Home > Blog > Digital Marketing > SEO >

Where is the Google Analytics Code & How to Track Your Website Performance?

Today, almost all businesses maintain an online presence via a website. That’s why it has become significant for you to understand your site’s internal structure to see whether or not it’s fulfilling its purpose. For this purpose, you need to be aware of what users do when they land on your site, how long they stay, and what pages they visit.

To build a website that performs well, 1st step is to do very concrete keyword research around your business niche and create a content on those keywords. Once you align your content with what your target audience is searching for, success is practically guaranteed.

2nd step is to setup the Google Analytics code on your website.

Google Analytics is one of the most commonly used digital analytics software. It’s Google’s free web analytics service that helps you analyze in detail how users behave on your site. In fact, it can help you:

Observe the number of users your site gets from your PPC marketing or organic efforts.
Where the visitors come from.
Any keywords used to find your website.
What browser the users are using.
How long visitors stay on your website.
What pages visitors use to find your website.
What page users are on when they choose to abandon your website etc.

All this info is valuable in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). However, before you can put it to use, you must first understand how to find your Google Analytics code and how to install it on your site correctly. An essential question advertisers ask when starting is, where is the Google Analytics code?

This article will explore ways to add the Google Analytics code to your site to check your site’s performance. But keep in mind Google Analytics GA4 is a new property designed for the future of measurement which use events instead of session-based data. From July 1,2023 standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data.

What is the Google Analytics Tracking Code?

Google Analytics functions by including a block of JavaScript code on your web pages. When visitors see a page on your site, this JavaScript code references a JavaScript file, which then executes the tracking operation for Google Analytics.

The tracking operation accesses data about the page request in several ways. It sends this information to the analytics server through a list of parameters attached to a single-pixel image request. The data that Google Analytics utilizes to deliver all the info in your reports originates from these sources:

The HTTP request of the user
Browser/system information
First-party cookies

Where to Put the Google Analytics Tracking Code?

It’s recommended to add the Google Analytics tracking code in the header section (<head>). According to Google:

“The code should be added near the top of the <head> tag and before any other script or CSS tags, and the string ‘UA-XXXXX-Y’ should be replaced with the property ID (also called the “tracking ID”) of the Google Analytics property you wish to track.”

Once your GA code is in place , you will start getting data in your Google Analytics account which you can share with your customers in the form of visual reports.

Smart keyword research could help your website to boost quickly in terms of traffic and sales. Keep finding new opportunities and engage the customers with right keywords.

How Do I Identify the Analytics Tracking Code?

Google Analytics tracking code is referred to as an asynchronous code, meaning it can run in parallel with other scripts that are active on the webpage. The most significant benefit of asynchronous code is that if some code is taking some time to run or has a bug, another code running asynchronously isn’t affected.

In most cases, you can quickly identify if a site has Google Analytics installed by looking at the webpage’s site code. You can use Google Chrome to visit a site and then right-click to see its PAGE SOURCE (site code). If the site has Google Analytics installed, you’ll find the Google Analytics tracking info within the code, as seen below.

When you include tags to your site, you send a pageview for every page your viewers browse. Google Analytics processes this info and can infer a lot of information such as:

The total time a visitor spends on your website.
The amount of time a visitor spends on each page and in what order the visitor saw those pages.
What internal links were clicked (depending on the URL of the next page view).

You can also see the IP address, user agent string, and initial page. You can use this info to find out things like:

The visitor’s geographical location.
Which browser and operating system are being used.
Screen size and whether Flash or Java is installed.
The referring website.

How the Google Analytics Tracking Code Works?

Once you have a code in your website, when the page is loaded in browser, the JavaScript is also loaded there in which tracking operations for analytics are executed. Whenever page request sends any request, everything is then tracked through tracking operations.

Where is the Google Analytics Code and Tracking ID?

So, where is the Google Analytics code? Follow these steps to find the tracking ID and code snippet.

Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
Click ‘Admin.’
Next, click on the ‘Tracking info’ and from the drop-down menu. Select ‘Tracking code.’
Here, you can find the Tracking ID and Tracking code. Copy this code and paste it into the header of your site.

Now that you’ve figured out the answer to where is the Google Analytics code, it’s time to start using it.

How to Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your Website?

There are numerous ways to gather data from online properties in Analytics, based on whether you want to track a site, an app, or some Internet-connected device.

Here are following ways to set up the tag for various kinds of properties.

1. For Static Website

A static site is based on HTML that doesn’t alter dynamically. It’s not generated using a programming language like Python, Ruby, or PHP.

Here’s how you can add Google Analytics tracking code to your static website:

Locate the JavaScript tracking-code snippet for your property, and then copy the entire snippet. Don’t modify the snippet.
Paste the complete snippet into the HTML on your web pages, right after the opening <head> HTML tag.

2. For Dynamic Website

A dynamic site uses HTML that is created by a programming language. You can use an include statement or template to push the tag dynamically to every web page.

3. Web-Hosting Service

Some Internet service providers (ISPs) simplify the installation of Google Analytics tracking code by offering plugins that automatically install it on your website. Go through your platform’s instructions to add your Analytics ID.

4. Website Using Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a free tool you can use to manage several analytics and site-tracking tags. You can use the Google Tag Manager to install your Analytics tag.

5. Mobile Apps

You need to install the Firebase SDK to use the latest generation of app reporting in Google Analytics. When you create the data stream, Analytics creates a new Firebase project for you and adds the Firebase SDK to your app. This is how you can create an account, property, and data stream for your app.

How To Create and Use a Google Analytics Account?

By creating an account, you can access Google Analytics. If you’ve been using Analytics, you already have an account and may not want to add another one.

If you haven’t already signed in, sign in to Analytics.
Click ‘Admin.’
In the Account column, click ‘Create Account’.
Enter an account name.
Configure the data-sharing settings to control which data you share with Google.
Click ‘Next’ to add the first property to the account.

Once you have finished these steps, You need ‘Edit’ permission to add properties and data streams to a Google Analytics account. If you are the actual creator of the account, you automatically get Edit permission. You can add up to 100 properties to each Analytics account. To increase this limit, reach out to your account manager.

To add a property:

Sign in to Analytics if you aren’t already signed in.
Click ‘Admin.’
Look at the ‘Account’ column to ensure that you’ve selected the right account. In the ‘Property’ column, click ‘Create Property.’
Enter a name for the property.

Select the reporting time zone. Analytics uses this as the day boundary for your reports regardless of where the data originates.

If you select a time zone that follows Daylight Savings Time, Analytics automatically adjusts for the changes. If you don’t want Analytics to adjust for Daylight Savings time, you can use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) instead of your local time zone.
Varying the time zone only impacts data going forward. If you alter the time zone for a current property, you may see a flat spot or a spike in your data, which could be due to the time shift forwards or backward, respectively. Report data may refer to the old time zone for a brief period once you update your settings until Analytics servers have processed the variation.
Next, choose the currency you want to use for reporting.
Click ‘Next’ and provide information about your business. Select an industry category, business size, and indicate the ways you use Analytics.
Click ‘Create.’
Accept the ‘Analytics Terms of Service’ and the ‘Data Processing Amendment.’

How to Verify Your Tag is Working?

After you have successfully installed the Google Analytics tag, it can take up to 24 hours for data such as traffic-referral info, user characteristics, and browsing information to appear in your reports. However, you can check your web-tracking setup instantly. If you’re not sure your Google Analytics tag is working aptly, attempt one of the options below to narrow your setup.

Check Your Real-Time Reports

The real-time reports allow you to see the current activity on your website. If these reports have data, your snippet gathers data and sends it to Google Analytics as expected.

The Real-Time overview and behavior reports allow you to see activity for specific pages. If you haven’t included the snippet to all pages on your website, you can check these reports to view whether the snippet is sending data from the pages you have tagged. These reports show activity for only the most active pages. Therefore, you can’t have an exhaustive assessment, but these reports are a good signal that your snippet is functioning aptly.

To view the real-time reports:

Sign in to your Analytics account.
Navigate to a view in the property to which you added the snippet. If you only recently included the snippet to this property (site), likely, there’ll only be a single view.
Open ‘Reporting’.
Select Real-Time > Overview.

Use Google Tag Assistant to Verify Your Setup

Google Tag Assistant is a free Chrome browser extension that shows you whether Google Analytics tags (the snippet) are working aptly. Tag Assistant allows you to record a user journey on your website. Now, view a report of all the hits sent during that journey and any issues associated with sending those hits.

The image below depicts an example of the types of errors that the Tag Assistant shows:

Image source: Google Analytics Help

How to Troubleshoot Your Tag Setup?

If no data is appearing, or you don’t see the data you expect, you can use the troubleshooter to identify and resolve problems. The troubleshooter is designed to help you resolve issues with the setup of your Analytics tag. For instance, suppose you can’t see session data in your Google Analytics account. From the troubleshooter (https://support.google.com/analytics/troubleshooter/7400465), you can solve the issue as follows

Choose an option where you are facing a problem.
Next, choose whether or not you are using the tag manager. Suppose you are not using the Google Tag Manager.

You’ll get a list of suggestions, from where you can concentrate on your tag setup.

FAQs:

Does Google Analytics work with Google Ads?

Yes it works. Linking your Google Ads with Google Analytics accounts gives you a more complete understanding of the user path from impression to conversion and helps you grow your online businesses.

Do you need Google Analytics for Google Ads?

Yes you need Google Analytics for Google Ads without connecting the two technologies together, your shopping funnel is incomplete. You can’t see Google Ads performance compared with other marketing channels, or how those Ads actually contribute to revenue.

How do Google Ads and Analytics work together?

Google Ads can only tell you interaction with your ad and reaching to landing page. If you really want to see what people are doing when they arrive on your site and discover just why they are bouncing away, then you need to hook up Google Analytics.

When you link Google Ads with Google Analytics?

When you need to in analyze your data directly in Google Ads and have to add more dimensions to your Google Ads visits at that time you have to link your Google Ads with Google Analytics.

Wrap Up

No matter what kind of website you have, it’s always good to know if users are visiting and what exactly they’re viewing on your site. Google Analytics supports your business using technology, making it simple for you to understand user behavior on your site.

However, answers to seemingly simple questions such as the Google Analytics code become a lot easier with some professional guidance. Using these tips, you can always find your tracking code whenever you have to alter anything on your website.

How much did you enjoy this article?