Google Tools for Business, Blog Series – Part 2
Google Analytics for your Webpage
Website analytics used to be a very costly and confusing addition to a website. Not anymore. With Google Analytics, you can see how many people are visiting your website, where they are located, and even what search terms they used to find you. This is exceedingly valuable information and once set up, will give you a baseline from which to improve your online presence.
In order to install analytics onto your website, there is a verification process involved. You will be asked to copy a piece of website mumbo-jumbo source code from Google Analytics and then paste that mumbo-jumbo into your website’s homepage source code. This is not fun. I just finished working with an entrepreneur who has Joomla as their content management system. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out. In the case of Joomla, it required we install and configure this Google Analytics Plugin by OpenPotion. Once we got it installed, the rest was a breeze.
Depending upon what website system you are using- the process for changing your source code will be different. I strongly recommend finding and using a plugin or pre-programmed module to do the heaving lifting for you. I know the one above worked very well for us using Joomla. Here is a WordPress plugin called Ultimate Google Analytics which looks pretty good and has quite a few reviews. If you’d rather just change the source code itself, here are Google’s suggestions. Once you’ve got your website verified, you’re ready to move on to the next tool: Google Webmaster Central
Here are the other posts in this series:
- Google Tools for Business Part 1
- Google Tools for Business Part 2
- Google Tools for Business Part 3
- Google Tools for Business Part 4
- Google Tools for Business Part 5
- Google Tools for Business – Extra Freebie!
Rob Williams is a Business Analyst for the University of Northern Iowa
