Google Analytics, launched in 2005, although intended for businesses, is a great way to measure website(s) or app(s) performance, including views, clicks, engagement duration, and events. This article shows how to set up and use Google Analytics.
Go to https://analytics.google.com. Enter this URL into the address bar. You'll be directed to Google Analytics site.
Click Start measuring. It is the blue button below the heading and subtitle. This will take to the account creation page.
Enter your account name. Use the provided textfield to enter your account name.
It must be between 2 and 100 characters in length.
Select checkboxes. Select the checkboxes you feel comfortable sharing the data with Google.
Click Next. It's a blue button below the form. Clicking takes you to property details.
Enter a property name. Use the provided textfield below "Property name (Required)" to give the property a name.
Select a time zone. Use the provided dropdown menus below "Reporting time zone" to select a country and time zone. Make sure that the time zone matches your country.
Select a currency. Use the provided dropdown menu below "Currency" to select a currency for your country.
Click Next. Clicking takes you to business details.
Select an industry. Use the provided dropdown menu below "Industry category" to select an industry that is most relevant.
Select the size of your business. Use the provided radio boxes to select the size of your business depending on the number of employees.
For individual users, select Small.
Click Next. Clicking takes you to selecting objectives.
Select any objectives. Use the checkboxes to select the objectives that are most relevant, then click Next.
There are 5 objectives, which are listed below:
Generate leads
Best for marketing sites
Drive sales
Best for e-commerce sites
Understand web and/or app traffic
Best for general-purpose websites, blogs and apps
View user engagement & retention
Best for software-as-a-service (SaaS) websites
Other business objectives
Best if the other above objectives are not relevant
Agree to terms of service. Read the terms of service and agree if you are confident complying with terms of service by clicking I Accept.
Click Web. It's the first button below the "Choose a platform" header.
Enter the website URL and stream name. Use the provided textfields to enter the website URL and stream name.
Choose if you want to enable enhanced measurements. By enabling, it enables Google to collect more insights about your website, including site search and file downloads.
Only enable if your website doesn't contain personally identifiable information.
Click Create & continue. It's at the top-right of the sidebar.
Click the data stream you have just added. It opens a sidebar managing the data stream.
Click View tag instructions. It's at the bottom of the sidebar. This will open a new sidebar showing installation instructions.
Add the gtag.js code snippet to all pages. This can be done via website builder or manually. Once done, close the sidebars by clicking the cross buttons.
If using a website builder, follow the website builder instructions to add the tag to your website.
If adding manually, copy the GTag.js code to all the pages, just after the <head> tag. Test the pages to make sure these pages work.
Click Next once the tag is added to all the pages.
Finished! Wait 48 hours to collect enough data to be viewable on dashboard.
View the dashboard in the home tab. Go to the home tab, represented by house icon, at top-left corner below the logo. You can adjust the time range to suit your needs.
Explore reports. Go to the home tab, represented by house icon, at top-left corner below the logo. Then, select a report below the “Business objectives” to view the report for each objective.
View a realtime report. Click “Real-time overview” at left of the sidebar. You will see a real-time representation of your website or app. You can view the active users in the last 30 minutes.
