How To Set Up Your Website On Google Analytics

You’ll be up and running in 30 minutes or less

Google Analytics has always been one of the most popular tools website owners have used to monitor their web traffic.

Setting up a new website in Google Analytics isn’t quite as straightforward as it should be. However, following the steps below, you should be able to have your website enabled with Google Analytics tracking in under 30 minutes.

Set Up Your Google Analytics Property

To set up your website on Google Analytics, you need to add the website in Google Analytics Administration.

You’ll have a few options depending how many websites you hope to manage in Google Analytics. You’re only allowed up to 4 Google Analytics accounts, and each account is allowed up to 50 web properties, so keep that in mind when organizing your web properties.

Note: Make sure to select “https” if you’ve enabled SSL on your website.

Add The Google Analytics Tracking Code To Your Website

Once Google Analytics successfully creates your new website property, you’ll see a Tracking ID that represents the code Analytics will use to log all traffic for your site.

Ideally, you’ll want to insert this inside the tags of every page. Copy the script in this field and save it in Notepad or some other place where you won’t lose it.

If you’re using a WordPress website, adding this script is easy.

Typically, most WordPress themes include a Theme Header (header.php). In the Theme Editor window, select this from the list of theme files.

In the editor window, find the tag and insert the Google Analytics text after it.

If you aren’t using a WordPress site, you’ll just need to use a similar approach to make sure the Google Analytics script is included inside the tags on every page of your site.

Once you’re finished, you should now see your new website listed under the Analytics account that you’ve created.

Advanced Analytics Features

There are a few Google Analytics tracking features that aren’t enabled by default when you first install the tracking code. However, these features can provide much more insightful information about the visitors that arrive on your site.

In the Property Settings window, if you scroll down you’ll see several options to consider. These are additional features you can enable.

This enables additional reports in Analytics that tells you the age, gender, and interests of visitors who arrive on your site.

This information can be tremendously helpful in tailoring your site for the interests and demographics of the majority of your visitors.

This is a quick way to make sure the Google Search Console data is linked to the Analytics account for the same property. You’ll be able to see Search Console data in your Google Analytics reports once you enable this.

You’ll see a page with all of the websites enabled in your Search Console account that you can choose to link to the Analytics property you just created.

If you’ve just created your website and never added it to Google Search Console, you’ll need to do that before you can link it to Google Analytics.

This is a new feature where Google uses first-party cookies on user browsers to get a more accurate picture of visitor count. This reduces the error rate and provides you with a much more accurate picture of how many users are actually visiting your site and what page they’re visiting.

Now you have Google Analytics enabled for your site and all of the advanced features enabled. Keep visiting the property page in Google Analytics for your site, and in a couple of days you’ll start seeing data flowing in with all of your website statistics.

Ryan has been writing how-to and other technology-based articles online since 2007. He has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering and he’s worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer.Read Ryan’s Full Bio

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