How to configure Google Analytics and use it in your strategies

If you own a website or blog, you have certainly heard of Google Analytics. But, if you still don't know this essential data analysis tool, I'll tell you a little about it!

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free data analysis tool provided by Google. It works by collecting some data from your website, such as: number of visitors, traffic sources, average length of stay, most popular pages, among others. And with this data, Google Analytics provides valuable insights into user behavior that can be used to improve website performance and the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

How does Google Analytics work?

Google Analytics works through a tracking code placed on your website. And, it is this code that collects the information I mentioned above from your website. The Google Analytics tracking code is automatically generated once you create an account with it.

This tool offers a wide variety of features and reports, such as:

• Overview of Bandwidth website: total number of visitors, sessions and page views in a given period of time.
• Traffic Sources: Where your visitors are coming from, including organic search, referrals from other sites, social media, ads, and more.
• User Behavior: How visitors interact with your website, including pages visited, dwell time, bounce rate, and more.
• Goals and Conversions: Setting conversion goals to track the success of your marketing campaigns and monitor the conversion rate of visitors to leads or customers.

Now that you understand what Google Analytics is and how it works, let's move on to the steps to set up your account.

Step by step to set up your Google Analytics account

1. Create an account

• The first step to setting up Google Analytics is to create an account on it. To do this, go to analytics.google.com and click “Start for free”.

• Then enter your account information, including account name, website name, and URL. Make sure you select the correct option for your account purpose. If you are creating an account for your own website, select “Web”.

2. Add website ownership

• After creating your account, the next step is to add the website property you want to track with Google Analytics.

• To do this, click on “Administration” in the main menu and select the account for which you want to add website ownership. Then click “Create Property” and follow the instructions to add your website information.

3. Set up your Google Analytics tracking code

• To track your website traffic, you need to set up the Google Analytics tracking code. This code is a snippet of JavaScript that you need to add to your website's code to allow your website's data to be crawled by the tool.

• To get your Google Analytics tracking code, go back to your website property page and click “Tracking Setup.” Then select “Tracking code” and copy the generated code.

• Once done, open your website code and paste the Google Analytics tracking code immediately before the tag of your website. Make sure to save your changes and update your site.

4. Set your goals

• Definitely, defining the goal is one of the most important steps in this process. Because, they help measure the success of marketing campaigns

•  To set up a goal, go back to your site property page and click “Goals.” Then select “New Goal” and follow the instructions to set your goal.

• It is essential to be aware of this point, because, if it is not configured, you will not receive data for analysis or you will receive incorrect information.

• Some goal configuration examples: registration completion page. See the end of the URL for the registration page on your website. It's usually /thank you. This will be the trigger URL for this conversion. Sales is usually /checkout. Check carefully before configuring.

5. Analyze your data

• After setting up your Google Analytics account, you can finally start analyzing your data. To access complete reports, simply click on “Reports” in the main menu.

• Google Analytics reports provide a detailed look at your website traffic, including the number of visitors, where they come from, and how they interact with your website. So, use this information to improve your marketing campaigns and increase your website performance.

6. Use advanced Google Analytics features

• In addition to the basic Google Analytics setup steps, there are many other advanced features that you should definitely use to gain deeper insights into your website traffic.

• Among these tools is the Google Tag Manager, which allows you to manage all of your website's tags and tracking pixels in one place. With this tool you can configure several custom tags and thus track specific events, such as button clicks or video views.

• Another advanced Google Analytics tool is the conversion funnel, which allows you to monitor at which stage users abandon the conversion process and, thus, promote improvements to increase conversion rates.

• Google Analytics also offers features for audience analysis, such as segmenting data by age, gender, geographic location, and interests. This way, it will be possible to create more segmented and personalized marketing campaigns for your target audience.

7. Monitor your website performance regularly

• Above all, regularly monitor your website's performance to identify possible problems and opportunities for improvement. Check reports frequently to track the number of visitors, most viewed pages, and average time spent on the site.

• Additionally, be aware of events or changes to your site that could affect traffic, such as the publication of new content or a marketing campaign. Use Analytics to measure the impact of these changes on your website traffic and adjust your strategies.

By following the steps described above, you will certainly be able to set up your Analytics account and start analyzing your data in no time. If you want to continue learning about other digital marketing tools and techniques, we have a variety of content in our website. blog which will certainly help you. In addition, we also have videos on our channel YouTube with practical tips and tutorials on digital marketing. Don't forget to follow us on social media (Instagram, Facebook ou LinkedIn)to stay up to date with news and updates from the world of digital marketing