Instructions for finding Google Analytics Tracking Code

Today, most businesses maintain an online presence through a website. That's why understanding the internal structure of a website becomes important in seeing whether it serves its purpose or not. For this purpose, you need to know what users do when they visit your website, how long they stay and which pages they visit.

To build a website that performs well, the first step is to do very specific keyword research about your particular business niche and create content around those keywords. When you align your content with what your audience is looking for, success is more likely.

The second step is to set up 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 website. In fact, it can help you:

1. Observe the number of users the website receives from PPC or organic marketing efforts.
2. Where do guests come from?
3. Any keywords used to find your website.
4. Which browser is the user using?
5. How long visitors stay on your website.
6. What pages visitors use to find your website.
7. What page were users visiting when they left your site, etc.

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

This article will explore ways to add Google Analytics code to your website to test its performance.

What is Google Analytics Tracking Code?

Google Analytics works by including a block of JavaScript code on web pages. When a visitor sees a page on your website, this JavaScript code references a JavaScript file, which then performs tracking for Google Analytics.

Tracking accesses data about page requests in a number of ways. It sends this information to the analytics server via a list of parameters attached to the 1x1 pixel image request. The data that Google Analytics uses to provide all information in reports comes from the following sources:

1. User HTTP request
2. Browser/system information
3. of the first party

Where is the Google Analytics Tracking Code located?

You should add Google Analytics tracking code in the header() section. According to Google:

'The code must be added near the beginning of the tag and before any other scripts or CSS tags. The string UA-XXXXX-Y  must be replaced with the Google Analytics property ID (also known as "tracking ID") that you want to track'.

Once the GA code is in place, you'll start receiving data in your Google Analytics account that can be shared with clients in the form of visual reports. Smart Visualization can help you make smart decisions, save time and improve results.

How to identify Google Analytics Tracking Code?

Google Analytics Tracking Code is called asynchronous code, which means it can run in parallel with other scripts active on the website. The most important benefit of this code is that if some code is taking a while to run or has errors, other code that is running asynchronously will not be affected.

In most cases, you can quickly determine whether a website has Google Analytics installed by looking at its code. You can use Google Chrome to visit a website and then right-click to view its PAGE SOURCE (site code). If your website has Google Analytics installed, you will find Google Analytics tracking information in the code, as shown below.

Instructions for finding Google Analytics Tracking Code Picture 1

When you include tags on your website, you send a pageview to every page a viewer browses. Google Analytics processes this information and can infer a lot of information such as:

1. Total time visitors spend on the website.
2. The amount of time visitors spent on each page and the order in which visitors viewed those pages.
3. Which internal links were clicked (depending on the URL of the next page view).

You can also see the IP address, user agent string, and first page. You can use this information to learn things like:

1. Geographic location of visitors.
2. What browser and operating system are being used.
3. Screen size and whether Flash or Java is installed.
4. Referring website (page redirects to your site).

How Google Analytics Tracking Code works

With code in a website, when the page is loaded in the browser, JavaScript is also loaded there to perform analytical tracking activities. Whenever you want the page to send a request, everything will then be recorded through tracking activities.

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.

1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Click Admin.

Instructions for finding Google Analytics Tracking Code Picture 2

1. Next, click on Tracking info and from the drop-down menu. Select Tracking code.

Instructions for finding Google Analytics Tracking Code Picture 3

1. Here, you can find Tracking ID and Tracking code . Copy this code and paste it into your website header.

Instructions for finding Google Analytics Tracking Code Picture 4

Now that you've found where your Google Analytics code is, it's time to start using it.

How to add Google Analytics tracking code to your website

There are many ways to collect data from online properties in Analytics, based on whether you want to track a website, an app, or several Internet-connected devices.

Below are ways to set up tags for different types of properties.

1. For static websites

Static websites are based on HTML that does not change dynamically. It is not created using a programming language such as Python, Ruby or PHP.

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

1. Find the Javascript tracking code for your property, then copy the entire snippet. Do not modify the snippet.
2. Paste the complete code into the HTML on the web page, right after the open HTML tag.

2. For dynamic websites

A dynamic website uses HTML generated by a programming language. You can use an include command or template to push tags dynamically to every web page.

3. Web hosting service

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

4. The website uses Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that you can use to manage a number of website analytics and tracking tags. You can use Google Tag Manager to set up your Analytics tags.

5. Mobile application

You need to install the Firebase SDK to use the latest generation of app reporting in Google Analytics. When you create a data stream, Analytics creates a new Firebase project and adds the Firebase SDK to your app. Here's how you can create accounts, properties, and data streams for your app.

Samuel Daniel

Update 11 April 2024