Introduction

Google Analytics is one of the most important tasks that you must complete in your business these days. Even if your business is not online, still you can learn a lot from Google Analytics and apply them into your business. Together we are going to learn and practice every single important steps in Google Analytics but before we start you can download Google Analytics checklist not to miss anything and later you can apply it on your business much easier.

Why we need Google Analytics?

Google analytics is one of the great benefits of having an online business because the information will help you to prevent many mistakes and find solutions much faster and without it, you should make blind decisions.
With Google Analytics you can find your business weak spots, find out why and how you should fix it which normally it is really hard to do without this tool.

Let’s begin the steps to setup & learn how to use Google Analytics

1. Setup your property

To start using Google analytics and create your property click here. If it is your first time logging into Google analytics you will see 3 steps to create your property as shown below.

Click on sign up, log in to your Google account, and then you will see a page which you can create your property. It can be a website or a mobile app. Write down your website name, paste the URL, select your category and finally click on “Get Tracking ID”.
It will jump into another page which you will see a tracking ID. During the next step, we will learn how to import this ID into our website.

2. Install it on your site

Now we have to install the tracking ID on our website. When you create your property, Google analytics will give you a code and a tracking ID. If you are using a website service like WordPress you can just import the tracking ID in your website service. In all of them, there is a place exactly for Google analytics.
For example, on WordPress, you can use a plugin which makes your work much easier. Login to your WordPress website > plugins > add new > search for “Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights” as you can see below. Install the plugin, go to its settings and just add your tracking ID.

If you develop your own website using none of the website services, just copy and paste the code that Google analytics gave you in the header f each page you want to track.

3. Add Google demo & digital marketing custom report

Google itself provides a demo of a real website to learn and practice more about Google analytics. Click here to visit the page and add it to your Google analytics account.

Digital Marketing Analytics

Over time I have created a custom report for my own business to see everything I need faster in a single page. I have shared the template on Google and you can have access and add it to your account. To add the template click here.

4. Add New views

Along the way, we may add different filters to our Google analytics and it is better to add different views first so we don’t affect the original data and always keep a backup.
To add a new view, go to admin > on the 3rd column above it you can see “create view” button, click on it and according to your need name your view.

5. Filter yourself

Because you and your team are working on your site, visit it a lot it is better to filter your visits not to affect the original data. To create a filter go to the admin section, on the 3rd column select Filters and then click on +ADD FILTER.
Name your filter and select a proper type according to your needs. In this case select custom, and inside the search bar below, search for IP address and write down your IP. This way Google analytics will avoid all of the visits from your IP address. You should do the same for all of the devices you use to visit your site.