Explore shared data between WordPress accounts

[nico-martin]

At the moment I'm only able to see the data connected to my own google account. I can't share data between other WordPress accounts.

It would be great to be able to share data with other WordPress accounts. I imagine having a list of all WordPress Users where I could select some Users that are able to see what I am seeing. Maybe they could then choose my Google account on the dropdown on the upper right corner.

This way it would also be possible to reveal the data to Admins that don't have a google account or if you have employees with a WordPress login (company-email) which is not a google account and you don't want to give access to the google services over their private google accounts.

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Changelog entry

Acceptance criteria

[ThierryA]

Thanks for you suggestion Nico, nice to have you on this repo too 😄

We having been discussing data sharing and I definitely see value and a strong use case for this feature. We have to get it right though, as data sharing may be sensitive.

I labelled this issue as enhancement for future versions, there is not ETA or guaranty though.

[nico-martin]

Hi Thierry, Yes, I totally agree! That's a super sensitive topic :). I'm looking forward to see how this plugin evolves!

[elyobo]

Agreed that this would be very useful.

• Other users may not have a Google account (and may not want one, nor need one for any other purpose).
• Other users may not be technically capable enough to feel comfortable setting up their own access.
• Requiring each user to set up their own access does not scale well; a site may have many users, and each having to set up their own access is much more painful than only one user setting it up.

While granular access (manually assign individual users access) would be handy, it's not the minimum implementation. In terms of access control the following would use useful

• globally accessible (anyone may view these stats)
• role based access (anyone with role X may view these stats)
• user based access (user X may view these stats)

[mpitre72]

Food for thought... I've used or tested at least 10 other WP Google analytics plugins and they all allow the sharing of analytic data between users of WP. I can't use Sitekit until you guys get this working to industry standards. If you want to make it a setting where the default is "do not share" (even by connection like Analytics, search console, etc.) and then they can either choose specific WP users or access levels I totally get that, but please place this on your highest priority list. It's an ineffective tool without sharing IMHO.

[billzyfem]

It should be up to the Wordpress admin who connected their data to decide which user roles gets to see it using the admin panel.

[gounder]

I strongly disagree with this suggestion, this is the only reliable Google Analytics plugin I have found which implements this feature this way.

Others just share the data with all admin regardless of them having access to those reports on the actual Google Search Console and Google analytics dashboards, this way only those admin who already have access on Google will be able to connect and see reports.

The idea of seeing data in the dashboard is only a matter of convenience but the actual access controls managed from the Search Console and Analytics should be valid.

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In a clients organization we deactivated the backend dashboard feature as the client didn't want everyone to have access, but a manager who didn't have analytics access, used to activate and view reports and then deactivate the dashboard.

[elyobo]

@gounder it seems like having access controls within this plugin would allow you to have it whichever way you want it.

[mpitre72]

@gounder I have to second the comment made by @elyobo access controls by role or specific users makes perfect sense. I don't see any reason why you would disagree with roles/user permissions. If you are that hung up on access restrictions, then why even install dashboards in WP in the first place. It seems your users should just have to work in the various Google products directly.

[billzyfem]

I don't think gounder understands this problem well enough and why it's important to have the admin of WP control who sees the data. Until it's fixed that issue is a deal breaker for me otherwise we get clients calling saying 'google is set up wrong on my wordpress' (even though it isn't) and honestly who has time for these unnecessary calls to explain to every client that Google hasn't built the plugin right for them to see the data without extra configuration. It makes the end result look incomplete and unfinished to the end user.

The average end user/client and their staff want their end result finished and complete. Most of them are not willing to click configuration buttons and connect service buttons.

[elyobo]

A good implementation of access controls would also support @gounder's use case; not sharing the data at all between accounts, as is currently done, should definitely remain an option as well.

[marrrmarrr]

Thanks everyone for the comments, great to see the interest and the lively discussion here. Given that one of the main goals of Site Kit is to make it as easy as possible to view the most relevant stats from Google in one place, I agree this would be a very useful feature. That said, we want to be very careful with how we store and share your Google data.

If you share some more details about the use-cases you have in mind, it will help us understand what we can design to address the need while observing the security and identity requirements for your data. For example:

• would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once?
• would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)?
• would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals?
• would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need?
• any other details about the example use-cases do you have in mind?

[razorfrog]

This is the main feature holding us back from installing on 150+ client sites. Responding to @marrrmarrr above:

• would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? Analytics is most important for us

• would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? Entire site

• would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? Entire role would be fine - could then use a user-role editor plugin to fine tune if necessary

• would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? No, would like to see it on the dashboard

[billzyfem]

From our end, we're similar like Razorfrog scenario, lots of sites we cannot move over to site kit until it works in a wordpress friendly way.

would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? Googe Anaytics dashboards inside WP admin is the most important part.

would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? Entire site generally, although having the option of content specific would be useful in some scenarios

would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? Roles & Capabilities would be perfect. Most savvy admins have their own permissions editor plugins installed for more advanced implementations.

would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? Not really.

any other details about the example use-cases do you have in mind? These are more long term ideas that would make the plugin superior once the above is addressed and the kind of thing I'd expect Google to do better than any other developers; Proper WooCommerce ecommerce tracking integration, easier ways to pass data from certain posts/pages back into analytics ie standard events, improved google tag manager integration to pass data through the container for certain conditions and an easier solution to address cross domain tracking

[svensonsan]

Hi

I recently stumbled across this issue with 60+ people on our company site not being able to see analytics on the dashboard.

• would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? Per Module. Adsense only for admins, Analytic & Search Console for all editors

• would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? Share the complete site

• would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? Yes. Per User Role

• would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? Sharing means here I have to take action? Then no, users should be able to do this for themself.

• any other details about the example use-cases do you have in mind? Mention this limitation prominent on the wordpress plugin page. **Currently this plugin doesn't work with multiple editors across the globe in a company. It's great for one person, but doesn't work for >1 amount of editors. Even if people have access to search console and analytics the setup if way, really totally too much for a regular content writer. **

[anywarewebmarketing]

We need this feature too. I have clients asking for access to their Google Analytics data from the plugin they can see in WordPress, but when they click it they are presented with an install process they do not understand and should not have to go through (because we are supposed to do all this technical stuff for them).

would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? entire dashboard for me, but modular would be fine too
would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? entire site
would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? individuals but roles would be ok too and is probably more practical to manage
would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? possibly but it would need to be as good as the scheduled reports built into Google Analytics. We're happy to continue using the GA scheduled reports.

Thanks!

[tlhInganHom]

Just chiming in that I also need the ability for my site's users to see the analytics data from within wordpress. I run a news site with around 50 different authors publishing posts, and they like to track how their posts are doing. Even just a separate dashboard widget that would show them this information would be really grand.

[timiwahalahti]

👋 Site Kit is the plugin we have been waiting for to pop up, all other plugins with similar functionalities are just pain in the ass. But like others in the thread, the lack of sharing of data is holding us back from installing the plugin for our 100+ clients.

• would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? Analytics is by far most important information, but SC, AdSense and Tag Manager sharing would be sometimes useful too.
• would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? Without a question; the whole site, as it would allow setting up only once and share data with the whole marketing department.
• would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? If I had to choose, per role type.
• would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? No.

[Alex-Hay]

I'd like to quickly echo how useful this feature would be. We manage sites for a few dozen sites, all of which link up to Google Analytics. We've become increasingly frustrated at the price and questionable ethics of companies like Monster Insights, but unfortunately the lack of even a basic dashboard widget (for editors) makes Site Kit a non starter.

Not trying to seem ungrateful though - the plugin is great otherwise!

[Buildbetter]

Please correct this is very bad mistake. Make it option, give access to all administrators to see statistics. Its very bad decision. Please fix it, don't kill us.

[grpace]

As an agency that sets up analytics for our clients. It is imperative that our client user role with different accounts don't need to log into analytics but just get the authenticated access that we have set up on our admin account.

Please give us this option!

[GPurdue]

Hi there, just another agency that would need to set this up on 50+ clients sites and then have to get each client to create a Google Analytics account, grant them access to their analytics and then get them to sign into the Site Kit on their site with their analytics account.

I would prefer a role checkbox that would allow me to allow any other admin users to see the analytics without the need for them to sign into their own analytics account.

[TaisaDesigner]

I think this should be maybe not default but as an option.

My use case:

I am a web-designer. My customers are quite basic with technology sometimes, and ask them to connect their google account is a big issue for them. Sometimes I even create the Analytics and Search console for them and pass on them later. So I think it would be great to let this connected to their sites somehow and that they don’t need to do anything else.

Maybe an option like "share the details with other admins"? Or choose some users to share the info with?

[nicosemp]

• would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once?

Sharing the entire dashboard would be the basic functionality. I haven't had any clients who would require per module sharing.

• would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)?

Entire site. I don't see ever needing to exclude a custom post or a set of pages from a user's view.

• would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals?

Per role would be great.

• would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need?

This is not fundamental, but would be a nice to have addition.

[ivfit]

Shouldn't this be a top priority feature request? All webmasters and agencies need this for their clients.

[ThierryA]

Thanks all for you comments and sharing suggestions.

This issue is definitely in our priority list and we are discussing the security and privacy implications. To be clear, the complexity here is not from an engineering perspective and not the time it would take to implement data sharing, it is definitely due to security and privacy.

As for today, allowing a WP user to request data on behalf of another Google account is definitely a no go from a security and privacy perspective. As some of you mentioned, other non Google popular plugins may do that, however this is not a good reason for Site Kit to do the same 😉

With all that said, I would like to pivot this discussion to see this feature from a differ angle. We could/should look at it as sharing a view/snapshot and not requesting data on behalf of someone else. The end result is pretty similar but the underlying approach to the discussion and engineering implementation is fundamentally different because no request would be made on behalf of someone. Instead the idea is that a snapshot of the dashboard is regularly taken and accessible by the people it is is shared with. It is worth noting that it is still early days for this approach and we still have a long way to go to confirm whether this is a feasible approach or not.

[reaxion]

I'm well on my way to having this plugin installed in 150+ WP sites before discovering this problem.

A previous free plugin gone commercial showed analytics to all users without problems for years - maybe send them a DM?

How is logging into other user's accounts and signing in with my Google account more secure?

[nico-martin]

@reaxion, If I understand it correctly, this plugin allows a lot more than previous analytics plugins did. Thats why you need to authenticate as a user insteand of an access key with limited access rights. With this in mind it's understandable that they really need to take the time and find a solution that would not just open up any dangerous side-effects.

Logging into other user's accounts and signing in with your Google account is a pretty bad idea. And that's definitely not what the authors would suggest. If you really need to share the data between accounts you should consider using a different plugin.

[seriouslyjennings]

Hi all,

just wanted to check in on how this is coming along, any news? This has been an issue for me for many sites as well. to the use case questions (if it's still useful)

would you want to share per module (e.g. AdSense only or SC only), or the entire dashboard at once? The entire dashboard

would you want to share the entire site, or individual posts (e.g. if you have contributors authoring content in specific sections, they only see stats for their content)? Entire Site

would you want to share per role type (e.g. all editors) or only with specific individuals? By role

would the ability to generate and share e.g. a monthly report of site performance with any user on the WP site (or via email) address this need? no

any other details about the example use-cases do you have in mind? We work on a lot of fast changing projects with multiple stakeholders who want to be able to refine and test ideas on a daily or weekly basis. Our end clients are also not especially technical, so it's just not realistic to expect them to hook it up - that's what they hired us to do.

Any light at the end of the tunnel would be helpful! Until then, I will still have to use other solutions with my clients.

[mxbclang]

@seriouslyjennings Thanks for sharing your use case and interest in this feature. This is definitely still on our radar as an improvement to Site Kit, but as this time, we don't have a detailed timeline. Please feel free to follow this issue to receive future updates. Thank you!

[ThierryA]

Quick update on this thread, this issue has now been prioritized and we are actively exploring solutions. I don't want to set false expectation though, this could take quite some time to 1. find a solution 2. validate the solution with our security team 3. build it. So no ETA and no guaranty at this time but I hope sharing that we are actively exploring solutions is already kinda good news 😄