Tracking website Visitors using Google Analytics

Author: Spencer J Casey

Sat, 16 May 2009 08:00:00 CST – As a webmaster and hosting provider I am often asked, how can I monitor who is accessing my website? The answer is simple, Google Analytics, (http://www.google.com/analytics/). Google Analytics is a free, web-based tool to assist website owners who want to monitor web traffic to their respective website. The tool is an extremely effective way to not only monitor web traffic, but to begin the process of developing an online marketing campaign to promote your website. Small business owners and tech savvy individuals should consider using this service and take full advantage of this powerful analytics tool.

The first step is to visit Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) and sign up for an account. Once an account has been established you can login to the Google Analytic web-interface. The second step is to setup a profile for your website. . It is important to note that Google Analytics can track more than one website. For instance, I track 20-30 different sites under one account.  To track a website, click the “add new profile link”. You provide Google with your website domain name, and they immediately provide you tracking code. You need to copy the tracking code, and paste it into the HTML code on each page within your website. If you do not have access to your website, please ask your webmaster to insert the hidden code. Once this process is completed, you can return to Google Analytics in 24-48 hours to make sure code has been properly placed within your web, and that Google Analytics is communicating with your website.

 
When an individual visit any page on your website the code records critical information, including the source of the traffic, what page was hit, entrance keywords, navigation path, etc. This information is automatically relayed to Google Analytics. To check the status of your website, return to Google Analytics, login, select your domain name, and take full advantage of the Google dashboard, customize reports, and motion charts. Over time you will be able to monitor the number of visitors, page views, and average time on the site, and much, much more…

 

 

If you enjoyed this article, please visit Casey Designs - Technology News & Information. We publish an RSS Feed dedicated to cutting-edge technology that will assist small business and individuals in an ever changing global market. This feed contains frequently updated content. If you are interested in the information published on this website, you can subscribe to our feed. After subscribing, updated information from the feed is automatically downloaded to your web browser, email, and/or feed reader.