One of the first things you need do after setting up your blog is sign up for a Google Analytics account. Google Analytics is a powerful tool for bloggers. A few of the things you can do with Google Analytics are: track who came to your blog, what they viewed, how long they were there, what search engine they used, if they were a referral from another site or if they came directly, and what page they left from. These tools can be very helpful when trying to make your blog successful.You can better track what posts are bringing the most viewers and what post disinterest viewers and more by analyzing your analytics! Anyway, enough riff raff. Trust me, you want it. And It’s free!
Set up a Google Analytics Account
Go to http://www.google.com/analytics and create a Google account (if you don’t already have one) and confirm it through the email verification.
Now you will be able to sign in to Analytics. You should see a page similar to the snippet below. Click the sign up button and fill out the set up page.
Find your Google Analycis Tracking Code
When complete, Select Get Tracking ID at the bottom of the page. Here you will find your Tacking ID that is used behind the scenes to notify your specific Google analytics account of traffic to your webpage and your Tracking Code that executes this process. If you look you can see the tracking ID within the code.
Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to your Blog
If you have a Genesis theme, scroll down to see your instructions.
Put the tracking code in your blog code. Yep, that’s right, blooooog coooode. Don’t worry it’s simple. First, select and copy the code in your tacking code box like Google advises. Sign in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearance – Editor. In the far right column, find the file titled footer.php and click to open it. Scroll down to the very bottom of your page and past the tracking code right below </body>. Hit save and you are done.
Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to your Blog – Using a Genesis Theme
If you use a Genesis theme, you don’t need to access the html file for your blog. First, select and copy the code in your tacking code box like Google advises. Then, sign in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate Genesis – Theme Settings and paste the code either in the header or footer. Hit save settings and you are done.
What is the difference between pasting the code in your header or footer?
Not much. Pasting in the header will cause analytics to track the second someone navigates to your page. Putting it in the footer will cause analytics to track once your page is loaded. I prefer to paste it in the footer because I don’t really want to track non legitimate page views. If the page didn’t have time to load they probably didn’t view anything.
Check your Results
Sign back in to Analytics in a few days and check your reports under the reporting tab!
Hello! I am loving your site, but really struggling with the analytics. I keep trying to follow your steps, but when it asks me to sign in, I sign in with my g suite account and then it takes me to g suite. I basically keep looping around
That sounds incredibly frustrating Jody. Can you try going in the other way. Log into your gsuite account first. Then head to https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/
Hopefully that helps you get Google Analytics set up on your site!
Would you recommend pasting the text in the header/footer verses using a plug in like the monsterinsights one? Are there any pros/cons?
MonsterInsights is the best of the GA plugins to use if you go that option. People like using the plugin because it also gives stats while they are logged into their WP dashboard, instead of having to go to Google Analytics. There are not any official GA plugins, so know that MosnterInsights is a third party plugin.
Another option if you don’t have a Genesis theme is the Insert Headers and Footers Plugin from WP beginner. It provides you header and footer boxes without having to code.
I wouldn’t say one way is better than the other, just make sure to only do one way. Having it set up more than once can cause tracking problems.
hi,thank you this was a very easy step to follow
I’m glad you were able to get your analytics set up!
Thank you!! This was so simple to follow. Greatly appreciated! 🙂
Hi, thank you for this very simple explanation. I do have a question, though. I set up Google Analytics set up for my WordPress blog using the http url a while ago . I now went through the process again for the https url so I can do the same – except I don’t see the Editor tab at my Appearnce on the WordPress admin dashboard. So how/where do I paste the code?
thanks
Hello there! This is such a brilliantly simple and easy to follow tutorial I wanted to let you know I linked through to it from my latest post where I provide a free Google Analytics Dashboard for bloggers 🙂 Kate
http://www.smallpaperthings.com/tracking-blog-progress-free-google-analytics-dashboard-for-bloggers/
Awesome, Kate. Thanks for sharing my post (and a free dashboard!)
This is why I love your blog, I wanted to know where I could go to see who was on my blog and how they got there. I haven’t figured that out yet, so if you can point me in that direction that would be brilliant, but in the mean time i DID DO THIS 🙂 YOU ROCK!!!!!! Love this blog!!!!
Thanks. You can check out this post to see how visitors got to your site.