The Last Google Analytics Installation Guide You’ll Ever Need: How to Install Google Analytics on Any and Every Website
The first post I ever wrote for this blog was on how to install Google Analytics. That post focused on the general how-to as well as provided a few key recommendations for a proper setup.
Ever since, I’ve wanted to create THE resource to refer to when looking to install Google Analytics – for every platform small businesses use to create their websites.
At long last – here it is.
How to Install Google Analytics on Every and Any Website Platform
(A Step-by-Step Guide for the Small Business Owner)
Do things change? Always. But so will this resource 
Don’t see the platform you’re currently using? Leave a comment and I’ll update this post with some directions.
Okay, without further ado…
How to Install Google Analytics on WordPress (.org)
I highly recommend this plugin http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/. Why? It puts Google Analytics in the right spot in your website’s code, and makes some of the more advanced Google Analytics tracking capabilities super easy (like blocking internal traffic).
OS Training has a nice screenshot walkthrough of the process here: http://www.ostraining.com/blog/wordpress/google-analytics-for-wordpress/ (PS – yep, these are the same guys I recommend for WordPress training)
Note: sometimes I have trouble with the “authenticating with Google” process. If you run into this problem, you can check the “Manually enter your UA code” checkbox below the blue button and just enter the code Google Analytics gives you when you set up your account.
Things to watch out for: have you already set up Google Analytics for your site? Check the general settings for your theme or other plugins (like other Google Analytics plugins and some SEO plugins) to see if you’ve already added it. If you already have, simply delete the code you entered or uninstall the plugin (but immediately install the Yoast one).
Having your code installed twice on your site can lead to wonky and misleading data. Yuck!
How to Install Google Analytics on WordPress (.com)
Ah, you can’t. At least not yet.
But if you’re serious about your business, I highly recommend upgrading to the self-hosted version (.org). Here’s some advice from ProBlogger on how to do that: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/03/how-to-move-from-wordpresscom-to-wordpressorg/
How to Install Google Analytics on Tumblr
This post talks about how to add any custom code you like to your Tumblr blog: http://howtophil.com/post/21917338426/some-of-you-might-be-struggling-with-how-to-add
How to specifically install Google Analytics on your Tumblr blog? Just copy the entire code snippet Google Analytics gives you after you sign up (no, you don’t have to know what any of it means!) and paste it before the ending head tag. What’s that? It looks like this:
There’s usually some stuff in between them, but this is what the opening and closing head tags look like on their own.
How to Install Google Analytics on Joomla
Analytics for Joomla has you covered with this plugin for Google Analytics: http://www.analyticsforjoomla.com/google-analytics-plugin/features.
The page even includes general instructions for installing plugins so you can use the same process to install their Google Analytics one: http://www.analyticsforjoomla.com/other-news/how-to-install-a-plugin-in-joomla-16
How to Install Google Analytics on Squarespace
You should only need your UA code here (the one Google Analytics gives you after you sign up for an account) – Squarespace integrates with Google Analytics. Check out this article: http://help.squarespace.com/customer/portal/articles/612261-using-google-analytics-with-squarespace-6
How to Install Google Analytics on Drupal
In Drupal, you can add Google Analytics as a “module.” This article walks you through where you to put your UA code (which you get after you sign up for an account from Google Analytics): http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/drupal-7/310-google-analytics-module. It also gives you the option of customizing which pages the code goes on. Unless you have some legal reason not to, I’d strongly recommend keeping the code on every page of your site.
How to Install Google Analytics on Wix
The trick with Wix is that in order to add Google Analytics, you’ll need an account that lets you connect your own domain name (an upgrade from the standard). Once you do that, this article walks you through where to add your UA code (the code you get from Google Analytics after you sign up for an account): http://www.wix.com/support/main/html5/stats-seo/site-statistics-google-analytics.
Remember – you can’t do this if you’re using the free version of Wix.
How to Install Google Analytics on Weebly
This article walks you through where to copy and paste the code http://kb.weebly.com/google-analytics.html. The code in the second picture is *not* Google Analytics code – don’t be thrown because your code looks different! You’re still copying and pasting it in the same spot.
Also – the article says it doesn’t matter if you put your code in the header or footer section – it *does* matter – put it in the header.
How to Install Google Analytics on Shopify
Shopify makes it pretty simple to install Google Analytics on your Shopify site – complete with screenshots They even take you through the process of enabling the ecommerce capabilities of your Google Analytics account: http://wiki.shopify.com/How_to_enable_Google_Analytics
How to Install Google Analytics on Big Commerce
Big Commerce has a screenshot tutorial for you as well for installing Google Analytics on your Big Commerce site: http://support.bigcommerce.com/questions/930/How+do+I+setup+Google+Analytics+in+my+BigCommerce+Store%3F
It even includes how-to for signing up for your Google Analytics account. Some of the screenshots are a little outdated, but the “Adding the Code to your Store” section should still be valid.
How to Install Google Analytics on Blogger
Are you using Blogger or Blogspot for your website? Blogs by Heather has you covered in this post: http://www.blogsbyheather.com/2012/04/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blog.html%20
What next? Don’t forget to add the extra tweaks I outline in this post.
Over to You
Did you find this useful? Have a platform you’d like to see on this list? A good resource for installing Google Analytics that I’ve missed here? Let me know in the comments!
My big question is, if someone has 3 different websites, must there be 3 different Gmail addresses that link to the Google Analytics?
Thanks!
K
Hi Kay! Nope, you can set them up as all different “properties” under one account. Hope that helps!
How about set-up instructions for Shoppe Pro using Mals Cart?
I already set up most of my accounts – but I didn’t even think of my Tumblr! I’m really glad to have found this and will sharing it around to everyone I know who could use it! I’m a big fan of Google Analytics because you can glean so much data from it and unlike some sites that have some internal analytics it is a lot more workable in a lot more ways! <3 all your GA posts <3!
I have a new website and want to use Google Analytics but my platform is Typepad. Do you have instructions for that? Thanks!
I have several different tracking codes for the same website, very confusing. I guess it is because I had to nuke it a few time because of a server problem. Now I would like to erase all my Analytics data and start fresh, but it seems impossible. Is there a tutorial for that?
hmmm Phill – depends what platform you’re on. You’ll want to erase any code that has “UA-” in it if you’re trying to re-install. But don’t throw away your data! Just start a new profile
I just read your article but as far as I can see I don’t use any of the bogging platform stuff! I just have a regular website and want to know hoe to set up GA on it. What instructions(link) do I use? Thanks.
Hi Craig! Try my step-by-step post: http://www.lizlockard.com/how-to-set-up-google-analytics-3-essential-steps-for-the-beginner/
I am adding the tracking code to our ‘olde’ site. because all of the pages are ‘hardwired’ so to speak there are a lot of them, and more go on every day as old ones are re/moved. I wondered if there was a problem with creating a ‘googleanalytics.js’ file on the site with the tracking code in and then linking to it from every page with;
Idea being is that if I have to change anything later in the tracking code I can do it in the one file.
However I have not seen this as a suggested option anywhere so not sure if its ok to do so or not…
Hey Ray! All I can say is experiment. I know you can do basically the same thing by using what’s called Google Tag Manager to install the code. Try it out and see if Google Analytics still thinks the code is installed!
I’ve had google analytics set up for awhile now but I’ve been having trouble with Google for the past week and have been trying to trouble shoot. I read this and realized that I had my code installed twice. I’ve fixed it and hopefully this may help Google like some of my pages again! Thank you!
how can you install it on squareup?
Hi Jo! I don’t have access to a squareup site so I’ve submitted a message to them. We’ll see what we find out! Thanks for your comment!
Hi Liz,
I am creating my website using Wix. Any guidance for that platform?
Thanks for the post and the info!
– Claudia
Just updated!
Trying to get the code into my square market site. Not sure where to put the code??
Hey Phil! Thanks for your comment. I’ve submitted a message to Square Market to see what we can find out. I’ll let you know!
Hi There,
My old web designer installed google analytics on both these sites. The first “jillsharpe.ca” is a Joomla and CultureJam, I’m not sure … we had retrieved info so it was tracking, but now when I sign into google analytics with my email I can’t see any websites attached to my account? Is there a way to enter from Joomla as the webmaster? Thanks
Hi Jill! Sounds like maybe you need to reach out to your old web designer. From what you’re saying, I would guess that they setup a Google Analytics account themselves that they have yet to share with you. Hope that helps!
Hi Liz, There is an API from Square that might enable developers to build a connection to from Square Market to google analytics. https://connect.squareup.com/