Ensure your Analytics Tracking Code is Installed
July 26, 2010 | Posted by dustin | No CommentsGoogle Analytics is a free web analytics package which allows you to track activity on your website, blog, email campaign, social network activity, and more. Using Google Analytics is the key to making the most of your online marketing campaign. The ability to implement, track, and adjust is the main differentiator between marketing online and using traditional offline channels. Using web analytics you can see if you have increased traffic from your latest email campaign, found new leads from your Google PPC campaign, or have increased revenue from your latest SEO initiative. Google Analytics is free and can be installed in just a few minutes on simple sites but for more complicated sites or sites that have an ever increasing number of pages ensuring that you have the Google Analytics tracking code properly installed on each page is vital.
If you do not have the tracking code properly installed on every page on your website you will have inaccurate visitor data and not have the correct traffic sources for your visitors. The Google Analytics tracking code looks like this
<script type=”text/javascript”> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-X']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(’script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(’script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script> <script type=”text/javascript”> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-X']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(’script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(’script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script>Google recommends that the code is installed on every page of your site immediately before the closing </head> tag. To make sure that you have the code properly installed you can use the free service from EpikOne, found here sitescanga.com. You simply enter your domain and email address and you receive a report in your inbox. The report will give you a summary of how many pages are being tracked and if there are any problems with your tracking code. By using the CSV detailed report you can find exactly what pages have problems so that you can make the needed changes.
Tags: Google Analytics, TrackingCategory : Analytics, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
