Creating your Google Analytics account is a fairly simple process.

The first step is to visit the sign up page. If you currently have an email account through Gmail you can use it to sign into your analytics account. For those without a Gmail account you will need to create the entire account first.

Google currently offers a universal access account along with the classic account. The universal access account is currently in beta and has several extra features. If you choose the classic account you will then be upgraded to the newer features when they are out of beta.

All of the information on the sign up page is quite self-explanatory, simply enter the URL of your website, create an account name, enter your time zone, country, etc. Once the information has been entered you will then get a tracking ID after agreeing to the terms and conditions.

Installing Google Analytics on WordPress

After you have created your Google Analytics account, it is important to copy your tracking code to use on your website. Since WordPress is one of the most popular website platforms out there, we will look at it.

There are several ways for installing Google Analytics through WordPress. They are:

Using a direct copy/paste to your themes footer/header file
Updating the functions.php page
Or with plugins.

The recommended method is to use a plugin as this will make the entire process much simpler.

There are a ton of different plugins that are available that will help you add Google Analytics to your website. Using one of the simple, lightweight plug ins is recommended when you are first starting out.

The direct paste method is fairly simple as well. You will simply copy your Google Analytics code to the header.php (or footer.php) file of your theme. It should be pasted right after yourtag (or right before thetag in footer).

You should really only use the Functions.php method if you absolutely know what to do. You will want to use the appropriate code in the functions.php file for your theme on WordPress. You will also need to paste in the Google Analytics code you received when you signed up.

Using Google Analytics

Google Analytics is really a must have for every website. This service is free to use and will provide you with valuable insight into your websites traffic. The only way to truly improve your website is to use the data provided by Google Analytics to fully understand your audience and what they are doing while on your site.