WP Analytics

A WordPress plugin that exposes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint, letting Claude Desktop query your Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 data directly in natural language.

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Table of Contents

1. What It Does
2. Installation
3. Google Service Account Setup
4. Google Analytics 4 Setup
5. Google Search Console Setup
6. Plugin Configuration
7. Team Setup — Claude Desktop
8. Available Tools
9. Example Prompts
10. Troubleshooting

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What It Does

• Adds a REST endpoint at https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mcp/v1/mcp
• Authenticates Claude Desktop via a shared API key
• Connects to Google APIs server-side using a service account — credentials never leave your server
• Provides 7 tools across GSC and GA4, all with read-only access

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Installation

1. Upload the wp-analytics-mcp folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin via WP Admin → Plugins
3. Go to Settings → Analytics MCP to configure

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Google Service Account Setup

You do this once. Your whole team connects through one shared service account.

A Google Cloud service account is like a bot user — it has its own email address and credentials, and you grant it read-only access to your analytics properties.

Step 1 — Create or Select a Google Cloud Project

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in
2. Click the project dropdown at the top of the page
3. Either select an existing project, or click New Project, name it (e.g. FooPlugins Analytics), and click Create

Step 2 — Enable the Required APIs

1. In the left sidebar go to APIs & Services → Library
2. Search for Google Analytics Data API → click it → click Enable
3. Search for Google Search Console API → click it → click Enable

If you see "API already enabled" — nothing to do, move on.

Step 3 — Create the Service Account

1. In the left sidebar go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts
2. Click + Create Service Account
3. Fill in a Service account name — use something like fooplugins-mcp
4. The Service account ID (email) will auto-fill — copy this email, you'll need it in the next two sections
5. Click Create and Continue
6. Skip the optional role/permissions step — just click Continue, then Done

Step 4 — Download the JSON Key File

1. In the service accounts list, click on your new service account's name
2. Go to the Keys tab
3. Click Add Key → Create new key
4. Select JSON and click Create
5. A .json file downloads automatically — this is the file you paste into the plugin

⚠️ Keep this file safe. Never commit it to a public Git repo or share it over email/Slack. Anyone with it can read your analytics data. Treat it like a password.

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Google Analytics 4 Setup

You need the service account email from Step 3 (looks like [email protected]).

Step 5 — Add the Service Account to GA4

1. Go to analytics.google.com and sign in
2. Click the Admin cog icon in the bottom-left
3. In the Account column, click Account Access Management (grants access to all properties), or Property Access Management to restrict to one property
4. Click the blue + button → Add users
5. Paste the service account email into the Email addresses field
6. Set the role to Viewer — read-only, cannot modify anything
7. Click Add

💡 Find your GA4 Property ID: Go to Admin → Property → Property Settings. It's a number like 123456789. You'll need this when prompting Claude to run GA4 reports.

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Google Search Console Setup

Same service account email as above.

Step 6 — Add the Service Account to Search Console

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in
2. Select the property you want Claude to access from the left sidebar
3. Go to Settings → Users and permissions
4. Click Add user
5. Paste the service account email into the Email address field
6. Set permission to Full — not Restricted (Restricted blocks URL inspection)
7. Click Add

💡 Repeat Step 6 for each GSC property you want Claude to access. Each property needs to be added separately.

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Plugin Configuration

Step 7 — Add Your Credentials

1. Go to WP Admin → Settings → Analytics MCP
2. Open your downloaded .json file in any text editor, select all, and copy
3. Paste the full JSON into the Service Account JSON field
4. Click Save Settings — the page will confirm the service account email it loaded

Step 8 — Generate an API Key

1. On the same settings page, click Generate New API Key
2. The config block at the top of the page will update with your key
3. Copy the full config block — this is what each teammate pastes into Claude Desktop

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Team Setup — Claude Desktop

Each teammate does this once. Takes ~5 minutes. No Google account setup required on their end.

Step 9 — Configure Claude Desktop

1. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config
2. Paste the config block from the plugin settings page into the JSON file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "analytics-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote@latest",
        "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mcp/v1/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Save the file and fully quit and restart Claude Desktop
4. Go to Settings → Developer — you should see analytics-mcp with status Running

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Available Tools

Tool	Source	Description
gsc_list_sites	GSC	List all Search Console properties the service account can access
gsc_query_search_analytics	GSC	Query clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position
gsc_inspect_url	GSC	Check the indexing status of a specific URL
gsc_list_sitemaps	GSC	List submitted sitemaps for a property
ga4_run_report	GA4	Run a full analytics report — sessions, users, conversions, etc.
ga4_run_realtime_report	GA4	Real-time active users in the last 30 minutes
ga4_list_metadata	GA4	List all available GA4 dimensions and metrics

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Example Prompts

Google Search Console

• "List all my Search Console properties"
• "Show me the top 20 queries for fooplugins.com with more than 50 impressions last month"
• "Which pages have high impressions but low click-through rate?"
• "Is https://fooplugins.com/foogallery/ indexed in Google?"

Google Analytics 4

• "Give me a traffic summary for GA4 property 123456789 for the last 30 days"
• "What are my top 10 pages by sessions this month?"
• "Compare sessions by device category over the last 90 days"
• "How many active users do I have right now, broken down by country?"

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Troubleshooting

Error	Fix
"No service account JSON configured"	Paste the full .json file contents into the plugin settings and save
"Could not load private key"	Make sure you copied the entire JSON — don't truncate the private_key field
HTTP 403 from Google	The service account hasn't been added to the GA4 or GSC property yet — check the setup sections above
"Invalid or missing API key"	The key in Claude Desktop's config doesn't match the one on the settings page — regenerate and update
Status shows "Failed" in Claude Desktop	Go to WP Admin → Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to flush routes
Tools appear but return no data	Verify the service account email is added as Viewer in GA4 and Full User in GSC
rest_no_route on the /mcp endpoint	Plugin isn't active, or permalinks need flushing — see above

Health check URL: https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mcp/v1/health — should return {"status":"ok"} if the plugin is running correctly.