Installing Google Analytics

Installing Google Analytics can be done in two ways according the tracking code version used: the traditional (ga.js) version or the latest (asynchronous) version.  This article briefly describes important points in doing the traditional tracking code version.  For more details or if you need information in setting up the latest version, you may refer to Google’s Help Center.

What you will see in the Help Center is Google’s installation guide for Analytics that walks you through the steps in the configuration and complete setup of a profile.  First of all, you need to have an active Google Analytics account, or you may create one.  Google Analytics can track and import cost data from AdWords if you got it linked with your Analytics account.

You can sign in to your Google AdWords account, then follow the instructions from the Reporting tab after you click on “Google Analytics”.  You may access http://www.google.com/analytics to create an account in Google Analytics.  You can sign in by entering your Google Account email address and password, or you may create one by clicking “Sign Up”.

You may enter the URL of your website, selecting either https:// or http:// from the options under the drop-down.  You can enter a nickname for this in the Account Name field then hit “Continue”.  You may then enter your contact information then click “Continue”.  By agreeing to the “Terms of Service” by Google Analytics after reading and understanding it, you may tick the “YES” box and you can continue by clicking “Create New Account”.

How To Get The Tracking Code In Installing Google Analytics

You will get the tracking code from the Tracking Instructions page.  You will have to paste this code into every page of your website.  It is recommended that you follow the next few steps before actually pasting the code to your pages in order to have relevant data collection.  However, the tracking code may be installed right away too.

One important thing is to make sure that your profile is configured so that you can maximize whatever you will get from your reports.  You may access and edit your profile settings in the “Website Profiles” table.  It would also be optimum to tell Analytics to exclude parameters on URL queries and not count these as unique pages.  You may enter the query parameters that need to be excluded, separating them with the use of commas.  For tracking an e-Commerce website, you can choose e-commerce analysis reporting.

Editing Tracking Code When Installing Google Analytics

There is also a way to edit the tracking code of setups for custom websites.  Installing Google Analytics tracking code is intended to work in most website setups.  However, there might be a need to have small updates to this tracking code on every page.  If you need to update the code, you may follow the recommended steps from Google Analytics Help Center.

Now, if you want to proceed with adding the tracking code to your website’s pages, you can add the code manually or with other methods.  You may sign in to your Google Analytics account to access your tracking code.

Profile tracking code is always profile-specific and you can retrieve the tracking code by going to the Analytics Settings page.  You can copy and paste your tracking code from the Instructions text box from the section for adding tracking. Once installed successfully, Analytics will start collecting traffic data within 24 hours.  A more detailed information in installing Google Analytics tracking code is found in Google’s support site.  You may refer to these instructions so that you can get a more accurate tracking.