Configuring your Google Analytics Account

If OM4 has set up your website, you probably already have Google Analytics set up.

If you are an OM4 partner or interested in how it works, here are the steps we go through when setting up a new Google Analytics account.

It is usually best to launch a separate browser session to do this setup so you can stay logged in for the various account setups. So if you normally use Safari, perhaps start a separate session in Chrome to do this.

Create the Google Account

Create: Go to google.com/analytics

Account Email: Sign in with a Google Account or create a new Google Account if necessary. This should be the same Google Account that is used for Google AdWords, as well as Webmaster Tools. If a client has multiple websites, add new websites as new profiles to their primary Google Account.

Verify. Access the email address to click on the Analytics verification link.

Account Name: Create a proper account name using the business name, not just the URL.

Data Sharing: Unless there is a special reason, choose not to share data. If you need to check this after initial setup, find it using Analytics, Analytics Settings, Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings.

Setup Tracking with Google Analyticator Plugin

This is the method we mostly use for setting a website to track with Google Analytics because:

• a summary widget displays a Google Analytics snapshot in your WordPress Dashboard
• you can turn off tracking for logged in WordPress users (by user level)
• outbound link tracking is activated
• event tracking is activated

Important Note: for this setup process to work correctly, complete all of these steps using the same browser session, opening new tabs where necessary. You’ll be relying on having your browser authenticated to the correct Google account for a few steps.

Login: Open a new browser session and login to Google Analytics. Leave your browser session logged in.

Register your domain with Google: Open a new tab, go to Google.com/accounts/ManageDomains to register your domain. Enter your domain name and click the Manage yourdomain.com link at the bottom of the page.

You’ll need to verify you own the domain, the easiest way to do this is by adding a meta tag to your site. Click the radio button for the meta tag option and you’ll see the meta tag you need to load to your site.

You add the meta tag to your OM4 site by opening a new tab, logging in to your website and using Dashboard, Appearance, Site Design and going to the 3rd Party Tools section. Add the meta tag to the Webmaster Tools field, being careful to add it to the end of any existing tags that may already be there.

Once you’ve saved the meta tag, go back to the Manage Domain tab and click the Verify link.
In the Manage Domain panel, set the Target URL Path Prefix to http://yourdomain.com/ and Save your settings.

You have now registered your domain with Google.

Activate Google Analyticator Plugin: Go back to the tab with your website, and using your Dashboard, Plugins, activate the Google Analyticator plugin.

Setup:

Basic Settings

Go to Dashboard, Settings, Google Analytics

Set the Google Analytics logging field to Enabled.

Click the Authenticate with Google link. Because you are using the one browser session, you will already be logged in to the correct Google account and you just need to click to allow access.

Give the plugin a brief moment to find your Google Analytics account name. If you have more than one profile in the account, select the correct profile.

Advanced Settings: Under Advanced Settings, choose No to “Track all logged in WordPress users” and click on the Administrator, Editor, Author and Contributor user profiles to exclude them from tracking.

Outbound link tracking and Event tracking will both be enabled by default.

Save your settings.

Enable: Double check the top of the Basic Settings and make sure that tracking is set to Enabled.

Google Analytics is now setup, and you should see the Analytics Summary widget on your WordPress Dashboard.

Set up Tracking with OM4 Analytics Integration

The OM4 theme provides a Google Analytics integration field in the Site Design screen.

Enter UA ID: OM4 Site Design Panel. Obtain UA-id from Tracking Code, go to Dashboard, Site Design, scroll down to 3rd party intgration and add the UA id number (just the number, exclude the leading UA-)

Configure Google Analytics Account

Once you have set up Google Analytics and linked it to the website, there are a few additional setup steps we like to complete.

Check. Check that the Google Analytics panel shows up on the Dashboard when you are logged in as an Administrator. Create a diary reminder for 1 or 2 days time to check that statistics are appearing. If it doesn’t, you may need to double check that you have set up the domain correctly with Google’s Manage Domains page.

Identify Goal Pages: make a note of the URL of all the Goal pages associated with the website:

• If the site has a webstore, this is the Transaction Results or Purchase Confirmed page.
• If the site has enquiry forms using cForms, look for the Enquiry Confirmed page (check the options for each form and note the setting for the redirect on success).
• If the site has enquiry forms using Gravity Forms, check under Dashboard, Forms, Edit Form, open the form itself, select the top panel (the form) and go to the Confirmations tab.

Setup Goals: Using Profile Settings*, set up a Goal for each success page.

• give each goal a name (e.g. Quote Request)
• set a goal type of URL Destination
• set a Match type of Head Match
• enter the URL, excluding the base domain e.g. http://om4.com.au/confirmed/ would be entered as /confirmed/

*Click on Analytics Settings to see the profile. To the right of the profile listing click on the Edit button to get to the Profile Settings page.

Site Search: Using Profile Settings, click the Edit button at the top right of the Main Website Profile Information. Under Site Search:

• choose the Do Track Site Search option
• add a Query Parameter of s
• choose No, do not strip query parameters out of URL

Dashboard Panels: Click on Traffic Sources, Keywords and then click the Add to Dashboard icon. Do the same for Traffic Sources, Referrals and Goals, Overview. Go back to the Dashboard and drag to arrange the new panels so Keywords, Referrals, Content and Goals panels are the top 4 panels.