Track Traffic with Google Analytics
How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners
(Text on this page copied and modified for class. Writing credit goes to the author of the page at: http://mahalo.com/How_to_Use_Google_Analytics_for_Beginners)
Google Analytics is one of the best tools out there for analyzing traffic on your website. With a little bit of setup, it will give you an enormous amount of information about who is coming to your site, what they're looking for, and how they're getting there. In fact, it has so much information that it can be overwhelming! Don't let it scare you away. With just a little training, you too will be able to use Google Analytics like a pro.
Step One: Sign Up for Your Account
- Go to Google Analytics at http://www.google.com/analytics
- Use your Google account to sign in
- Click the "Sign Up" button to continue.
- In the next window, provide Google with the full URL of your blog (xxx.blogspot.com)
- The account name will default to your blog name. You do not need to change it.
- Change the timezone to Eastern time.
- Click "Continue".
- In the next window, provide your contact information (note that these fields can be left blank.)
- Click "Continue".
- In the next window, read the Google Analytics terms of service. If you agree with them, click the "Yes" box.
- Click "Create New Account".
Step Two: Add Tracking Code to your Blog
- Click on the "New Tracking Code" Tab
- Copy the code
- Sign into Blogger
- Click on "Layout"
- Click on "Edit HTML"
- Find </body> in the HTML
- Paste the Tracking Code immediately before (above) </body>
- Back in Google Analytics, Click "Continue"
- In the main Analytics window, click "Check Status" to ensure you modified the HTML on your blog correctly. You should see "Waiting for data: xxxx.blogspot.com Analytics has been successfully installed and data is being gathered now."
Step Three: Hurry Up and Wait
- It takes 24+ hours for Google to collect the data for your blog. We'll come back to Google Analytics throughout the semester.