Add Google Analytics to Your Website

After attending another SCORE workshop (for SEO) I've been pulled kicking and screaming into Google Analytics.


Actually I started at Google.com/Business. I verified my Google Business account by telephone. Surfing through the Google.com/business site I somehow ended up at the Google Analytics page.

First, I logged into Google Analytics with my RickJaggers@GMail.com account, and I promptly added ABetterComputerInc@GMail.com as an full-permission authorized user. Things started to get interesting.

I don't know if the account information was originally set up under RickJaggers or ABetterComputerInc name, but some of the data fields were populated....😐

While the account was A Better Computer Inc, the URL was the Early Bird website from a couple of years ago. Oops. I changed the URL to ABetterComputerInc.com and made some other changes.

But setting up Google Analytics takes two parts; the information at Google, and some code on the website.

Fortunately, all my sites are Wordpress today, and WP is fully aware of GA. I found this very good video at WPBeginner.com that showed how to use two WP plugins:

1. Google Analytics for WordPress (by MonsterInsights)
• This plug in required me to authenticate through Google. The trade-off is that Google Analytics results will be available through the WP dashboard.
2. Insert Headers and Footers Plugin (by WPBeginner)
• Quoting from the WPBeginner page: "This method is not as not as good as MonsterInsights because you will not be able to do advanced tracking configuration, and you will not be able to view Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard."
• This plugin actually adds the Google Analytics java script code to the page headers in WP. In other words, install the plug-in and open the Plugin in Settings, then copy the JS code from Google Analytics and paste into the WP "scripts in header" block.

I used the first plugin on the ABetterComputerInc site.

Next, I created another Google Analytics account (Bayshore) with the URL BayshoreTownhomes.com, and I used the second plugin to put the Google Analytics code into the website.

[ Lesson learned: I can have more than one URL under an account, so if I consider both of these websites to be owned/managed/maintained by ABCInc, then I could have put the second URL under the ABC account. ~~ The question remains which GMail/Google account this is operating under. Doesn't really matter, though; When I quit - or die - then the sites will probably fade away...]

10:30pm - time to let this simmer overnight.

7:30am - Whew! Been busy this morning.

I learned that blogger.com will accept Google Analytics codes. That's not surprising because blogger.com is owned by Google. I've added the following sites to track with Google Analytics:

• Account: ABC Inc
• ABetterComputerInc.com (Website)
• ABCInc.pw (Blogger.com)
• SCOREPinellas.pw (Website)
• RixPlace.com
• Account: Bayshore
• BayshoreTownhomes.com (Website)
• BayshoreTownhouses.com (Blogger.com)
• Account: Jaggers, etc.
• Jaggers.net (website)
• Jaggers.pw (Blogger.com)
• BarbaraLouHolcomb.name (Blogger.com)
• Bennie.pw (Blogger.com)
• Rix Diary ~ Private ~ (Blogger.com)
• Rix Playground ~ Unpublished ~ (Blogger.com)

Apparently Google Analytics takes 48-hour snapshots. ....waiting on Monday....

---