meyerprocreative.com

One of the awesome things about web-based marketing communications is that it can be measured in many different ways. I’ve long been intrigued with web metrics tools and have used a few different platforms to assess visitor volume and usage of both personal and professional websites. Since I’ve heard great things about Google Analytics, and have been impressed with both its online product demo and some of the vids at Google’s Conversion University, I decided to give it a try here on my WordPress site.

Setup was pretty easy. For a site I coded myself, I would have known right where to place the all-important code that makes Google Analytics tick. However, now that I’m using WordPress (with a pre-designed theme) I had to poke around a little to find the right place to paste it. Hopefully this post will save you a little time if you are trying to accomplish the same thing.

Step 1: Watch at least the first set of videos on Conversion University so you get the gist of how Google Analytics works.
Step 2: Sign up for a Google Analytics account.
Step 3: Once you’re registered, copy the custom code provided that will track your metrics — you will paste this into the HTML code on your WordPress site.
Step 4: In the left-hand WordPress Dashboard menu, locate and click on “Editor” beneath “Appearance”.
Step 5: In the right-hand menu, select “Footer”. This is where you need to paste the Google Analytics code — place it just before the </body> and </html> tags. If you’re lucky, there will be a handy dandy place to paste it as there is with the theme I use (see the image below).

As Google foretold, it took about 24 hours before I was able to track visits to my site. Near as I can tell, this will now track metrics for all individual pages because I’ve added code to the master theme template.

DISCLAIMER: The steps here are based on the WordPress theme I am using. I can’t guarantee that the process will be the same with your site. I am not responsible for any malfunction your site may suffer as a result of altering its code based on this post. If you’re not familiar with the basics of HTML, CSS, etc. then you may want to seek assistance from a friend or professional who is comfortable and confident with this task.

Tags: google analytics, wordpress

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 9:47 pm and is filed under DIY, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.