Who Should Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides a powerful tracking solution for websites, videos, rich media, mobile applications, etc. This is particularly useful for:

• Executives
• Marketing Professionals
• Content and Web Developers

Signing Up for a Google Analytics Account

Creating a Google Analytics Account

There are a few ways you can sign up for a Google Analytics account. The primary option is to visit http://google.com/analytics and click 'Sign up now.'

If you are already an AdWords user, you can create a new account via the 'Google Analytics' section from the Reporting tab of your AdWords account.

For users who want to create multiple new Analytics accounts from a single Analytics account, you can select the 'Create New Account' option from the dropdown menu found at the top of your Analytics account. People managing analytics services for several websites which belong to different organizations generally use this account creation method in order to have one new account for each organization.

Sharing Access to a Google Analytics Account

To give other users access to your Google Analytics account, you use the User Manager, which you can access from the Analytics Settings page. Inside the User Manager, you can view all of the users who currently have access to your account.

There are two types of Google Analytics users. Administrators have access to all reports and they can also modify Analytics settings. That means they can create profiles, filters, and goals, and they can add users. View reports only users have read access to your reports and they can't modify Analytics settings. You can also restrict View reports only users to viewing only specific profiles.

To add a user, follow these steps:

1. Click the "Add User" link from the User Access table.
2. After clicking "Add Users," a screen will appear prompting you to enter the user information in the form. In order for you to add new users, they must have a Google Account. Although you can add users with email addresses that aren't Google Accounts, they won't have access to your Analytics account. If they don't have a Google Account, ask them to create one at http://www.google.com/accounts.
3. Next, use the access type drop-down menu to select the level of access you want to give the new user. You can either grant View reports only or Administrator access. Remember, Administrators can view all reports and modify account settings.
4. If you selected the "View Reports Only," the interface will show you a list of all profiles associated with your account. Select the profiles you would like this user to have access to and click the "Add" button to apply your changes.
5. Finally, once you've finished, you can always edit the access settings for an existing user by clicking "Edit" next to the user in the User Manager table.

Installing Google Analytics

About Installing Google Analytics

Google Analytics uses a combination of JavaScript and first party cookies to gather anonymous data about your visitors.

As you set up your Google Analytics account, you will be provided with a tracking code. You'll need to install this tracking code across all pages of your site.

Setting Up the Tracking Code

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: To set up tracking, you need to have access to the source code for your website. If you're already tracking your website using an older tracking snippet, remove that snippet from each page before you add the new one. If you have customizations you want to add back to your pages after you add the new snippet, you can use a text or HTML editor to open and save a copy of each file.

To add the asynchronous snippet to your site:

1. Find the asynchronous snippet for your profile
1. Click the Admin tab.
2. Click the link for the relevant account.
3. Click the link for the relevant web property.
4. Click the Tracking Code tab.

You'll see something similar to the code snippet below, where XXXXX-Y indicates the profile ID for your Analytics account.

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-Y']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script>

2. Copy and place the code snippet
   Once you find the code snippet, copy and paste it into your web page, just before the closing </head> tag^*. If your website uses templates to generate pages, enter it just before the closing </head> tag in the file that contains the <head> section. (Most websites re-use one file for common content, so it's likely that you won't have to place the code snippet on every single page of your website.)

For the best performance across all browsers we suggest you position other scripts in your site in one of these ways:

• before the tracking code snippet in the <head> section of your HTML
• after both the tracking code snippet and all page content (e.g. at the bottom of the HTML body)

3. Verify and customize

Verify that your tracking code contains the correct web property ID for your profile (it should if you copied it from the Profile Settings screen). Double-check that the tracking snippet installed on your website matches the code shown in the profile.

Add any customizations back in using the asynchronous syntax. The Usage Guide and Migration Examples (English only) on Google Code provide many examples of customizations with asynchronous tracking.

^*One of the main advantages of the asynchronous snippet is that you can position it at the top of the HTML document. This increases the likelihood that the tracking beacon will be sent before the user leaves the page. It is customary to place JavaScript code in the <head> section, and we recommend placing the snippet at the bottom of the <head> section for best performance.