Check out our complete guide to installing Google Analytics on your site.
Create a Google or Gmail account
The first step is to create a Google or Gmail account . It is not possible to use Google Analytics without creating an account.
Two options are available to you :
- Create a Google account from your corporate email address:If you don’t want to create a Gmail address, you can create a Google account from your existing email address. You will then have access to Google Analytics with your professional address that you already use on a daily basis. You will simply need to confirm with Google that this is your email address.
- Create a new Gmail address:you can choose a username and create a new Gmail address. You will have access to Google Analytics with this new address.
First step: create a Google account or connect to an existing account. © Capture BDM
Train yourself to learn how to master Google Analytics
2. Configure your account on Google Analytics
Choose an account name and options for sharing your data
Once your Google account is created, you can log into Google Analytics and start setting up your account. You must first enter an account name and select the data sharing options you want to enable or disable. These options are intended to give you control over what data may be shared with other Google products and services.
The options for sharing your Google Analytics data. © Capture BDM
Choose the elements to analyze: website or mobile applications
Then you need to select what you want to analyze:
- the pages of your website
- the performance of your iOS or Android applications
- the performance of your site and your applications (beta version)
Analyze the data of your site or your mobile applications. © Capture BDM
Configure ownership of your Google Analytics account
In our case, we have selected the first option which concerns the analysis of a website. The next step asks you to enter the name and URL of your site and indicate your sector of activity (finance, travel, internet and telecoms, sports, etc.). Once the fields have been entered, you can click on the Create button .
Fill in the name and URL of their website.Google then informs you of the conditions of use of Google Analytics including the conditions relating to data protection and invites you to accept them in order to proceed to the next step.
3. Copy the tracking code to your website
You finally access Google Analytics: it’s a first victory! You must now add the tracking code to your website that you will find in your account administration, in the property settings. You click Tracking Information , and then click Tracking Code .
You find the tracking code (Global Site Tag) to copy and paste it as the first element in the <head> section of each of the web pages you want to analyze. If you do not have technical knowledge, it is better to hire a developer.
If you have a WordPress site, several plugins exist to help you easily connect your site to Google Analytics. You can use the following plugins: Google Analytics Dashboard for WP, Monster Insights or Site Kit by Google.
Copy the tracking code and insert it on your website. © Capture BDM
4. Check that the tracking code works sitewide
In order to make sure that your tracking code is working, you can check the Realtime section on Google Analytics. Concretely on this section, you see what is happening live on your site, you have access to the number of visitors, the pages visited and the sources of traffic in real time. If you don’t have any data, the tracking code may have been copied to the wrong place in your site code. You will need to verify that it has been copied to the <head> tag as the first element.
Note: for the free version, there may be a time lapse (24 hours or more) between the moment you insert the code on your site and the moment when Google Analytics displays the data in the different sections: audience, acquisition, behavior, conversions, etc. Only the Realtime section presents data immediately.
5. Access the data collected by Google Analytics
Once your tracking code is in place, you can access the Google Analytics interface and start analyzing the various indicators to better understand the profiles of your visitors, monitor their navigation on your site and measure your business performance. You can also explore more precisely the sources of traffic acquisition to find out where visitors to your site are coming from.
6. Do more with the Google Search Console
In addition to Google Analytics, it is relevant to register on the Google Search Console in order to control the presence of your site in the results of the Google search engine. This tool also allows you to consult the frequency of display of your site in search results, the requests made by Internet users to arrive on your site, and the click-through rate of users.
