Getting Started with Google Analytics
Introduction
Whether you are new to website design/development or a 15 year veteran you will find Google Analytics a great tool to analyze visitor trends for your website. In this article we'll take a look at how to get set up with Google Analytics, how to add the Google Analytics script to your website and take a look at some of the basic features.
Getting Signed Up
As with most things Google it's free to sign up but you must have a Google Account. If you don't have a Google Account go to https:// www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount to create one. Once you have your Google Account created you will basically be adding Google Analytics to your account. To get the process started go to http:// www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html and sign in using your Google Account. Once signed in you will go through a simple 4 step process:
- You will be required to provide your website url (e.g. www.MyWebsite.com), a name for your website account name which is by default your website url, your country and your time zone. The country and time zone is necessary so that all reports will be reflected in your local time.
- Your basic contact info is next. It's nothing elaborate just your first name, last name, telephone and country.
- Next it's the standard old license agreement. It's a typical Google agreement save one notable item (see NOTE below). You must accept it before you can move on.
- Your code. Now that you have completed the steps above you will receive your reward of custom code for your website. Next we'll cover how to apply that code to your website and your options.
Coding your Website
When Google presents your Google Analytics code to you
there will be two options - the new method
(ga.js) and the legacy method
(urchin.js). In previous versions of Google
Analytics you had to place a JavaScript file on your website
which was then referenced in the Google Analytics script.
This is the legacy "urchin.js" method. The
problem with this method is that any time Google changed the
JavaScript file and added new features you would have to
download a new JavaScript file and install it before you
could use any new features. With the new
"ga.js" method the JavaScript is pulled from
Google directly so all updates and new features are provided
automatically. Therefore, unless you have a specific reason
or you already have the legacy "urchin.js" code installed on
your website, you should always choose the
"ga.js" code to install on your website. If you
have the legacy "urchin.js" method installed on
your website and you want to upgrade to the
"ga.js" method refer to http://www.google.com/support/
googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76305 for
detailed information on migrating.
Copy your "ga.js" code to Notepad or another
similar text editor and save your code in a safe place for
future use. Once you leave this page it's not an easy or
intuitive process to get back to the code sample from within
Google Analytics. If you do need to find your way back to
your Google Analytics code follow the steps in this help
article - http://www.google.com/support/
analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55603. Now that you
have your code you simply place it on each page of your
website just above your tag. That's all there is to
it.
TIP: If you have the ability to use include or template files within your website then I would suggest taking advantage of the functionality in case Google decides to update the code on you some day. In my case I do a great deal of development in ASP.NET and it's a very simple to drop the code into my Master Page which gives me a single location to manage my Google Analytics code.
Exploring your Options
Once you have your Google Analytics code installed on your website you are ready to start viewing reports and tweaking your account settings. We'll explore some of the basic settings you are likely to want to modify. Keep in mind Google Analytics is a very large and robust tool, so we won't be able to cover all of the options available to you but we will briefly explore the key settings and reports:
