Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup
February 12, 2007 by ian
Analytics is critical to your internet marketing strategy. It lets you measure who comes to your web site, where they came from, and what they do when they get there. Those are the three basics of Observe And Adjust. Google Analytics does all of that.
And it's free.
So why isn't every single marketer on earth using it? I hear things like:
“It's too complicated.â€
“My webmaster says they don't have time.â€
So, as an experiment, I set up a new account and added Analytics code to this web site. Here's what I did, and how long it took:
00:00 - 00:15: Go to www.google.com/analytics.
00:16 - 01:00: Click Sign Up Now. (if you already have a Google Account, just sign in)
01:05 - 02:20: Set up my account in Analytics.
02:21 - 07:00: Set up Google Analytics code on my site.
Done. If you have to ask someone else to set up the analytics code, of course, it'll take longer. But no one can ever be too busy to take a few minutes on this, right? Particularly given how important this data is.
If you don't believe me, I did a video to demonstrate:
For the full-sized version (long download) click here.
If folks like this format, I'll do more videos later on, showing how to use Analytics once it's set up.
If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know and I'll make changes.
Update: Important note - sometimes the Google Account verification e-mail ends up in your spam folder. If you don't see the e-mail from Google after a few minutes, check there.
Update 2: I apologize for the low volume. I'll speak more LOUDLY NEXT TIME...
Other videos in this series:
Google Analytics Tutorial 2: Essential Stats
Google Analytics Tutorial 3: Digging Deeper
Google Analytics Tutorial 4: Goals
Google Analytics Tutorial 5: Search Analytics
Technorati Tags: analytics, Google Analytics, tutorials
Join the Conversation:
Chad Horenfeldt says:
March 19, 2007 21:16
Hi Ian - I also just signed up and saw your tutorials - these look great and I will check them out. Thanks for doing this.
Jonathan says:
April 9, 2007 21:02
Really diggin' the google analytics tutorials and have linked your site from my blog. Great resource.
Rob says:
April 12, 2007 22:49
Great vids!
Just letting you know, the link to the large version of the first video is dead.
http://www.conversationmarketingcom/flat.mov
ian says:
April 13, 2007 09:42
Doh. Thanks Rob. All fixed...
Gavin Allinson says:
May 3, 2007 15:06
Thanks for doing this.
I have one question, does the analytics code just have to be inserted on the home page or do I have to insert it on every page that I want to track i.e. the goal pages
thanks in advance
Gavin Allinson
ian says:
May 3, 2007 15:10
Hi Gavin,
You need to put the code on every single page of your site. If your site is dynamic, you can just add it to the header and you'll have it on every page.
Ian
Julie McKown says:
June 18, 2007 07:24
Thank you for letting me know how simple this process is. It actually only took me five minutes! I've passed a link to your tutorials onto to the DigitalNow blog readers.
Daniel Johnson, Jr. says:
August 3, 2007 10:37
Very helpful tutorials. thanks
If you have a domain redirected to another site, do you need to set up analytics on the site for both the domain AND the site? I.e., two sets of script on the target site?
Bas says:
September 26, 2007 00:49
Very helpfull video's. Thanks. Always better then reading books.
Jes says:
October 29, 2007 18:04
I noticed the link to the full-sized version is still broken. http://www.conversationmarketingcom/flat.mov
Should be:
http://www.conversationmarketing.com/flat.mov
and thanks for the vids.
Alastair McDermott says:
January 30, 2008 08:47
Hi Ian,
I notice you replied to Gavin that you can put the code in the header of the website and it'll appear on every page (CMS dependent). Of course this is 100% correct, but I think a better location for external scripts, like Analytics, is the footer of the page, just before the [/body] [/html] tags.
The reason this is a preferred location is that if external scripts are at the bottom of the page your webpage still loads quickly and won't get delayed if the 3rd party webserver is down or really slow due to being busy etc, so you can ensure that your visitors have a better experience.
Cheers,
Alastair.
Ian
says:
January 30, 2008 09:05
Hi Alastair,
You're completely right. The only reason I sometimes put code in the header is to insure that I record partial pageviews.
It's a catch 22 - partial pageviews are typically caused by a slow-loading banner or script, where folks read the page, get the message, but move on before the page totally loads. If your analytics script is causing the problem, you're out of luck.
One compromise we sometimes use: We download the script from Google and put it on our own server. It's a pain, because we have to then track changes to the script and update it, but it gives us the best of both worlds: Fast load times and accurate reporting.
Thanks for the info!
Ian
tim says:
February 26, 2008 15:41
Hi - I work on a fairly large system where I can only modify the HTML on one page of the site. I want to place my GA on that one page. Can I do that without placing GA on the home page?
Ian
says:
February 27, 2008 08:56
Hi Tim,
You can embed the GA code right in the editable HTML, I guess. Just be careful, because if there's already GA code on the page elsewhere, this could wreak havoc with your stats.
Markus Ugl says:
March 29, 2008 07:23
Thank you for this great series Ian. I was quite at loss when it came to start using Google Analytics. The whole range of information and possibilities felt a bit overwhelming.
After looking through your series I feel both inspired and confident in my future dealings with this analytics tool!
Ian
says:
March 29, 2008 09:05
Glad it helped Markus. I am working on a second series, updated for the latest version (this series still gives you the basics though).
sparky030405
says:
April 21, 2008 19:04
My website address: www.atlantisurbandesign.com is hosted by BlueCentral and it points to and masks my site actual website http://homepage.mac.com/atlantisurbandesign/process.html which is uploaded
to Apple's DotMac servers. Can you tell me if Google analytics will work under this setup and which of the two website address I should register - I presume www.atlantisurbandesign.com as this is what customers use. Not sure under this setup if I still need to put code on all pages, or if BlueCentral would add the code at their end???
Ian
says:
April 22, 2008 08:30
You do have to put the code on all pages, yup. Chances are you can do it without involving your hosting provider.
Register the domain the customers use, definitely. I'd also suggest setting up a 301 redirect from the other address to the main address.