Install Google Analytics on Your Website to Track the Traffic Results

What are the Advantages with Google Analytics? 

Now that you have a website or a blog wouldn’t it be nice to know where visitors come from, what pages on your site are viewed most often and which ones aren’t?  Would you like to be able to measure results before making changes?

Having that information and much more is as simple as installing a small snippet of script on your website or blog and best of all there is no charge for this service. Hard to believe but it is true. Our good friends at Google have, for sometime now, made this available to all website owners. They provide the code, you install it on your website or blog and within 24 to 48 hours data collected about the traffic on your site is available in various reports in your Google Analytic account. This information will provide you with a good starting point to understanding how your content is performing and where changes are needed.

Installing Google Analytics to Your Blog 

1. Type Google Analytics in your search bar.  Once there, if you have a Gmail account you may simply use it to sign up.  Otherwise in the center of the page use the ‘Sign up now’ link. Create your account.
2. After creating your account Google sends you an email to verify your address. Go to your email, click on the link provided in the email you just received from Google and you will be taken to their webpage. On the right hand side of the page select Analytics.
3. You will be asked for your website URL. They have ‘http:’ already selected so just type inwww.yourdomainname.com (or .net or .info – whatever is correct for your address). Your Account Name should automatically become www.yourdomainname.com. Select the Country/Territory and the Time Zone and click Continue.
4. On the next page you will be asked for your Name, Phone and Country then click Continue.
5. Read through the Terms of Service and if you agree select Yes and then click on Create New Account.
6. You now arrive at the page with the tracking code and are given a choice of installing the Legacy Tracking Code (urchin.js) or the New Tracking Code (ga.js). The choice is yours but I would opt for the New Tracking Code.
7. Without closing the Google Tracking Code page, open a new browser window or tab and log in to your blog. Navigate to Presentation à Theme Editor. Once at your Theme Editor select ‘Footer’ from the list of Theme files on the right hand side. When selected the code for the ‘Footer’ now becomes visible in the editor. Scroll down through the code and look for the closing </body> tag. 

    

8. Copy the tracking code from the Google Analytic page and paste it right above the </body> tag, just as I have in the above illustration. Notice that the Analytic code starts with the tag <script type=”text/javascript”> and ends with the closing </script> tag.
9. Look at the code closely to make sure you copied and pasted all of it. When done, select Update File, log out of your blog and close the window or tab. (Reminder: If you don’t click on Update Fileyour code will not be saved.) The installation is finished but we need to complete the process and let Google know.
10. Go back to the Google Analytics window and select Continue. You will be taken to the dashboard of your Google Analytics Account. Notice the Check Status link, click on the button and you will return to the Tracking code page where you will see the status. It should give your Profile Name, Website URL and indicate that it is ‘Waiting for Data and that Analytics has been successfully installed and data is being gathered now’. At the bottom of this page ‘clicks’ on Finish to complete your installation. Congratulations! You have successfully installed Google Analytics. You are now taken to the dashboard where you can learn more about the reports that will soon be generated for you. 

Installing Google Analytics a Static Website  

If you have a static website rather than a blog the process is very similar but the Analytic code needs to be placed on each page you want tracked.

1. Follow the instructions above for signing up for your Google Analytics Account. Then open your website files in your favorite text editor. Copy and paste the Tracking code on each page you want tracked. Insert the code just above the </body> tag.
2. After you have finished inserting the code, upload the files to your server via your favorite FTP program and you are set.
3. Complete the process of checking the status. Follow through the directions above and finish your installation.

Resources: 

1. Google Analytics by Mary E. Tyler and Jerri L. Ledford
2. Web Analytics an Hour A Day by Avinash Kaushik