You may have already heard of the impact of Google Analytics in gaining an understanding of your website’s visitors. When used properly, it can offer unparalleled understanding of your audience, content, and overall site performance. However, for those new to Google Analytics, getting started may appear daunting. To ease any confusion, we will guide you through the fundamentals and have you ready to go in a jiffy.
Setting Up Google Analytics
First, you’ll need a Google Analytics account. If you have a primary Google account that you use for other services like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google+, or YouTube, then you should set up your Google Analytics using that Google account. Or you will need to create a new one.
Create your account
Visit https://analytics.google.com/ and click ‘Set up for free’. You’ll be asked to sign in with your Google account. Enter your login details or create a new account.
Set up a property in your Analytics account
A property represents your website or app and is the collection point in Analytics for the data from your site or app. Click ‘Create Property’ and follow the prompts to enter details about your website.
Set up a reporting view in your property
Views let you create filtered perspectives of your data. They can be incredibly useful for segmenting your data. In the VIEW column, click ‘Create new view’. Follow the prompts to set up a reporting view.
Adding Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your Website
Once you’ve set up your Google Analytics property, you’ll need to add a special tracking code to your website. This code is a small snippet of Javascript that collects and sends data to Google Analytics from your website.
You can find your tracking code by going to your Google Analytics account, clicking on “Admin”, selecting the account and property, and finally, clicking on “Tracking Info” > “Tracking Code”. You’ll be presented with your tracking code.
Replace ‘UA-XXXXX-Y’ with your own tracking ID. You’ll need to paste this code into the every webpage you want to track. It’s typically added just before the closing head tag (</head>).
Navigating Google Analytics
Once you’ve installed the tracking code on your website, data will start to flow into your Google Analytics account. It’s time to start exploring!
Understanding the Dashboard
Google Analytics Dashboard is the first screen you see when you log into your account. It gives you a summary of what is happening on your website. You can customize the dashboard to show reports that you use often, create new dashboards, and even share dashboards with others.
Audience Overview
The “Audience Overview” report is often the first report you’ll see when you log into Google Analytics. This report gives you a wealth of information about the people who visit your website.
Acquisition Reports
The “Acquisition” section tells you where your visitors originated from, such as search engines, social networks or website referrals. This can help you determine which of your online marketing tactics are driving the most traffic to your website.
Getting started with Google Analytics may feel daunting at first, but once you take the plunge, you’ll find that it provides invaluable insights that can help you take your website to the next level. Happy analyzing!
