If you’re new to living online (welcome to digital life, y’all), Google Analytics might be a bit overwhelming at first.
I promise it’s actually really easy! Once you get the hang of how to find reports for your blog traffic, and how to interpret what they mean, you’ll be golden.
Google Analytics can tell you a LOT about your blog and the audience reading your blog. It’s a super useful tool! I’m a big data nerd, but only when that data can actually make a difference and accomplish something, and that’s exactly what Google Analytics does.
Today I’m gonna walk you through EVERYTHING you need to know about how to use Google Analytics!
Let’s get started.
Step 1: How to Set Up Google Analytics
OK, this is the first step. If you have already enabled Google Analytics on your blog, skip ahead to Step 2.
Do you have a Google Analytics account yet? If not, all you need is a Google account (so a @gmail.com address). If you don’t already have this, click here to setup one now (it’s free of course!).
If you’re on WordPress, here’s how to set up Google Analytics easily on your blog. I’m sure it’s easy for other platforms too, but WordPress is what I know so I’ve included instructions for that below. Please note these instructions are for self-hosted WordPress blogs (wordpress.org!).
Login to WordPress! Then on the left side navigation, go to Plugins –> Add New.
In the “Search plugins…” box on the top right, type in “google analytics” and hit enter. You’ll see a bunch of results like this:
This is an easy way to install Google Analytics – using a plugin. There is a manual way you can go in and add the code too, but I like using a plugin because most of them also show you your stats right in your WordPress Dashboard (so, visible right when you login). It’s super convenient to have all your “blog stuff” in one place, right?
Anyway, obviously there’s quite a few to pick from. The one I personally use is Google Analytics by MonsterInsights.
Click on Install Now for that plugin (my button says Active because I already have it!). Once it’s done installing, that button will change to “Activate” so make sure to press that too, until it says Active, like my screen above.
