Universal Google Analytics – The Complete Guide for Beginners

At Click, we love how many marketing tools Google has on offer. Today, we’re talking about an old favorite: Google Analytics. This phrase alone may be enough to send some readers into a mild panic. Everyone who has a website knows they should use Google Analytics, but initially, the notion of web analytics can seem daunting.  If you’re someone who wants to use data to fuel your approach to digital marketing, this guide is for you.

Our aim is to get you to love Google Analytics as much as we do, so you feel confident in using website analytics to enhance your business.  In our complete beginner’s guide to Universal Analytics, we’ll answer the following questions:

• What is Google Analytics?
• How does Google Analytics work?
• Is Google Analytics free?
• What can you learn from the data?
• What does all the terminology mean?
• How do you set up Google Analytics?
• What are all the reports in Google Analytics?
• How do you grant third parties access to your Google Analytics account?
• When should you get a new analytics account?

What is Google Analytics?

Created in 2006, Google Analytics (often referred to as GA) is a website analytics service developed by Google.

Google Analytics provides insights into how people are finding your website and what they’re doing during their visits.

If you think of your website as a shop, Google Analytics gives you crucial data such as how many people are coming to your ‘store’ and what they’re looking at – as well as many other useful details!

How does Google Analytics work?

When you set Google Analytics, you place a single line of JavaScriptJavascript is one of the web’s key programming languages but coding it incorrectly can cost you in technical SEO terms. In order to avoid common mistakes, and understand how Java operates, here’s a quick guide to coding Java the right way. (a programming language) on all the pages on your website. This magical line of code sends information about what people are doing on your site to Google’s servers. You can then access all this information in the easy-to-use, pre-built reports in your GA account.

Sometimes, people worry about GDPR and Google Analytics. It’s worth noting that you should mention you’re using Google Analytics in your website’s privacy policy BUT that Google Analytics is not able to record any sensitive, personal data. This means all the info it captures – while incredibly useful – is still completely anonymous.

Is Google Analytics free?

Yes! Google Analytics is 100% free for everyone and can be used on any website. It’s part of what makes GA a must-have.

For web analytics beginners, it’s a great tool to enhance your knowledge of how your website is performing. Utilizing the free data in Google Analytics is no risk, all reward.

What can you learn from the data?

There are a lot of different types of data stores in Google Analytics. With the reports, you’ll be able to answer key web performance questions, such as:

• How many people are coming to your site?
• What are your most popular website pages?
• How engaged are people?
• What is the age and gender of people browsing my site?
• How many pages do people look at?

Answering these questions helps you understand what is driving people to the site and if you are creating an engaging onsite experience for them.

The data is collected automatically, and once captured, it enables historic reporting. This reporting helps you understand the role your website plays in delivering your wider business’ or organization’s goals. The longer you have the account, the more power you’ll get from it.

With year on year and month on month reporting, you can understand:

• Seasonal trends,
• How well your marketing is working,
• The most important content on your site.

This data can help inform your conversion rate optimization strategy to ensure that your website continues to support your overall mission.

What does all the terminology mean? Understanding Google Analytics Jargon

Before we dive into setting up an account and all the data you can find in Google Analytics – we want to take a minute to bust the jargon!

Web analytics almost has its own language. It’s all this industry jargon that can make beginners feel out of their depth. So here are some popular terms that often leave website analytics beginners scratching their heads:

1. Channel: A channel is a passageway that gives access to something. When people are talking channels with regards to website analytics, they’re referring to the avenues people are using to arrive at the website. It may include search engines, email marketing, or social media.  Understanding how your channels perform helps prioritize your time and resources so you can supercharge your marketing!
2. Metrics: A system of measurement. When people are talking about the metrics they’re tracking, this is another way of saying they’re monitoring their key performance indicators. For example, how many people are coming to the site.
3. Source: A source is similar to a channel as it gives you insight into the origin of where people have come from. For example, a channel may tell you if someone has come to your website from a search engine, whereas the source determines which one, such as Google.
4. Goal: How you track actions or conversions that have value to your business, such as an order, orders over a certain amount, or even an email sign-up.
5. Traffic: How many people are coming to your site – your digital football.
6. Users: The people who are using your website.
7. Session: The period of time a user is active on your website or app within a 30-minute window. A single user may have multiple sessions.
8. Bounce RateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website.: A bounce is a single-page session on your site. The bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that only trigger the page load request to the Google server. So, it’s the amount of people that load a page and then do nothing else before leaving your site.
9. Organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page.: This is the amount of people who come to your website through search engines, such as Google.
10. Direct traffic: This is how many users come to your site by typing in the website address directly or by loading a saved bookmark.

Google has a long glossary of website analytics terms for those who are getting started with GA.

How do you set up Google Analytics?

So, now you understand what Google Analytics is and what kinds of insights this website data can provide you, we’ll run you through setting up your own Google Analytics account.

Step 1: Set up your Google account or sign if you already have one.

Step 2: Then, fill in the required information and follow Google’s step-by-step installation prompts. It’s important to note; we recommend setting up a GA4 and a Universal Analytics account. GA4  is a new, flashy version of GA that is currently being developed. While this is being perfected, we recommend setting up both accounts. To ensure you’re setting up both, ensure you click the ‘Show Advanced Options’ button to open the below screen:

In the box, enter your website’s URL. Then select to create both a Google Analytics 4 and a Universal Analytics property. Then click ‘Next,’ fill in the relevant information regarding your account, and click ‘Create.’ This will generate both your analytics accounts.

Click next to Analytics in the top screen to navigate to your Universal Analytics view to get your tracking code. You’ll know you’re in the Universal Analytics section because it will say UA before the account number:

Implementing the tracking code will depend on your current site setup.  If you’ve set up your site using HTML and you don’t have a Content Management System (CMS)A content management system, or CMS, is a software application that helps people organize and manage the content on their websites., you will need to place the code within the ‘head’ section of your code.

If you’re using a CMS such as WordPress, you’ll be able to use a handy plugin to do this for you. Step-by-step instructions will be included to support your installation. Check out reviews to determine which plugin is best for you.

Alternatively, if you have a developer, you can send this piece of code to them and get them to set it up for you.

Once this code has been successfully implemented, your Google Analytics account will begin tracking data!

What are all the reports in Google Analytics?

Once you’re in Google Analytics, the amount of information can be a little bit intimidating. One of the best ways to learn is to explore – click freely; you can’t break it!

TOP JARGON BUSTING TIP: Even with glossaries, it can feel like a lot of new information in there, and sometimes you’ll need to clarify what things mean. Luckily, next to the report headers, you’ll notice a question mark in a little circle. If you need a quick reminder as to what the piece of data you’re looking at means, hover over this circle, and Google will remind you.

All the reports can be found using the navigation on the left hand. They have been split into the following five categories:

1. Real-time: These reports are exactly what they say on the tin! You can see what people are doing on your site right now. For example, have you just sent out an email and what linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. people are clicking on at this exact moment? Simply check out your real-time reports.
2. Audience: Audience reports give you loads of useful data to help you better understand the people who are using your site.  This includes information such as age, gender, and location.
3. Acquisition: This section of the GA reporting provides insight into how you are acquiring users by letting you know where they’re coming to the site from. It helps power your multi-channel marketing efforts and effectively prioritize your time. For example, you might decide you need to increase the traffic you’re getting from search engines, and so you’ll then know you need to invest more time into creating pillar content.
4. Behavior: The behavior reports help you understand what people are doing once they arrive at your site and how the site is performing for them. With this section, you’ll be able to answer questions such as: what content are the users looking at?  How is the site speed performing?
5. Conversions: These reports help you understand your micro and macro conversionA conversion is a desirable result on a website that leads to an action such as completing an order, filling out a form, or simply clicking on a link.. A conversion counts as any goal you want someone to complete on your website, so this will include signing up to a newsletter or downloading an ebook, as well as adding items to the basket and buying a product or service online. This is why conversion reports aren’t just for eCommerce sites. If you’re also in the process of setting up your online store, read our guide on the Best eCommerce Platform to help you make the right choice.

Each of these sections can be broken down further into many different reports. We encourage you to embrace your inner data guru and have fun exploring. Doing so is the best way to determine which data is more important for your business.

How do you grant third parties access to your Google Analytics account?

There will be instances where third parties will need to access the data you’ve got in Google Analytics. For example, if you’re supporting clients with their SEO or paid advertising, you will need this access to understand how you’re performing to ensure you’re successfully supporting the overall business objectives of your clients.

Granting this access helps ensure that everyone is on the same page. So how do you do it? We promise it’s simple AND we’ve broken it down step-by-step to help you do this.

Step 1: Login into your GA account (a nice, simple start).

Step 2: Go to your account settings. This is on the bottom left-hand menu. It’s a little cog that says ‘admin.’

Step 3: Go to the middle column, your Property settings.

Step 4: Go to Property User Management

Step 5: Click the blue plus in the top right-hand corner and click ‘add users.’

Step 6: Pop the user’s Gmail address in the box, select the level or permission you want to give them and click add.

Step 7: Make a cup of victory tea and have a biscuit – Google will notify them they’ve been granted access. Your work here is done!

A note on permissions:

In Step 6 – adding users and granting permissions – there is an explanation of the four types of access you can grant users. These are:

Edit: Enable people to create and edit views and goals but not manage users.

Collaborate: Allow people to create and edit shared assets such as dashboards or annotations.

Read & Analyse: Where users can simply view the information in the account.

Manage User’s Access: This gives people ALL the power of edit access with the ability to grant other people access to the account.

You need to make the right choice for your circumstances about the access you’re happy to give. However, we recommend providing edit access, so you can have support in setting up specific goals needed for different types of reporting. Doing so empowers people who have access to the account to slice the data as per their needs, and in turn, this gives you the best visibility into the results they’re achieving for you.

When should you get a new analytics account?

In short, you shouldn’t! Your Google account should be kept (and loved) forever because historic reporting can help you understand a lot about the long-term performance of your business.

We know that sometimes people are recommended to get a new account when using a new agency or building a new website. While we understand the appeal of a fresh slate, in setting up a new account, it becomes harder to:

• Provide year-on-year comparisons
• To define business trends
• To understand what is or isn’t working.

If you set up a new account, completing vital year-on-year comparisons becomes much harder as you have to assess data from multiple accounts. It makes the process an administrative headache and can lead to confusion. GA gives you the power to understand how your site has developed over time.

Rather than creating a new account, you can grant the agency access or just ensure the required tracking code has been implemented on the new site.

If you have any questions on this process, always feel welcome to contact us for some help or guidance. We love using data to power what we do, and we’re always happy to support people in getting the most out of their web analytics!

Final Thoughts

Google Analytics is one of the best free website analytics tools available. It also connects with all of Google’s other tools, such as Google Adwords or Google Search console. These insights help you make informed decisions about how to improve your website strategy.

Any questions?  Connect with us on social media and reach out to the team!