How to Setup Google Analytics

It is estimated that close to 71% of small businesses in America have an active online presence through a website. Usually, this is the first step to up their marketing game. What follows after setting up a site is setting up Google Analytics as the next step to track visitors coming in and use the statistics to help improve the web presence. The tool is free to use, and with the correct set-up, you will start seeing results. In this post, we provide a detailed guide on how you can set-up Google Analytics and start tracking visitors on your website.

Step 1; Sign-in to your Google account

You can do this by entering your email address as well as the password of the Gmail account you want to use.

If you have a Gmail account, head over to Google Analytics Solutions. Hover to the top right-hand side where you’ll find a drop-down at the sign-in button. Click on the Analytics section to continue.

Step 2; Set-up the account

Having sign-up, you’ll be directed to a setup screen. Click on the Admin section.

In case you had other analytics accounts, search the one you want to set-up and fill in the required sections such as the website URL, industry your website falls under and the time zone. Remember to use the correct time zone for accurate results. The account and website name can be the same; however, you can use the website URL in the case of the website name.

Scroll down and find more options on data sharing and tick the ones you’d like (its recommended to have most of them).

Step 3; Get the Analytics Tracking ID

Just below the data sharing section, you’ll see a blue button on ‘Get Tracking.’ But first, read the Terms of Service and agree to them to proceed with this step.

You will be directed to tracking code set-up screen, or you can go to the Admin section then info Tracking. You’ll then see a Tracking ID as well as its status. If at this stage you don’t have a Google Analytics plug-in on your WordPress account installed, consider installing one and copy paste it under the code in the settings section.

Don’t want a Google Analytics plugin? Here’s an alternative you can use, copy the tracking code and paste it in your HTML code, just before the ending head tag and save the changes. You may have to paste the code on every page. It takes a few hours to one day for the tracking to start.

Step 4; Additional set-up

To add more functionality to the account, consider taking extra steps such as setting up goals to identify actions and granting permissions to other admin users. It’s recommended to have a second admin user which can be an unrelated Gmail address in case your analytics email account gets into problems. You can add this to the ‘user management’ button under the Admin section.

If you haven’t set-up the cookie policy you’re also required to do so in compliance with existing regulations on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Want someone to do it for you? Are you having trouble setting this up? Book a session with us