Understanding how visitors interact with your website is essential for growth. To do this, you need to understand how to set up Google Analytics.
First, create a Google Analytics account and link it to your domain name. Once you’ve set up your account and created a web data stream, you will retrieve your Measurement ID (which starts with G-) and your Google Tag code snippet.
Here are three ways to set up Google Analytics and add your website.
Google Site Kit for WordPress
Site Kit is the official WordPress plugin from Google that you can add to your WordPress website.
Google Site Kit is the one-stop solution for deploying, managing, and gaining insights from Google Analytics, and it’s really easy to set up.
- From your WordPress dashboard, visit Plugins > Add New.
- Search for “Site Kit by Google”
- Install and activate the Site Kit by Google plugin.
- Connect Site Kit to your Google account. The easiest way is to be logged in to your Google account in Google Chrome and do all of the above from there.
- If there are multiple WordPress admins, keep in mind that each admin must connect their own Google account in order to access the plugin.
HTML: Add Google Analytics Via Code
If you want to avoid plugin bloat in WordPress, or if you use another platform for your website, you can safely install it manually. Google provides a snippet of code that you need to add to the <head> section of every page you want to track:
- Native Theme / Page Builder Settings: Before installing additional plugins, check the documentation for your existing theme or page builder. Most modern themes and builders already include a built-in area to insert header scripts.
- Elementor Pro: Go to Elementor > Custom Code > Add New. Set the location to <head>, paste the snippet, and set display conditions to Entire Site.
- Code Snippets Plugin: If your theme or page builder does not provide a built-in script manager, install a plugin like Code Snippets or WPCode. Create a new snippet titled Google Tag, set the snippet type to HTML / Head Snippet, and paste the code to execute site-wide in the <head> area.
- Custom HTML sites: For custom-built HTML sites, the code must be pasted manually into every page. In your editor, paste Google’s code immediately below the opening <head> tag on each page.
- Non-WordPress Platforms: Non-WordPress CMS platforms (e.g Squarespace, Shopify or Wix) usually handle the base code automatically. Navigate to your platform’s analytics or integrations settings and paste only your Measurement ID.
Google Tag Manager to Manage Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager lets you set up and manage Google tags on a website without frequently changing the website’s code.
You initially add two code snippets to each page, then manage all tags via the Tag Manager website.
To set up Google Analytics 4 inside a container, you need to configure the Google tag:
- Inside Google Tag Manager, go to Tags on the left-hand side and click New.
- Click the Tag Configuration box, then click Google Analytics.
- Click Google Analytics GA4 Event.
- Paste your Measurement ID into Google Tag Manager.
- Add a trigger for All Pages.
- Hit Submit.
As a best practice, create one Tag Manager account per organisation. If an agency manages your company’s tags, your company should create the account and add the agency’s Google account as a user.
Verifying Google Analytics Setup
Once you’ve chosen your preferred method and completed Google Analytics setup, you should verify the installation using Google Tag Assistant.
If you’re wondering how to use Google Tag Assistant, the process is straightforward:
- Install the Tag Assistant extension in Google Chrome
- Open your live website
- Click the Tag Assistant extension icon
- Verify that your Measurement ID appears in the list with an active green or blue status
Keep in mind that reporting data can take 24–48 hours to appear in your Google Analytics dashboard.
While you wait for your Google Analytics report to fully populate, you can verify that your tags are firing correctly by checking user activity from the past 30 minutes by going to Reports > Realtime Reports.
Need Help With Your Google Analytics Setup?
We understand that not everyone speaks tech nerd, so if Google Analytics Setup sounds like algebra to you, get in touch; Kaydee Web loves this stuff.
