What is Google Analytics and How to Use It?
Google Analytics, or GA, is a free analytics tool that provides an in-depth look at the performance of your website and/or app. It integrates with Google’s marketing and advertising platforms and products (including Google Ads, Search Console, and Data Studio), making it a popular choice for anyone using multiple Google tools.
Should You Use Google Analytics?
If you want a lot of data—and more importantly, have the time and skills to analyze and act on it—GA is a great choice. However, setting up, learning, implementing, maintaining, and using GA takes time.
How to Set Up Google Analytics?
Create a Google Analytics account.
Add the name, URL, and industry of the website you want to track.
Add a view to your property.
Insert your tracking code right after the
<head>tag on your site.Visit the GA portal and verify that the code is working.
Before you start using Google Analytics, you need to have a Google account. This means you must have a registered Google Account email address and password.
Creating a Google account does not automatically grant you access to GA—you need to sign up for Analytics (we will cover how to do this in the next section). One important point when setting up GA is that you can only access the tool using a valid Google account.
Do You Need to Add the GA Code to Every Page of Your Site?
That would be a lot of manual work—especially if your site has more than 50 pages. Also, what happens when you create new pages? Do you have to add the tag every time?!
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: You only need to add the tag to each page template. So, if your site has one page type (meaning every page uses the same header module), you only need to add it to that module—and it will apply to every page.
If you have two page types, you need to paste the code into two separate header modules. Three page types? Three header modules.