How to install Google Analytics in 7 simple steps

February 29th, 2008 · No Comments

From time to time customers ask me what web analytics program they should install on their website. My answer to that is always Google Analytics.

Google Analytics gives you valuable information about your visitors and website and it’s free. What do you want more?

Sometimes the next question is how they should install Google Analytics on their site. To answer that question, here’s a simple, foolproof 7 steps installation guide:

Step 1 | Create a Google account
First you need a Google account. If you don’t have one yet you can create one with the following link: create a Google account.

Step 2 | Create a Google Analytics account
Next we have to go to Google Analytics and set up our account. Go to www.google.com/analytics/ and click create account.

Step 3 | Fill in your website details
In the next screen you’ll have to fill in your website details and time zone details. Make sure you use the time zone which your website is focusing on. So if you have a French website for French visitors use the French time zone.

Step 4 | Contact details and approval
Next you have to fill in your contact details and give your approval to Google.

Step 5 | Add code to your webpage(s)
Your account is now created. But before Google can begin measuring your website you’ll have to implement the Google Analytics code to every webpage within your website.

Most web pages are build from several files like the header-file, footer-file and navigation-file. The header, footer and navigation are often the same on your website so you don’t need that code to be written on every page. Therefore most web pages nowadays get these code sections from several other files.

It’s the footer file (often named footer.php or footer.html) we need for implementing the code. When you go to you’re Analytics account you can choose a code to implement. Choose the new code (ga.js) and copy it.

Paste that code just before the </body> tag in your footer file.

If you don’t have a footer file you’ll manually have to paste the code on every webpage you want to track. Also here, past it just before the </body> tag.

Step 6 | Checking if code is correctly implemented
In your Google Analytics account you can now check the status. Click that button and Google will check if they can find the Google Analytics code on your webpages.

Step 7 | Ready for take-off!
When everything is properly installed Google will begin measuring your web pages. When you log in to your Google Analytics account and click on reports you’ll see your web statistics. It takes a couple of hours before the first data is received.

Enjoy your Google Analytics!

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