How to set up and implement Google Analytics to track your Weebly site

What is Google Analytics and why is it important for your website?
Google Analytics is a powerful web analytics tool offered by Google to gain insights into how users are interacting with your website.

The following steps explain how to add Google Analytics code to your Weebly website.

Step 1: Create a Google Account or use an existing one
 If you have an existing Gmail or Google email id already established, you can use that to create a Google Analytics account by visiting this site: https://analytics.google.com/. Otherwise, create a new account.

Google Analytics signup page

Step 2: Create a new account for your website
Enter your account and website name, as well as the website’s URL in the appropriate boxes. Be sure to also enter your website’s industry category, the time zone you want the reporting to be in. Make sure to read through the data sharing options and uncheck any that you are not comfortable sharing with Google and accept the terms and conditions. After completing all required steps, click to get " Tracking ID"

Google Analytics Interface

 Step 3: Copy the tracking ID from Google Analytics site
After step 2, you will be then presented with a unique tracking code ( e.g: UA-XXXXXX-X  under Property) that will then need to be applied to your Weebly wesite. 

Google Analytics --> Admin --> Tracking ID

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Step 4: Install the tracking code in Weebly site
Log into your Weebly account, select the site to which you want to add Google Analytics Code. Head over to Settings ----> click open ---> SEO page. 
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In the "Footer Code" section paste the Gtag code that you copied from Google Analytics site and make sure to save your work. After double checking your installation process, you are now good to hit "Publish".

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Weebly site --> Settings

Step 5: Validate Google Analytics (GA) tags implementation

After installing GA tags,  you would want to verify if those tags are firing on your site and working for you. There are two ways to debug this process but choose the most comfortable one for you.

1. Google Tag Assistant is a free Chrome extension that helps you make sure your Google tags are working correctly. It also helps to validate, diagnose, and troubleshoot issues with your Google Analytics implementation. If Google Analytics code is installed properly, Tag Assistant will capture all tags that are on the page when you navigate to any page.
2. ​The second method, within Google Analytics platform, go to ADMIN --> Property -->Tracking Code --> click on send test traffic. Then, under Reports (on left navigation panel) choose Real - Time --> Overview. Since you sent a test traffic to your site, you should at least see one active user on your site to verify that your analytics code is working properly.

Now that you have installed Google Analytics to your site, it is going to take at least 24- 48 hours for Google to start collecting data from your site.  So, get ready to take a deep dive into data.