Are you preparing for your website launch and want to get the most out of your website? Or maybe you have had your site for a while and simply want to learn more about how it is performing and how your audience is interacting with your website; well Google analytics is where it is at!

*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2024*

The steps for setting up Google Analytics

1. Set up a Google account if you don’t already have one.
2. Go to analytics.google.com and add your account name and check the boxes.
3. Click next and add your property name (Rebekah Read Creative Website) and then change the time zone and currency, etc. FYI, you don’t need to do Universal Analytics anymore.
4. Describe your business to the best of your ability (Business & Industrial) and select size
5. Select objectives (doesn’t matter too much)
6. Accept and choose web and enter in your website url https://rebekahreadcreative.com/ and CREATE STREAM
7. Install your tag manually or copy it and enter it into your website platform
8. Make sure your data is tracking. Click on reports, real time, open website in another tab, and make sure your data is being tracked

The steps are a little bit different depending on which platform you have, but you should be able to follow those steps and figure it out!

I have a Showit website, but if you have a WordPress site you may need to install a plugin. I used “Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights” in the past and went through the steps finally entering in my tracking code. If you have a Squarespace site, you can use their built-in integration (one of the many reasons I love Squarespace!)

Why is Google Analytics important?

I went over this a little bit in my qualitative and quantitative blog for websites, but stats matter!

By being able to track what your audience is doing on your site (for example, which pages they are looking at, how long they stay on that page, and which page they leave your website from) you will be able to make informed and data-backed decisions getting rid of any faults/ loop-holes in your site!

You can also find out which blog posts are doing really well which will help you know what content you should write more of.

Are you overwhelmed with all this SEO and tracking talk? I have a course that teaches you step-by-step, how to figure out keyword phrases, add them to your Squarespace website, set up Google Analytics, and more!