If you're wondering how to get started with Google Analytics, you've come to the right place. Learn how to set up a Google Analytics account and how to add Google Analytics to your website. Be sure to watch the video for a detailed step-by-step walkthrough.
First things first: let's talk about an important tip when first setting up Google Analytics. In order to add Google Analytics to your site, you need to generate a Tracking ID or Measurement ID, and which one you need will depend on the website you have. But don't worry, we'll cover how to create both and then review how to add Google Analytics to both Wix and WordPress sites.
If you're new to Google Analytics, it may help to start from the beginning. So what exactly is Google Analytics? In short, Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by, you guessed it, Google. In a nutshell, Google Analytics allows you to track and report website traffic, video, social network traffic, as well as to measure your all-important return-on-investment, or ROI.
So now that we have an understanding of what Google Analytics is, let’s jump into how to set up a Google Analytics account. It’s really simple and takes just a few steps. But remember, we'll go through two different, very important options during setup depending on the site you have. Why? Well, Google Analytics recently updated to Google Analytics 4 (GA 4), and some sites (Wix) aren't compatible yet. I promise this will all make sense once we dive in.
To create a Google Analytics account, head to google.com/analytics and simply click on ‘start for free’. Here, you’ll create an account using the same google account info that you use for your Gmail. You can also create a free account from here too. Once you’ve logged in, click ‘set up for free’ again. Here, add an account name. This can be your company name. Leave these data sharing options on and select ‘next’. Here, you’re going to provide some property details, including a property name. This is normally your website. Then, you’ll select your time zone and currency.
Now, here's where that important distinction comes in. If you have a Wix site, you want to make sure you create a Universal Analytics Property. Scroll down for how to carry on if you have a WordPress site.
So, underneath the currency option, you’ll need to click ‘show advanced options’. If you’re running a Wix site, or want a universal tracking ID, make sure this is toggled on. Go ahead and add the website URL. Side note: for a Wix site, you have to make sure that you toggle on only the universal option, not both Universal and GA 4. Once you’ve got that all set, click ‘next’ again.
Here, you can add additional business information. Then, all you have to do is click ‘create’. Agree to the terms in a pop-up, and voila - you’ve successfully created a Google Analytics account.
So, now that your account is set up, you need to add Google Analytics to your website. You do this by installing the tracking ID or measurement ID directly to your website. Now, again, remember, there are different ways to do this depending on the site you have.
So, in keeping with installing for a Wix account, if you selected the universal option, you will now have a Tracking ID. For reference, you can find your Tracking ID in your admin console, under the property you just created, in the tracking code section. You’re going to need to copy this Tracking ID.
Once you've copied the Tracking ID, head to Wix. From your Wix site dashboard, hover over marketing & SEO in the left panel, then select ‘marketing integrations’. On this page is an option to connect Google Analytics, so click ‘connect’. Then, click ‘connect to google analytics’. Here, you'll enter in your Tracking ID. Toggle on the IP anonymization and click save. Voila, Google Analytics is now connected to your Wix website.
So now as promised, let’s review how to do this same thing, a little bit differently for a WordPress site, since many of you probably use WordPress.
The difference here happens when you're creating a property within your Google Analytics dashboard. So, you have your property name which can be the website, you’ve set your time zone and currency, but instead of selecting the universal option like we did for Wix, you’ll leave the advanced options toggled off. Click ‘next’, and fill in your business information. Then click ‘create’ and accept the terms.
Here, we have to set up a data stream in order to start collecting the data we want. So if you had already set up a Google Analytics account, but didn’t do this step yet, your screen may look different. To give you an idea of where we are in our Google Analytics account here, we are in the admin portal, in the property we just created, and we’re in the Data Streams section.
So here we want to choose a platform. We’ll select Web, since we want to add Google Analytics to our website. So now, from here, we have to set up this data stream, and we do so by adding our domain. Put your website url in here. Then to the right, give the stream a name. You can call this my website, or business website or product site, whatever makes sense for your situation. I like to keep Enhanced Measurement toggled on here too. Once you’re happy with everything, just click ‘create stream’.
Google should now generate a Measurement ID. If you don’t see your measurement ID right away after doing this, it’s okay, it might take a minute. You can always reload your analytics page and it should appear for you soon.
Now here's where we'll keep things really simple. Copy your measurement ID and head to your WordPress.com settings. From here, go to tools, then select marketing, then traffic. Scroll down until you find the Google Analytics section. Here, you can paste in the measurement ID. Simply click ‘save settings’ and that’s really all there is to it.
So remember, there’s more than one way to add Google Analytics to your website, but all said and done, it really should take you a few minutes to set up a Google Analytics account and successfully add it to your site.
Did you find this helpful? Would you like to know more about Google Analytics? Let me know in the comments.