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How To Set Up Google Analytics

Written by Kyle Pearce on January 18, 2010

Google Analytics is a free and easy-to-use website tracking and statistics tool provided by Google. It provides you with detailed statistics and data about the visitors to your website. If you don’t currently have a tracking tool to analyze your website’s traffic, then Google Analytics is a great tool to begin with. Google Analytics is currently used by about 40% of the top 10,000 websites, according to Wikipedia.

To sign up for Google Analytics and start tracking your website’s visitors, follow these directions:

1. In your browser enter the following URL or click on the link: http://www.google.ca/analytics/
   
2. Click on the large blue “Access Analytics” button on the right-hand side of your browser window.
3. If you already have a Gmail or Adwords account, you can simply enter the e-mail and password you use for that account. If you don’t have a Google Account, then on the bottom right-hand side of your browser window you will see “Don’t have a Google account? Click on the link “Sign Up Now”.
4. You will now be asked to enter your e-mail address and a password for your new account.
5. Type in the Word Verification requested, read the Terms of Service and then click on the button “I accept. Create my account”.
6. An account verification e-mail will now be sent to the e-mail address provided. You active your account, you will need to log into your e-mail inbox and click on the account verification link in the Account Creation Confirmation e-mail from Google.
7. Once you arrive at the E-mail Address Verified page click on the link “click here to manage your account profile.” On the following Google Account page click on “Analytics” and you will be taken to the Google Analytics user login page.
8. On this page you will have to click on the “Sign Up” button and enter some information about the website that you would like to track in Google Analytics.
9. The New Account Signup page looks like this:

Website’s URL: Enter the URL of your website.
Account Name: Choose a name for the account (i.e. “Your Website Name” Analytics)
Time zone country or territory: Choose your country.
Time zone: Choose your time zone.

10. Then click on the “Continue” button.
11. On the next page you will be asked for your First and Last Name and your Country. Fill out this form and click “Continue”
12. On the following page you will be presented with Google’s Analytics User Agreement. Read the agreement and then check the box “Yes, I agree to the above terms and conditions.”
13. After you have checked the box, click on the “Create New Account” button.

Your new Google Analytics account will now be created. To start getting data from your website though, you will need to add a snippet of Javascript code that is provided on the next page. To add this code you will need access to a tool where you can edit your website’s HTML code. If you running an Content Management System like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal you can easily download plugins that will automatically insert the code on each page of your website. If you aren’t running a Content Management System, then you will need to have access to an HTML editor so you can add the snippet of code to each page on your website that you want to track in Google Analytics.

To add the code to your web pages in an HTML editor, you will need to copy and paste it into the bottom of your content, immediately before </body> tag of each page you want to track. Once you have added the Analytics tracking code to the pages you want to have tracked, click the “Save and Finish” button at the bottom of the Google Analytics page.

You will then be redirected to your Google Analytics Dashboard. To see if the Google Analytics tracking code is properly installed, load up your webpage and then re-load the Google Analytics Dashboard. It may take up to an hour before Google Analytics tracking is activated. Well, there you have it, you can now track how vistors find and navigate through your website in Google Analytics.