Google Analytics is a freemium website analytics service.
Google Analytics is used to track website statistics. It helps website owner to get where the user comes from and which page is mostly searched by users. This post guides you to setup Google Analytics.
Google Analytics Setup
To setup Google Analytics first you must sign with a Google account.
Google provides a javascript code (gtag.js) to setup the Google Analytics. gtag means Global Site Tag which is a tracking js code.
To get the analytics tracking code access Google Analytics. Expand SIGN IN dropdown and click Analytics link.
Select the account that you want to setup the google analytics. Click Create New Property and click Get Tracking ID to get the tracking id.
Proceed further to get the tracking code.
There are three ways to add Google Analytics to your WordPress Website:
1) Include the tracking code via functions.php
2) Place the tracking code directly in header or footer.
3) Add the Google Analytics using a Plugin.
The script can be placed in two ways,
Immediately before the closing </head> tag
Immediately before the closing </body> tag
Adding Tracking Code through Footer Script
This post describes how to setup the analytics through footer.
If you are using Genesis theme go to Theme settings and paste the code in Footer Scripts box. This will place the tracking code immediately before the closing </body> tag.
Now go to Google Analytics Dashboard and click Send test traffic button to verify whether the analytics dashboard starts tracking your website traffic.