Tutorial: Adding Analytics

Why should you add Analytics? A lot of people want to know how many people have been onto their site and are only interested in a hit counter. These are limited and aren't as accurate as Google Analytics.

With Google Analytics you can see almost every detail of how people are viewing your site and what they are doing on it. You can see what areas of your site are getting the most attention and which parts need some work.

If you have an AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from the AdWords interface. Google Analytics also calculates ROI metrics from automatically imported cost and keyword tracking data, saving you time.

Google Analytics

The Basics: We highly recommend adding Google Analytics to your site. This application will help you track your visitors' locations and behavior on your site - letting you know which parts of your site are the most popular/effective.

So if you want to be able accurately measure who has visited your site and what they have done, then follow these easy steps and we'll have you up and running in no time.

Step 1:

Go to Google Analytics and sign up for a free account.

Step 2:

Type in the URL of your site. (yoursitename.yolasite.com).

Step 3:

Copy the verification code provided by Google. (you can do this by highlighting the whole code and right-clicking and selecting 'copy').

Step 4:

Go to back to your Yola site and drag and drop an HTML widget at the bottom of each page you want to track. You can place the code anywhere on your page, but always adding it in the same spot helps you keep track of where you have placed it.

Step 5:

Paste the code from Google into the dialogue box of the HTML widget on each page (use right-click > paste or ctrl-v).

Please note: Once you have added the code you should not see anything on your page. It is invisible tracking code, that sends the information to your Google Analytics account.

Step 6:

Republish your site.

Your site will then be verified and you can log in to your Google Analytics account to find out all the information you want to know about the people who have visited your site. Please be aware that it takes 24 hours for Google Analytics to collect the first batch of data about your site.

If you are not happy with Google Analytics the following are also available (please note: there are many more and we have selected just three).

WebTrends

Webtrends has some great analytics tools that are in some instances better then Google Analytics but the catch is that you have to pay for them. They offer a unique "One View" approach to your website offering and clientele which is very useful.

Clicktracks

Clicktracks has recently been incorporated into lyris HQ but is still available as a standalone product and is still great Analytical software. It is a very secure system which allows info stored on your own (not theirs) server for extra privacy.

Clicky

Clicky is a web analyzer that tracks a high level of detail on every visitor. Once you create an account, add one or more web sites to that account. For each web site you register, you are given two lines of HTML code to place on your web site (this code is unique for each registered site). Clicky offer a free plan plus several premium plans.

An excellent article on these providers and more can be found at Idealware.org.