Google Analytics 101

Much like Feed Burner, Google Analytics is a very powerful tool that can tell you a lot about the traffic your site gets.

How many unique visitors is your blog getting?  How long are your readers sticking around once they get there?  Are the large majority of your readers coming in through search engines or referring sites?  Or are they coming in directly by typing in your url or from a bookmark?  Google Analytics can tell you all of this and much, much more.

Knowing these details can help you in many different ways.  It can allow you to keep an eye on the health of your blog and allow you figure out if what you're doing is working, or if you might need try a different approach.  Are your visitors coming back?  What geographic locations are your readers in?  How might you change things based on this information?  What companies might you approach to work with knowing the the vast majority of your readers are from X, Y and Z?

My Personal Experience

I recently set up Google Analytics on Mama's Weeds and have been having a lot of fun with it.  Given I've been using Google Analytics for just a short while, I only feel qualified to teach the Intro to Google Analytics course today.

At this point in my Google Analytics experience I might describe it as WordPress Stats on steroids.  I'm practically giddy over the details I can now see about my readers.  (I totally know that you're sitting there reading this in your underwear!)  I'm a numbers nerd though and I eat this stuff for breakfast.

A Caveat

First let me say – at least with WordPress – that you'll need to be self-hosted in order to use Google Analytics.  I actually created my Google Analytics account months ago, but I didn't know then that I needed to have access to specific files that you don't have access to with your free WordPress account.  I was only recently able to put my Google Analytics account to good use after taking the self-hosted plunge in September.

So how is this going to help you today if you aren't self-hosted?  Well, my hope is that it will show you some of the seemingly endless things you can do with your site once you are behind the wheel of your blog ship.  And if your blog takes off, self hosting is basically inevitable.

Side note: If you're using Google Analytics with one of the other free blogging platforms, please give us the scoop in a comment!

Getting Started

Getting Google Analytics set up did take a little research and digging around to get things running smoothly.  I'm here to give you the play by play on how to get Google Analytics up and running on your blog TODAY.

You'll first have to create a google account if you don't have one already.

Once you've got your Google account squared away, you'll sign up for a Google Analytics account as something separate.

As part of the account set up you'll give Google Analytics your contact info and electronically sign their user agreement, and then they'll hand over your personalized Google Analytics Tracking Code that allows Google to collect visitor stats on your site.

The Next Step

Along with your tracking code, Google Analytics will give you a snippet of code to insert into the pages on your site that you want Google Analytics to report on.

This is where my eyes start to glaze over.

I've got to put what, where? And how will I know if I've I got the code on all the right pages? Do I have to remember to go back and add this code to any new pages I create? What if I miss something or screw it up?

Well what do you know? There's a plugin for that!

If you use WordPress, you can go to the Plugins section in your dashboard and click "Add New" to search for possible plugins related to anything under the sun. Enter "Google Analytics" into the search box and you'll get pages and pages of possible plugins related to Google Analytics that you can install.

With so many Google Analytics plugins to choose from, how will you know which one you want?  After a bit of research and reading about which Google Analytics plugin most bloggers seem  to like best, I chose Google Analyticator.

Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging.

Once this plugin was installed (just the click of a button) I was able enter my tracking code from Google Analytics and the plugin took care of all the rest.  I had to then authenticate my WordPress account with Google, giving WordPress and Google Analytics my blessing to communicate with each other.

You'll know that it's working and Google is tracking your stats successfully when you get the green check mark seal of approval.

Some Final Notes

You'll be glad to know that Google Analytics is free – at least until you're getting more than 5 million page views a month.  I don't know about you, but I don't expect to have to pay for Google Analytics any time soon.

I'll be back to share anything really cool I learn about this powerful tool as I continue to figure things out myself.  Matt is a Google Analytics user too and may have some words of wisdom for us in the future as well.

Got questions?  Fire away.  We're happy to help, or do a little digging for you if needed too.