If you're new here, why not get my Blog updates via e-Mail?
Thanks!
Eoin

Before you begin work on your website or Blog, you need to get the code needed to install Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free, reliable tool that tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site.

Basically, it will show you how people found your web site, so that you can fix problems and also focus your marketing resources on advertising that delivers a better Return On Investment. You can also use it to improve your site to convert more visitors.

Adding Google Analytics to your web site is an essential step, as it gives you more of an advantage over your competition, as you will be able to see what’s working and not working, not just guess.

To use Google Analytics, you need to sign up for a free account with Google and then insert a simple piece of code on each web page or into your Blog.
After you install it, you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website.

For a full list of the freely available Google Analytics features, go to: http://www.google.com/analytics/features.html

Instructions To Install & Configure Google Analytics:

A. INSTALL GOOGLE ANALYTICS

To install Google Analytics, sign up for a free account at http://analytics.google.com

You need to have a Google Account to do this, which is also free, just follow the directions on screen.

B. CONFIGURE GOOGLE ANALYTICS

i) Follow the steps provided by Google for creating a profile for your domain name.

ii) Take your time, as any mistakes may not be noticed until after you have done a lot of work, which may need to be re-done.

iii) Once these steps are completed, Google will provide you with some HTML code that copy to the bottom of every web page, immediately before the HTML </body>.

If you have a Wordpress blog, download this PlugIn to make life easier.

Be sure to select “New Tracking Code (ga.js)”, it looks similar to this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var gaJsHost = ((”https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(”%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</ script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(”UA-#######-#”);

pageTracker._trackPageview();

</ script>

C. To add this HTML code please follow these steps:

a) Scroll down to the bottom of each page, to where you see the body tag:  </body>

b) Right before the </body> tag, paste the lines of HTML code provided by Google.

c) Save the changes.

D. ACCESS YOUR WEBSTATS VIA GOOGLE ANALYTICS

To access your stats, log in to your Analytics account at http://analytics.google.com.

To learn more about using Google Analytics, take a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KK7i084W2w

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Blogging, First Steps, Internet Business Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.