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GA4 Pageviews Sync

Replace Post Views Counter with real Google Analytics 4 data.

A single-file WordPress plugin that syncs actual pageview counts from GA4 into post_meta — once a day, via WP Cron. No frontend JavaScript, no database writes on every page load, no composer dependencies.

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Why?

Post Views Counter is the most popular pageview plugin for WordPress (1M+ installs). But it has fundamental problems:

	Post Views Counter	GA4 Pageviews Sync
How it counts	Writes to DB on every uncached page load	Reads from GA4 once/day — zero page-load overhead
Frontend JS	Loads frontend.js on every page (3 KB)	None
Bot traffic	Counted as real views	Filtered by GA4 automatically
With page cache	Undercounts (cached pages skip the counter)	Accurate regardless of caching
DB writes	1 write per uncached pageview	0 writes per pageview
Data source	Self-counted (inaccurate)	GA4 (the same data you see in Analytics)
Dependencies	jQuery (for JS counter)	Zero (uses PHP's built-in openssl_sign())

The accuracy problem, explained

Post Views Counter faces a catch-22 with page caching:

• Cache ON (WP Rocket, Kinsta, Cloudflare, etc.) → Most visitors get a cached HTML page → PHP never runs → Counter never fires → Views are undercounted
• Cache OFF → Counter fires, but you sacrifice site speed
• JS fallback mode → Adds another HTTP request per page, defeats the purpose of caching

GA4 doesn't have this problem — it counts via a client-side analytics tag that works independently of server-side caching.

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How it works

WP Cron (daily)
  → PHP creates JWT from Service Account credentials
  → Exchanges JWT for Google access token
  → Calls GA4 Data API (screenPageViews by pagePath, all time)
  → Maps pagePath → post slug → post ID
  → Writes to post_meta ('ga4_pageviews')

Total execution time: ~3-5 seconds, once per day.

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Installation

1. Download

Download ga4-pageviews-sync.php and upload it to wp-content/plugins/.

Or via WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/Raymondhou0917/ga4-pageviews-sync/archive/refs/heads/main.zip --activate

2. Create a Google Service Account

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project (or use an existing one)
3. Enable the Google Analytics Data API
4. Go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts → Create a service account
5. Download the JSON key file
6. In Google Analytics → Admin → Property Access Management, add the service account email with Viewer role

3. Configure

Add two lines to your wp-config.php:

define('GA4_CREDENTIALS_PATH', '/path/outside/webroot/service-account.json');
define('GA4_PROPERTY_ID', '123456789');  // Your GA4 Property ID

Security tip: Store the JSON file outside your web root (e.g., one directory above public_html). This prevents direct HTTP access to your credentials.

To find your GA4 Property ID: Google Analytics → Admin → Property Settings → Property ID (a number like 311674390).

4. Activate & sync

Activate the plugin, then go to Settings → GA4 Pageviews and click Sync Now to run the first sync.

After that, it runs automatically once per day at 4:00 AM (server time).

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Features

• Sortable admin column — "GA4 Views" column in the post list, click to sort by most viewed
• All public post types — Works with posts, pages, and any custom post type
• Slug aggregation — If GA4 reports multiple paths for the same post (e.g., with/without trailing slash), views are combined
• Settings page — View sync status, last sync time, and trigger manual sync at Settings → GA4 Pageviews
• Standard post_meta — Data is stored as ga4_pageviews in post_meta, accessible via get_post_meta() for themes and other plugins

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Using the data in your theme

// Get pageviews for a specific post
$views = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'ga4_pageviews', true);
echo number_format_i18n($views) . ' views';

// Query posts ordered by views
$popular = new WP_Query([
    'meta_key' => 'ga4_pageviews',
    'orderby'  => 'meta_value_num',
    'order'    => 'DESC',
    'posts_per_page' => 10,
]);

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Requirements

• PHP 8.0+ (uses openssl_sign() for JWT — no composer needed)
• WordPress 6.0+
• A Google Analytics 4 property with data
• A Google Cloud Service Account with GA4 read access

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FAQ

Q: How often does it sync? Once per day at 4:00 AM server time. You can also trigger a manual sync from the settings page.

Q: What date range does it use? All time — from when your GA4 property started collecting data. This gives you cumulative lifetime pageviews for each post.

Q: Will it slow down my site? No. Unlike Post Views Counter, this plugin does absolutely nothing on the frontend. No JS, no CSS, no DB writes. The sync runs as a background cron task.

Q: Does it work with WP Rocket / caching plugins? Yes. Since it reads from GA4 (not from page loads), caching has zero impact on accuracy.

Q: Can I migrate from Post Views Counter? Just activate this plugin and deactivate Post Views Counter. The data sources are independent — GA4 Pageviews Sync reads from GA4, not from the old counter. Your GA4 data is already there.

Q: What happens if the sync fails? Nothing breaks. The last successful data stays in post_meta. Check Settings → GA4 Pageviews for error details.

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License

GPLv2 or later. See LICENSE.

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Author

Raymond Hou (侯智薰) — solopreneur, digital workflow expert, and AI tools educator based in Taiwan.

• Personal site & blog: raymondhouch.com
• Online courses (digital workflow & AI): academy.lifehacker.tw
• YouTube: 柚智夫妻
• Newsletter: 雷蒙週報

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