A Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Google Analytics

Set up Google Analytics:- It is a beneficial tool that helps you understand how visitors found your website and what they did next. The truth is you can only view the data if the tool is installed on the site. If not, you need to rethink this decision!

Having Google Analytics on your website already gives you the power to see crucial pieces of data that can aid you to improvise in the future. Do you know the best part? It is absolutely free!

Once you have installed it, you can keep a tab on the traffic, measure goals, and track the ROI of your social media presence. Though setting it up can look hard to pull, here is a step-by-step guide for you to make the job painless.

Before we jump right into it, let’s understand what exactly Google Analytics is and why you need it. Any guesses? No? Keep reading!

Google Analytics: A brief introduction

Google Analytics is the first step in understanding:

• Who are your visitors
• What content do visitors see on your website
• What is the visitors’ behavior
• What is the amount of traffic you are receiving
• Which websites send you traffic
• Who are your leads
• Individual page traffic
• Demographic information and more

Overall, it is a robust tool that gives you detailed insights into your website and visitors. Almost 56% of companies use Google Analytics, and all for good reasons. It does not matter if you have a blogging website or an e-commerce platform; anyone can benefit from this tool.

Here is a comprehensive walkthrough of how to set this up.

Steps to Set Up Google Analytics

Step 1: It starts with Google Tag Manager

The way Google Tag Manager works is simple. It takes all the information from your website and directs it to other platforms like Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics. It is free tag management and helps you update Google Analytics code without writing it manually, saving a lot of time.

For example, you need to track how many visitors clicked the PDF link. If there is no Google Tag Manager, you need to change the download links to view this manually. With this tool, all you need is to add new tags to Tag Manager to view the same.

First, create an account on the Google Tag Manager and enter all the necessary details. Once done, agree to terms and conditions and then move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Set up Google Analytics

You need to set up google analytics account just like Google Tag Manager, but you need to sign up on the GA page. Place all the details like account, website name, and website’s URL. Plus, select the category in which your website belongs and the time zone.

Click the Terms and Services to get the tracking ID consisting of a string of numbers, directing Google Analytics to send data to you. The number looks like UA-000000-1. The first set is your personal number while the second set is the property number linked to your account.

It is recommended not to share the tracking ID with anyone. Let’s move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Incorporate analytics with Google Tag Manager

This step will teach you how to set up Google Analytics tracking tags for your business site.

Go to Google Tag Manager Dashboard and click the ‘add a new tag’ button. You will land up to a page where you can generate tags for your website.

There are two areas where you can customize the tag.

• Configuration– Here, the tags appear collected by the data
• Triggering- The type of data you can collect

Click the Tag Configuration button and select the tag that you want to create. To generate tags for Google Analytics, choose the ‘Universal Analytics’ option. When you click on this button, you will get the option to choose the data you want to keep a tab on.

In the next step, go to ‘Google Analytics Settings’ and press ‘New Variable. You will reach a new page, from where you can set up Google Analytics and tracking ID. Your website data is sent directly to Google Analytics which you can view later.

Once you have done this, go to the ‘Triggering’ part and choose the data that you want to send to Google Analytics. In the ‘Configuration’ button, you will find the Triggering button that will send to a page called ‘Choose a trigger’. On reaching here, press All pages so that you receive information from all web pages.

Click ‘Save,’ and that is it! Now, you have the system tracking and sending data about your website to Google Analytics. It does not end here! You need to set up goals that lead us to Step 4.

Step 4: set up Google Analytics goals

Though you may know which are the main performance indicators, Google Analytics has no idea, which is why you need to tell Google what needs to be done to get successful results. To make Google understand, you need to define your goals.

On the bottom left corner, you will find the Admin button. You will land up in another window on clicking, where you see the ‘Goals’ button. Press it and find an array of goal templates. Go through them and choose the one which matches your business goal.

Furthermore, you need to select the goal you want that includes:

1. Destination– Set this goal when you want users to reach a particular web page.
2. Duration– Select this when you want visitors to spend a specific time on your page.
3. Pages/Screens– Choose this if you want users to go to specific pages.
4. Event- Set this if you want users to click a link or play a video.

When you select these options, you get more detailed options that set with your goals like, how long a visitor should be on your site or on which page you want your visitors to stay, and so on. Save the goals and leave the rest to Google Analytics. The tool will begin its tracking.

Note: You can track a diverse range of data using both Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Sometimes, you can get lost in the pool of data you receive. To keep all confusions at bay, start with something small, especially those key metrics that matter the most.

Step 5: Link to Google Search Console

Google Search Console is yet another potential tool that helps webmasters and marketers to accumulate data and metrics. With its help, you can find out when Google analyses your website, check the site’s crawl rate, see internal and external links, look at the keyword queries made, and more.

You will find a gear icon on the left corner of the dashboard. Click on it to set it up. Press the Property Settings in the middle column and click Adjust search console. What can you do here? You can add your site to Google Search Console.

On clicking the Add button, you will be taken to the page. You will find Add a site to Search console button at the bottom from where you can add a new website to Google Search Console. Enter the site’s name and press Add.

Include HTML code in your site and click Save, and you will return to Google Analytics. Do not worry if you find no data. Check back later and view the statistics.

What’s the next Process After Setting Google Analytics?

Now, when you have to set up Google Analytics, there are a ton of things you can go with. Do you want to discover them? Read on.

Give access to your team

If you work with a team of marketers, make sure that everyone can access the data on Google Analytics. There are five steps to add users.

1. Go to the Admin dashboard by clicking on the gear icon on the left-hand corner
2. Click the User Management button in the first column
3. Click Add new users
4. Place email addresses of new users
5. Choose the permissions you want to have them and press add

And that is it! Your team members can access Google Analytics and know the statistics.

Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics

Does your business use Google Ads? If yes, a piece of good news awaits you!

Now, you can link your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics account. In doing so, you get to see the full customer cycle, including ad impressions, purchases, consuming content, etc.

You learn how the visitors interact with marketers and how they end the goals that you have set.

Want to link the two accounts? Here are five steps to follow.

1. Go to the Admin dashboard and click on the gear icon located in the left-hand corner
2. Click Google Ads Linking in the property column
3. Click New Link Group
4. Click on the Google Ads account that you want to join with Google Analytics
5. Press continue and link accounts

When you link the accounts, you increase the possibility of accessing a wealth of information to determine your ad campaign’s ROI.

Set up views

In Google Analytics, you can set up the categories so that you can view data that matter to you. It means you have a view of each website in your account by default. For instance, if you have three websites linked to Google Analytics, you will receive the aggregated data.

But, you can tweak changes and get the information that you want to see. If you’re going to see the data that helps with organic search traffic or social media traffic, you can change the settings, respectively.

To add a new view, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Admin dashboard and press the gear icon located on the lower-left corner
2. Click Create a new view in the view column
3. Select ‘app’ or ‘website’
4. Put a name to filter out what you want to view
5. Select ‘Reporting Time Zone’ and click Create View

Later, you can edit the view setting and sort what exactly you want to see.

Conclusion

For any digital marketer, Google Analytics is a must! It helps to check the website’s performance and be a great help to run digital marketing campaigns. You learn more about your visitors, the kind of content they browse, determine ROI, and many more!

Without this strong tool, you will be practically like a ship without a rudder. Do not think much. Take help from this guide and set up Google Analytics account now!