You have started a blog, that is AMAZING. But how do you know how many people are visiting, what pages are being viewed the most, and if your readers are male or female and their age range?
You need something much more sophisticated than the built-in analytics such as Jetpack Site Stats in WordPress or the Stats in Blogger.
Google Analytics is my go-to web analytics tool. I use it, and have used it, on all of my blogs.
It gives you insight into the traffic on your site including your audience, how people get to your site and how people interact with your site such as what pages are the most popular landing pages and what pages are the most popular exit pages. With this information you can make meaningful and informed decisions about your target audience (such as are you attracting who you thought), what channels to spend the most time on (aka what channels are providing the most traffic), and even what pages are your trouble pages and need to be fixed (aka pages with an extremely high bounce rate and low average time on page).
Google Analytics is a very powerful tool in your blog and business. But, in order to use it, you, of course, need to install it!
I will walk you through creating an account, installing it on Blogger and installing it on WordPress.
How to Create a Google Analytics Account
1. Go to www.google.com/analytics and click on āSign In.ā
2. You will have a few options, select āGoogle Analytics.ā
3. Sign in with you Gmail or Google account, or create one if you need to. If you do not already have a Google Analytics account, you will be taken to the below screen. Click āSign Up.ā
4. Fill out the required information for a new account.
- Make sure it is for a website
- Set an Account Name, this could be your blog name. Or if you have an over-arching brand/company that your blog falls under you can name it that. For example, Dana Fox of Wonder Forest has a parent company of Dana Fox Creative, that also has more blogs, websites and apps that fall under it. She could name the account Dana Fox Creative, and then create separate tracking codes for each of her sites. This allows you to add another user to one account that has access to all of the separate analytics data rather than having to add that same person to each analytics data separately. Donāt worry if this isnāt making sense right now. You can name the Account Name anything you want and you can always change it later.
- Set the Website Name to the name of your blog or website.
- Set your Website URL. Be sure to select whether it is http or https, then type the URL into the box.
- Industry Category is not required, but you can set it if you want to. Most blogs donāt really fall into a pre-determined Industry Category. I believe Google uses this to create benchmarking data and reports.
- Set the Reporting Time Zone.
- Google collects a lot of data but it gives you the option to share as much or as little as you want with them. I just leave all of the categories under Data Sharing Settings checked. The most important one is the Technical Support one, this one allows the Google technical support team to access your account if you need help.
- Once complete, hit Get Tracking Id. A Terms of Service Agreement will pop up, read and click āI Accept.ā
5. You now have your tracking code! Keep in mind that this is UNIQUE to your website. You do not want to use it on multiple websites. *Note: The code in the example should not be used on your website and this tracking code has been deleted.
[bctt tweet=”I just created a Google Analytics account to track traffic on my blog! ” username=”blogmelovely”]
How to Install Google Analytics in Blogger
1. Once you have your tracking code, sign into your Blogger account and go to āSettings ā> Otherā and scroll to the bottom. You will see a Google Analytics section. Copy your tracking id from Google Analytics and paste it into the Analytics Web Property ID section. Click āSave.ā
2. Just kidding, installing Google Analytics in Blogger is super easy!
How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress
*Note: These instructions are for a self-hosted, WordPress.org blog.
1. Sign into the back-end of your WordPress blog, go to āPlugins ā> Add New.ā Search for Google Analytics by MonsterInsights. Click āInstall Now.ā
2. Once it is installed, click āActivate.ā Once it is activated, either click āSettingsā from the āInstalled Pluginsā page or go to āInsights ā> Settingsā in the left-hand menu.
3. You are now on the āGeneral Settingsā tab. Click āAuthenticate with your Google account.ā
4. A pop up will appear. You will need to sign into your Google / Gmail account attached with your Google Analytics, if you arenāt already. You will need to hit āAllowā so that the plugin can view your analytics data. You will then get a big, long verification code. Be sure to copy it before closing the window.
5. Paste the code into the āPaste your Google code hereā section and click āSave authentication code.ā
6. You arenāt quite done yet, you need to select which Google Analytics profile you want to attach. Now, most likely you will only have one unless you have set up multiple tracking ids for multiple blogs. Be sure to select the right one. Then click āSaveā at the bottom of the page.
[bctt tweet=”Installing Google Analytics on WordPress is incredibly easy! Tracking is on! ” username=”blogmelovely”]
The One Thing You Must Do to Get Accurate Traffic Data
When you monitor your website traffic, you need to make sure that you are reviewing clean data. You need to filter out the visitors you donāt want to see, such as yourself.
You are the most common visitor to your blog, and your traffic numbers will show all of your sessions and pageviews as well as your readers. It is an easy fix to exclude your own visits to your blog. And you have to if you want clean, visitor data.
1. Go to Google and search āIP address.ā This will show you your public IP address.
2. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard and click āAdmin.ā You will see a new set of options. Click āFiltersā from the third column.
3. You will now see the āFiltersā screen. Click āAdd Filterā to get started.
4. Make sure āCreate New Filterā is checked and follow these steps.
- For Filter Name, set it to something descriptive. As I am excluding my home IP address, I named it āExclude Home IP.ā
- Filter Type should be āPredefined.ā
- Set to Exclude, traffic from the IP addresses, and that are equal to.
- In the IP Address, paste the IP address you got from Google.
- Save!
5. You have successfully excluded your IP address. It should show up on the Filters page now. Your traffic will now be much more accurate.
[bctt tweet=”Are you collecting clean visitor data for your blog? Fix it with one easy process!” username=”blogmelovely”]
Final Thoughts
Google Analytics is a very powerful web analytics tool that is essential for your blog. When used correctly it can help you make informed decisions that will make your blog grow.
Tell me, do you exclude your own traffic from your blog?
Okay, I need to go through this step by step because I *think* I have Google Analytics but it is so confusing to me! Thank you for this guide!
-Meagan | Love by Meagan
I am glad you found it helpful!! You should know when you have it installed because after a couple of days you should be seeing data in your Google Analytics account.
Yes I always exclude my own traffic from my blog. When companies I make money with need to see my google analytics they need to know what they are viewing is accurate.
Exactly! It is so important!
Thanks so much for these helpful tips! These kind of things can be so tricky and are not easy to figure out. Have a happy Monday š
I am glad you found it helpful! š
I’m definitely bookmarking this. I’ve had trouble with Google Analytics before so this will come in handy!
thealwaysblog.com
So happy you found this helpful! š
I have Google Analytics installed on my blog – but somehow I didn’t know anything about the excluding your IP address bit! Thanks so much for sharing these tips!!!
Stephanie | http://www.stephanietherese.com
Yes! It is so important to have accurate data!
Thanks for this! I’ve wondered for ages how to exclude my own data and your Guide was so simple compared to others!
I am so glad you found it helpful!!
This is the best step by step installations tutorial. Thanks so much!
You are so sweet! I am so glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for this great article, I have successfully added/Installed Analytics to my Blogger Blog
Am grateful.
Angela that is so great! It is super easy once it is broken down for you!