About Website Analytics

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet traffic data for purposes of understanding and optimizing website performance.  Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring website traffic, but it can be used as a tool for business and market research. 

Web analytics provides data on the number of visitors, page views, etc. to gauge the traffic and popularity trends which helps doing the market research.  It can estimate how the website traffic changed after the launch of a new advertising campaign. 

Google Analytics Setup

Google Analytics is an enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness.  Go to the Google Analytics start page :
http://www.google.com/analytics/
To get started, click on the “Sign Up Now” link on the right side of the screen.  If you see “Sign In” instead, you may already have an account.
 

Get Started with Analytics:

See the Google Analytics Help Center article “Get started with Analytics”:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008015

To start collecting basic data from a website or mobile app: 
1. Create a new Google Analytics account if you do not have one. Visit google.com/analytics, click the Sign in to Google Analytics button (top right), and follow the on-screen instructions. 
2. Set up a property (i.e. website) in the account you have created. 
3. Follow the instructions to set up web tracking or set up mobile app tracking.

Decide How to Add the Tracking Code:
There are two ways to collect page tracking data (i.e. add the tracking code):

[1] Add the Google Analytics tracking code directly into the HTML of every page of your website.  This is the easiest approach if you only want to add the basic Google Analytics tracking code to your site.

[2] Add the Google Analytics tag (Universal Analytics) to your website container using Google Tag Manager.  This approach is recommended because using Google Tag Manager simplifies tag management on your site.  Using Google Tag Manager makes it easier to add other tags (such as AdWords Conversion Tracking and remarketing tags) to your site and configure your Google Analytics tracking.

See “Set up the web tracking code” the Google Analytics Help Center article, if you need further assistance in setting up the tracking code:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008080

If you need to debug the analytics setup or deal with unusual situations (e.g. Framed websites, etc.), it may also be useful to consult “Set up Web” (i.e. Setup a Website for Google Analytics) page in the Google Analytics Help Center:
https://support.google.com/analytics/topic/1726910

Google Analytics Usage

Measure and Learn
Google Analytics lets you do more than measure sales and conversions.  It also gives insights into how visitors find and use your site, and how to keep them coming back. 

Build Your Audience with Valuable Insights
Your customers can come from anywhere on the internet.  Google Analytics shows you the full customer picture across ads, videos, social tools, websites, tablets, smartphones, and more.

Get To Know Your Audience 
Google Analytics helps you analyze visitor traffic and paint a complete picture of your audience and their needs.  Track the routes people take to reach you and the devices they use to get there with reporting tools like Traffic Sources.  Learn what people are looking for and what they like with In-Page Analytics.  Then tailor your marketing and site content for maximum impact.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks, analyzes and reports website traffic.  Google Analytics is now the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet.