Welcome to our third and final article on the basics of using Google Analytics. If this is your first time reading the series, be sure to check out part 1 first on why it’s worth installing for your business, and then part 2 to get a feel of the basic features and terminology used in the program.
For those who are returning, if you’re feeling confident about getting an account set up, the basic one as we mentioned before is free of charge and can be easily done in a few steps.
How to Set Up Your Google Analytics Account
- Sign in with your Gmail address. If you don’t have one, you will have to make a Gmail account first and foremost. If you use other programs such as Adwords, Gmail, YouTube, etc. you can use that same e-mail address to access Analytics.
- Go to google.com/analytics.
- Once you are signed in, click on the Sign Up button where it says “Start Using Google Analytics”
- Enter your website or app details.
- Confirm the data sharing settings you want to have between Google Analytics and your other Google business products, such as Adwords and Search Console.
- Click “Get Tracking ID” to finish creating your free account.
The new tracking ID you will receive is a unique sequence of numbers and a code for your website or app. If you ever get lost on what it is, you can find it in the Admin section of your new Analytics account under Property -> Tracking Info -> Tracking Code.
How to Connect Google Analytics to Your Website
Now that your account has been set up, it’s time to start getting traffic results.
- If you have V3 Media as your professional team already, we’ll set up the connection for you. We would need access to your login credentials, which are kept safe and secure. If not, move on to step 2.
- Be logged in to your website’s administrative dashboard. On all sites such as WordPress, there will be specific instructions on how to install Google Analytics tracking code into your website so that all pages are tracked. Follow these instructions exactly.
- You can find the tracking code you need by going to Admin, then under the Property Column select Tracking Info, and then Tracking Code. Depending on the instructions laid out in your website’s administrative dashboard, you can copy either the tracking ID or the Global Site Tag underneath (depending on your site’s instructions).
If you have any difficulty at all with these steps, let our professional team know and we can work on installing the code and connecting your site to Google Analytics for you.
How to Take Your Google Analytics the Extra Mile
- Always ask questions! You can use the search box when logged in to your account to ask questions like, “What’s my average page load time?”, “How many users did I have this week/month/quarter/year?”, “How long do users stay on my site?”, etc. Usually a report will come up that you can read.
- Customizing your filters can help you determine actual users you are trying to target in your current marketing goals. You can select the country, city, gender, etc. you don’t want to see in your reports and then apply this filter next time you have a question regarding the number of users who last visited.
- You can also determine if spam is trying to access your website by looking under Acquisition -> Referral. From there, you can copy the suspect URL, then go to Admin, Property, Referral Exclusion List, and then add the undesired URL to that section. This will ensure these users coming from referral traffic are no longer included in your reports.
- Enabling the Ecommerce option in your Analytics account is a must if that’s the kind of business you run. Go to Admin, then Ecommerce Settings, and then click the button to On. You can click this button to Off if you want to stop tracking anytime.
- If you have Search Console, another free to use tool offered by Google, you can connect this account to your Google Analytics as well. This can help you determine whether a current technical problem you’re having is connecting to one or the other.
You’re now ready to start using Google Analytics for your business’s website. Thanks for sticking around if you’ve read up to this point! If you have any further questions about Google Analytics, how to use it, issues with connecting it to your website, and so on, don’t hesitate to give us a call.