One of the most important invisible steps to launching your website is to add Google Analytics code. It’s a free, easy way to review how your website is helping you achieve your goals and to gather important data about how to improve your performance.

3 easy ways to add Google Analytics tracking to your website

One of the most important invisible steps to launching your website is to add Google Analytics code. It's a free, easy way to review how your website is helping you achieve your goals and to gather important data about how to improve your performance.

 

Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics

  1. Sign up for an account at https://analytics.google.com
  2. In the lower left hand corner, click on the gear in the lower left hand corner (on my screen it’s orange)
  3. In the middle column, click “Tracking Info”how to add Google Analytics tracking information to your website

Step 2: Add Google Analytics to your Website

There are 3 easy ways to do this on your WordPress or Squarespace site:

WordPress – plugin option to add Google Analytics

The easiest, fastest way to add Google Analytics to your site is through a plugin. The one I recommend is conveniently called “Google Analytics,” and can be found through a search of the plugin directory. All you have to do is copy the code from your Analytics account (it starts with UA- then has 9 numbers following it) and paste into the plugin settings. Voila!

WordPress – theme option to add Google Analytics

Most themes have a place to insert your own code. You can google your theme name + “add Google Analytics” for a theme-specific tutorial, or just poke around your theme settings for something like “Header Scripts,” “Footer Scripts” or “Google Analytics.” Copy the full “tracking code” script and paste into this box. (Then head back to the Analytics dashboard and click the “send test traffic” button next to the tracking number to make sure it works!)

Squarespace – add Google Analytics

  1. In the 
  2. Click Save. Donezo!

Within a few hours, Google will start tracking the traffic to your website and organizing it in a way that can be incredibly useful to your business.

However, data cannot be collected retroactively, only once the code has been added, so it’s important to include add Google Analytics to your site as soon as possible!

One of the most important invisible steps to launching your website is to add Google Analytics code. It's a free, easy way to review how your website is helping you achieve your goals and to gather important data about how to improve your performance.