Google Analytics logo

How to open a Google Analytics Account

Google Analytics logo

Step 1A: Create a Google account

If you do not have a Google account, get one. You can do this by going to http://www.google.com and clicking “Sign In” at the top-right corner of the page. Then click on the “Don’t Have a Google Account? Create an account now.” link. Follow the instructions and you will have a Google account, and you will be ready to start setting up Google Analytics.

Step 1B: Already have one?

If you already have a Google account, you may skip this first step, as you already have access to Google Analytics.

Step 2: Go to Google Analytics

Now that you have your Google account, it is time to start setting up your Analytics account. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics and click on “Access Analytics”. This will take you to your dashboard. It looks empty right now, but once you add your site or sites to it, your dashboard will fill up with lots of interesting and useful information.

Step 3: Add your web site to your account

In the bottom-left portion of the dashboard, click on “Add Website Profile”. Google needs very little information from you to set up your account:

  • Domain – For example, if your web site is http://www.mywebsite.com, you would enter “mywebsite.com” into this field.
  • Country
  • Time zone

Once you have provided this information, click “Finish”. You now have your Analytics account set up for your web site. However, on your dashboard, next to your site, you will see a small exclamation point. This means that you did not set up your web site to be tracked by Google Analytics yet.

Step 4: Give Google access to your site

To give Google access to your site’s information, you need to enter a piece of code into your site’s HTML coding. Google provides this code, and all you need to do is copy and paste it into where it needs to go. This will depend on the type of site you have.

Option 1: Manually add to all footers on your site

If you know your HTML, copy and paste the code provided by Google into the footer of any page you want tracked on your web site. If you don’t know how to do this, either follow Option 2 (if possible), or contact someone to install it for you.

Option 2: Install a WordPress plugin, if applicable

If your web site is run by WordPress, there are WordPress plugins that you can install onto your site that will automatically enter the code into all of your pages. This is a very big time-saver if you run a WordPress blog or site, as you have the potential for many pages.

Once this is all done, wait a few minutes and then check back to your dashboard. You should see that the exclamation point disappeared and in its place is a little green check mark. This means that Google Analytics has successfully been installed and is now tracking your visitors.

0 replies

Leave a Comment!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *