In my opinion Google Analytics is one of the best tools that you can use on your website, not only is it free but it offers reports and analysis of your visitors, their actions and where they came from onto your website. With this information you can refine your website and Search Engine Optimisation to drive those all important rankings.

What Is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool from Google that provides comprehensive data on what your users are doing on your website. It comes as a small JavaScript link that you put on your websites pages to track data.

But not only does it collect all of this fantastic data it’s unbelievably easy to use and can be used for reporting and tracking of campaigns.

Not bad for the price of free!

Why should I use it?

Google analytics provides information on visitors, content, visitor actions, entry keywords, geographic, bounce rates and much much more that can be used in your SEO efforts to not only track results but also to make informed decisions. It is free to use and very easy to install for anybody with very basic HTML knowledge.

If you are running AdWords campaigns then it can also integrate to provide more precious information for you to use.

How do I put it on my website?

First you will need to go to Google Analytics, if you have a Google account already then click the big blue Access Analytics button, if you don’t then click the Sign Up Now link below it.

Then follow the on screen steps, adding your general information first

Website URL: Is the address of your website
Account Name: The name of the website or the group of websites you are going to add.
Time Zone Country Or Territory: Where you live
Time Zone: Will fill in automatically

The next step is just your acceptance of Googles terms.

Then you will on the tracking code page. For most people all you will have to do is copy the code as shown below into your website. It must be in a specific spot just before the </head>. Google provides more information on installing the tracking code on their site.

Once the code is on all the pages you want to track then you should be good to go.

What Next?

You must wait a day for results to start showing, after a week to a month you will have data that you can now begin to use to optimise your website, content, etc.

I cannot stress how important it is to track your website. Not only does it give you information that you can use going forward but it also shows how effective your current efforts are. In a later tutorial we will talk about setting up goals and conversions in Google Analytics which again make it such a powerful tool.

If you have any questions about Google Analytics feel free to drop me a comment below!

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