What is Google Analytics? #
Google Analytics is a free service that processes anonymous visitor data from your website and allows you to assess where visitors came from and what actions they took. These visits and interactions can provide insights into customer behaviour and potential help you increase traffic and sales.
How does Google Analytics work? #
Google Analytics acquires tracking data from each website visitor through the use of page tags. A tag is inserted into the code of each page. This tag runs in the web browser of each visitor, collecting data and sending it to one of Google’s data collection servers. Google Analytics can then generate customizable reports to track and present data such as the number of users, bounce rates, average session durations, sessions by channel, page views, goal completions and more.
What can I track with Google Analytics? #
Google Analytics allows you to track various aspects of your website’s performance and user behaviour. Here are some of the things you can track with Google Analytics:
- Website traffic: You can track the number of visitors to your website, how long they stay on your site, which pages they visit, and how frequently they return.
- User demographics: Google Analytics can provide you with information about the age, gender, location, and interests of your website visitors.
- Traffic sources: You can track where your website traffic is coming from, such as search engines, social media, referral websites, or direct traffic.
- Conversion rates: You can track how many visitors to your website are taking a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter.
- E-commerce tracking: If you have an e-commerce website, Google Analytics can track sales and revenue, as well as metrics such as average order value and conversion rate.
- Behavior flow: You can track the path that visitors take through your website, including which pages they visit and in what order.
- Site speed: Google Analytics can track the loading time of your website, helping you to identify and fix issues that may be slowing it down.
- Custom events: You can track specific actions taken by users on your website, such as clicking on a button or playing a video.
How do I signup for Google Analytics? #
In order to signup for Google Analytics you will need to have a Google account. If you have a Gmail email address then you already have a Google account that you could use to sign up for Google Analytics. However, you may want to create a Google account specifically for your business so that you have a yourbusiness@gmail.com email address to use when you’d rather not hand out your personal email. It can be helpful to keep your business and personal Google accounts separate and there is no cost to set up an additional Google accounts.
Once you have create a Google account and signed into it, you will be able to sign up for Google analytics. You will be asked for:
- Choose an account name.
- Choose a property name. This is you gift site domain. (e.g. yoursite.giftsite.co.uk)
- Choose your time zone.
- Choose British Pound as your currency.
- Choose our business size and your intended use for Google Analytics (Measure customer engagement)
- Accept the terms and conditions.
How do I connect Google Analytics to my GiftSite? #
Once you have signed up for Google Analytics you will be presented with a dashboard. In the bottom left hand corner of this screen is a cog that will take you to the Admin area.
In the Account Access Management screen you can grant permissions to other Google accounts to mange your Analytics account. If you grant Administrator access to giftsiteuk@gmail.com the GiftSite support team will be able to configure your Analytics property for you. Use the blue circle with the plus sign to add giftsiteuk@gmail.com as an Administrator on your account.
Once you have granted administrator access to giftsiteuk@gmail.com, please email support@giftsite.co.uk to let us know you are ready to hook up your GiftSite to Google Analytics.
