a keep a backup of original files. Failing to implement the code improperly will cause the broken theme or site.

Comments

Comments

  2. Hi Anand this is my 1st visit your blog im really enjoy you are a rock of wordpress ,i ask a sample question what is advantage of tag manager

  3. Will this also work for genesis 2.0 on wordpress? I’m a bit worried if I use the 1.8 instructions it might cause the website to fail. I would hate for it to mess up any seo – HELP?!?! 🙂 Thank you very much!

  4. Thanks Anand,
    Your instruction worked like a charm with my Genesis framework. Small change to your process, I used Simple Hooks to enter the information.

    Have a great day!

  5. Except now I see this error splashed on top of every page…

    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘}’ in /homepages/30/d474832100/htdocs/app478398823/wp-content/plugins/genesis-simple-hooks/plugin.php(123) : eval()’d code on line 21

    Zoot!

    • If you are using Genesis Simple Hooks plugin then DO NOT add the php code (as i mentioned above). Well Its quite simple. Just add the code obtained from Google at appropriate place. (in this case genesis_before). HTH

      • Thanks for that Anand, all cleaned up now 🙂
        Just got my Google Adwords Professional designation, please feel free to reach out to me for anything so I can return you the favor. 🙂
        Have a great day!

  7. Thanks Anand for the useful information, I have placed the code immediately after the body tag as described, but it creates a white space at the top and bottom of the website. Do you know why this is happening and what I can do to prevent it?

  8. In the example above, would be post the container tag straight after the body tag as in <body

    Or <body >

    Thanks.

    Stephen.

    • both are same things. notice the closing > after some “class” and some other html entities.. so you will have to put the codes after the line <body> or <body ... > whatever the case.

  9. Hello! Thanks for this blog post, it is very helpful. I am trying to install GTM on my site in WordPress but now I have a “>” on the top of every page on my site. I added my container snippet after the body tag on my themes header.php file. Any ideas on why this is happening?

  10. I copied and pasted the code for the Child Theme into my .php file. After I pressed update, my website no longer existed! Not only that, but I cannot even access my wordpress dashboard. Will you PLEASE help?!

    • It looks you have broke your site. Now you will have to remove those lines using your web hosting cPanel or FTP. The code I shared for genesis Framework works well, just crosschecked that. You might have added/edited somthing wrong. (Almost all shared hosting providers offer some kind tool to edit php files. Use that to remove those lines you just added. your site will be back online)

  11. HI, I have some problems adding Tag Manager.

    Adding Code:

    <body >

    OR

    <body >


    Doesn´t mather which one i choose, the Tag Assistant found the code, but also an error.

    Do you know what is wrong??
    I will be soo glad!!
    Thanks!!