Ever wonder who visits your website? And when? And from where? Windows/Linux/Macintosh users? Browsers used?
It’s easy to find out. The only slightly restrictive requirement is that you have or get a gmail account. Since Google provides so many nice features, it’s not really that restrictive. Think of the Google account as your club house key with you being a member of this exclusive club whose only requirement is that you use their key to gain access. And just in case you are not using it, gmail is a very nice email package that is web accessible thus available on any of your devices anywhere you have Internet access and a browser connection.
Install and Use Google Analytics
Log into http://www.google.com with your google account info. Add a website profile – which really means that you need to enter the URL of the site you want to track. I’m doing it for this site, exploringnewmedia.com
Google then comes back with some Javascript code that I install in the footer.php file of my currently chosen theme. Why place it in the footer.php file? Because in WordPress, the footer information is placed on every post and page so it’s always there. When someone visits any post or page, Google takes note and enters it into a database.
Don’t expect any meaningful information for a few days because it will take a bit of time before you begin to get visits. After that, log in to your account on google.com/analytics and choose View Report for your URL to get some (and more) of the information alluded to in the first paragraph above.
If you try this and can’t get it right, please ask me and I’ll walk you through the process. Leave a comment or contact lindsey@exploringnewmedia.com
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