If you don’t know anything about Google Analytics, never installed it on your website, or never monitored your site’s data, then this post is for you! Every website gets traffic, more or less, and they land up on your site via various sources like search engines or outbound links. How can you get the information about the traffic arriving on your website? The answer is free and simple – Google Analytics.
Here, we are going to talk important topics like what is Google Analytics, why websites need it, how to install it, and how to use it.
What is Google Analytics?
Arguably, Google Analytics is one of the most powerful website analysis tools today. In simpler words, this application is a free website tracking service that collects information like website traffic, user behavior, conversions, and much more.
Why do you need Google Analytics?
The real question here is, why analyzing website’s traffic is important and how can it affect your site’s success rate. Read on to find the answers!
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Find out who visits your website
You can find the geographical location of your audience, browser they used, screen resolution, language, JavaScript support, Flash support, and much more. This information is useful, as you can modify your website based on the type of audience that is visiting the most, and make it more compatible.
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Track the movements of users on your site
With Google Analytics, you can now find the behavior of the user visiting your site. You can see where they are going, what they are doing, and how long they stayed on your site. It is useful to minimize the bounce rate and improve the navigation of the inner pages.
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Monitor the hottest hours for your site
You can now find more about the time of the day your website receives the most traffic and post when it is the busiest. This will improve your site’s visibility on search engines and will increase the probability of more leads.
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Know the source of the audience
To search where the people are finding your website is one of the most important aspects of running a successful site. With Google Analytics, you can break down the source of your audience into multiple categories like search engines, direct links, referral links, and much more. You can get even deeper insight on the type of search engine like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the reference sources like Facebook and Twitter, and much more. With this data, you can then perform more activities on those platforms, to get even bigger traffic.
How does Google Analytics Work?
After calculating all the information collected from various sources, Google Analytics will then create a graph based on the performance of your site. You can view this chart on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. It even lets you compare the performance of your site for different dates.
How to install Google Analytics on your website?
Now that you know the meaning, benefits, and working of Google Analytics, it is time to install it on your site.
1. Create an account
To install Google Analytics on WordPress, you need to have your account ready. Login to https://analytics.google.com and sign up, to set up your analytics account.
Add all the required information and then click on “Get Tracking ID.” This will give you a code, usually known as a snippet, which is like your account number. Copy the entire content and move on to the next step mentioned below.
2. Installation of snippet on your site
WordPress makes the addition of code easy for you; so don’t worry about your experience on this platform.
- Login to your WordPress website and select “Editor” available in the “Appearance” menu.
- Check the right side of the page and find “Theme Header” under “Templates.”
- Search for the </head> tag and paste your snippet before the tag.
- Click on “Update File” button and your code will be uploaded.
- Refresh the screen and click on “Send test Traffic” button to check whether the proper installation of Google Analytics.
It will take 12 to 24 hours for Google Analytics to reflect your website’s data.
After this period, click on the “Reporting” tab under your Google Analytics account to view the data.
How to use Google Analytics?
Now that you’ve installed this amazing web analytics tool on your site, it is time to explore the application and find out more about your traffic.
- The left side of Google Analytics will showcase all the data that you can see in different sections.
- You can see types of devices people use to view your site under audience>mobile>overview.
- You can see the channels sending traffic to your site under acquisition>overview>all traffic>channels.
- You can see the user behavior under behavior>overview.
- You can see the conversions on your site, only if you set up goals under conversions>goals>overview.
Fun Facts about Google Analytics
Now is the time to know some interesting things about your new application.
- It is the most popular web analytic tool in the world.
- Germany does not allow the use of Google Analytics without following some rules set by their Federal Data Protection Act.
- You cannot see the identity of your visitors.
- Google has very strict rules about personal information of users.
- You can also get a premium version for enterprise levels.
- Avinash Kaushik in 2007 made Google Analytics and is often referred to as “Analytics Rock God.”
- Google has 220 certified partners for its application.
- There are 40 different language settings.
You can use Google Analytics to empower your marketing strategies and hit new markets with all the data you need. Give your website an extra edge and utilize every tool possible to make it big in the world of web.
