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A WordPress plugin for integrating Google Analytics 4 data and remote content management— Not clear? Let me explain what it does.

What It Does

The plugin has two operation modes:

• Google Analytics 4 data fetch — After you authorize a service account to access your GA4 data (setup instructions provided), the plugin connects to Google Analytics via API and fetches the 10 most popular posts along with their analytics metrics. It then creates an endpoint—public or private—that exposes the complete post data (title, content, featured image) and analytics.

• Remote content importer — This mode fetches post data from other sites running this plugin and imports them into your site. You can run incremental imports or start fresh each time.

• Both modes active — Use this when importing and exporting from the same site. Even if you duplicate many posts, performance remains unaffected—the bottleneck is how you fetch and display data, not post quantity.

Use Cases

Imagine you have multiple sites publishing news and articles, and you want to aggregate and display all popular posts from these sources. You could export and import from the same site (e.g., creating a separate CPT that collects only popular posts with analytics as custom fields for use in templates or page builders), or create a completely separate site to collect and display this data differently.

Example: A display in a showroom or retail location that showcases the most popular posts from your business website.

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📋 Overview

MK Analytics Data is a private WordPress plugin that provides:

• 📊 GA4 Analytics Integration — Syncs most-clicked articles data from Google Analytics 4
• 📥 Remote Content Importer — Automated import of posts from remote sites via REST API
• ⚡ Redis-safe Caching — Dual-layer cache (transient + DB fallback) survives Redis flushes
• 🔄 Scheduled Syncing — Independent cron jobs for GA4 sync and remote import
• 🌐 REST API — Three endpoints to expose analytics and popular posts data
• 🔐 Endpoint Protection — Optional HTTP Basic Auth on all REST endpoints
• 🔁 Self-updating — GitHub Releases-based auto-update via WordPress dashboard

🌐 REST API Endpoints

All endpoints live under /wp-json/mk/v1/ and support optional HTTP Basic Auth (configured in plugin settings).

GET /wp-json/mk/v1/popular-links

Returns a flat array of permalink URLs for the current top 10 most-viewed posts.

Purpose: Lightweight endpoint for widgets, sidebars, or external sites that only need the post URLs.

Response:

[
  "https://example.com/post-title/",
  "https://example.com/another-post/",
  ...
]

GET /wp-json/mk/v1/popular-posts

Returns full post data for the top 10 most-viewed posts, including content, image, and GA4 analytics.

Purpose: Main feed endpoint for remote sites that import posts via the Remote Content Importer. Includes all fields needed for a complete import with analytics metadata.

Response:

[
  {
    "title": "Post Title",
    "content": "<p>Full HTML content...</p>",
    "image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
    "date": "January 1, 2025",
    "url": "https://example.com/post-title/",
    "original_url": "",
    "analytics": {
      "views": 1240,
      "sessions": 980,
      "active_users": 860,
      "new_users": 310,
      "avg_time_seconds": 154,
      "avg_time_human": "2m 34s",
      "bounce_rate": 0.3821,
      "engagement_rate": 0.6179,
      "date_range": "30daysAgo",
      "fetched_at": "2025-01-01 12:00:00"
    }
  }
]

GET /wp-json/mk/v1/analytics

Returns raw GA4 analytics data for all tracked posts with summary metadata.

Purpose: Analytics dashboard, reporting tools, or any consumer that needs the full metrics dataset without post content.

Response:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "date_range": "30daysAgo",
  "fetched_at": "2025-01-01 12:00:00",
  "count": 10,
  "data": [
    {
      "post_id": 42,
      "title": "Post Title",
      "url": "https://example.com/post-title/",
      "views": 1240,
      "sessions": 980,
      "active_users": 860,
      "new_users": 310,
      "avg_time_seconds": 154,
      "avg_time_human": "2m 34s",
      "bounce_rate": 0.3821,
      "engagement_rate": 0.6179,
      "date_range": "30daysAgo",
      "fetched_at": "2025-01-01 12:00:00"
    }
  ]
}

Authentication

When endpoint protection is enabled in plugin settings, all three endpoints require credentials.

Option A — HTTP Basic Auth header:

Authorization: Basic base64(username:password)

Option B — Query string:

/wp-json/mk/v1/popular-posts?mk_user=USERNAME&mk_pass=PASSWORD

🚀 Installation

1. Upload the plugin folder to:

   wp-content/plugins/mk-analytics-data/

2. Activate through the WordPress admin dashboard.

3. Install Composer dependencies:

   composer install

4. Configure under Tools → MK Analytics.

⚙️ Configuration

Settings (Tools → MK Analytics)

Credentials

Option A (file): Place credentials.json (Google Service Account) in the plugin folder:

wp-content/plugins/mk-analytics-data/credentials.json

Option B (database): Paste the JSON content in the Configuration tab. The file takes priority if both are present.

📦 Dependencies

• PHP 8.3 (mandatory — the Google Analytics Data PHP Client Library requires PHP 8.3 or higher)
• WordPress 5.0+
• Google Analytics Data PHP Client Library (google/analytics-data)

🔄 How It Works

1. GA4 Sync — Connects to the Google Analytics Data API and fetches the top 50 page paths by views for the configured date range. Resolves paths to post IDs and stores the top 10.
2. Data Storage — Analytics metrics are saved per-post as post meta (_mk_ga4_*) and in a single wp_options store (mk_ga4_analytics_store).
3. Cache Layer — Popular post IDs are cached in a transient (fast path) and in wp_options (DB fallback). If Redis flushes, the DB fallback re-warms the transient automatically.
4. Remote Import — Fetches /wp-json/mk/v1/popular-posts from configured remote sites and creates local posts with all analytics metadata.
5. REST API — Exposes the three endpoints above for consumption by other sites or tools.
6. Self-update — Checks github.com/meksone/MK-Analytics-Data/releases/latest every 12 hours and surfaces updates through the standard WordPress update flow.

🔐 Security

• Google API auth via Service Account credentials (file or database)
• Optional HTTP Basic Auth on all REST endpoints
• Nonce validation on all admin AJAX actions
• Capability checks (manage_options) on all admin operations
• Sanitised and validated inputs throughout

📝 Version History

📄 License

This plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later (GPL-2.0+), the same license as WordPress itself.

You are free to use, study, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of the GPL. A copy of the license is available at: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html