How To Set Up Google Analytics In Three Easy Steps
by Ascedia - February 22, 2017 - 2 minute read
Recap from our last post: If you have a website or blog, it’s important to fully understand your digital audience. Google Analytics can help you determine which marketing tactics work, what content users engage with most, what drives conversions…you get it! It’s important.
It only seems fitting that the first post in our Google Analytics series is about getting started!
Step 1: Get a Google Analytics Account!
Sign up here (don’t worry: it’s free!). You can use a current Google account (like Gmail) or you can create a new one that you plan to use long-term.
Remember: Make sure you are the owner of the account (vs. an intern or another employee who might not be around forever!) You can grant people access to the account later, so keep this account private to start.
Step 2: Sign In and Get Set Up
Start by filling out some basic information about your web site (for example, app vs. website, what is your website’s name, URL, etc.)
Remember: Google breaks everything down into “Account, Properties & Views”:
- Your Account is the overarching access level, or the highest level of the hierarchy.
- Properties are your websites and apps – an account can house multiple properties (for example, multiple websites or a website and an app). Each property will have a unique tracking code to collect its own data.
- A View is literally a “view” into the property – it is the access point for your data. You can have multiple views and each view can be filtered differently (for instance, if you just want to see traffic from a certain source like paid media, or from a certain region like the Midwest). Always keep one unfiltered view because once a filter is applied, it cannot be reverted. (We’ll do an entire post on filtering best practices soon!)
Step 3: Install Your Tracking Code
Click “Get Tracking ID” to generate the Google Analytics Code and install the code on every page of your site. Installation may vary based on your website’s build. If you have an HTML website, you’ll want to add the code before the </head> tag. If you use something like WordPress, you’ll want to look for where you can add “header and footer” scripts or download a plugin.