One of the most important aspects of gauging the success of your web presence is tracking how many viewers actually visit your site, and how those viewers experience it. Everything from where your viewers are coming from, how long they stay on the site, and the path they take when browsing your website are vitally important to improving your web presence. There are a lot of tools available to track your website, most website hosting providers will offer some kind of site statistics reporting tool. But regardless of what reporting tool you currently use, chances are that more information can help. And where better to get that reporting than the biggest search engine out there?

What is it?

Google Analytics is an [as of now] free service that tracks website traffic, and provides some excellent reporting tools, including graphical charts and graphs that display just about every aspect of site traffic. The reporting includes statistics not only about the basic site traffic, but also advanced information about geographic demographics. For more information on the types of reports you get, check out Google's product overview here.

How do I sign up?

The first step in setting up Google Analytics is registering for a Google Account, and then setting up a Google Analytics account. Here is a step by step:

1. To sign up for a Google Account, click here.

2. Once this is complete, you can sign up for a Google Analytics account, click here:

3. Once both of your accounts have been created, sign into Google Analytics at http://www.google.com/analytics/

4. To register a URL for Google tracking: click "Sign Up for Google Analytics"


Follow the prompts:

-Enter Website URL, Account Name, Website Country and Time Zone of Origin, click "Continue" -Enter Contact information, click "Continue"
-Accept User Agreement, click "Continue"

How do I set it up?

At this point, things will get a bit more technical. If you are familiar with HTML and currently utilize a Content Management system such as AccuCMS, you will need to:

-"Copy" the Tracking Code
-Select the "New Tracking Code (ga.js)"
-And "Paste" the code into each page of your website you want to track using Google Analytics just above the last "body" tag in each page.

Here is how you would do it in AccuCMS:

1. Log in to your site manager, and under the "Content" module, select "Templates."


2. Select the template into which you want to add the tracking code and select this template:


3. Scroll to the bottom of the "Rule" field:


4. Paste the Google Analytics code segment into the bottom of your content, immediately before the [body] tag. When complete, click "Save" then "Back to List":


5. Repeat code insertion into each template you want to track.

6. To Initiate Tracking, under the "Content" module, select "Pages."

7. "Publish" all of the pages you want to begin tracking. Note: The "Publish All Pages" feature can be useful and efficient for this purpose.

8. Return to the Google Analytics Account page; click "Finish"

Google Analytics is now installed, and your site statistics can be accessed via your Google Analytics login. If you are interested in having someone interpret the data presented by Google Analytics for you, Blue Archer is available to assist you with your web marketing campaign.

Al Polanec
Principal and Co-founder