The ultimate guide to starting a blog
Two great and free tools you must have to manage effectively your blog are Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. If you are not familiar with these two tools, do not worry, follow the next steps to set up these useful free tools, and use them to improve your blog performance.
What is Google Analytics and why do you need it?
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service developed by Google that enables tracking site traffic. Google Analytics can show how many users are currently visiting your site, which pages they are visiting, how long they are on each page, where are they from and more interesting information that will help you to improve your site performance. By using these reports, you can track the growth of your site’s traffic and, if necessary, update potential advertisers.
What is Google Webmaster Tools and why is it good for you?
Webmaster Tools is another free tool developed by Google. This important tool enables your communication with Google and a few more important actions:
- Receive messages from Google about the site’s performance – if there are any important updates or issues – Google will message you about it.
- Direct the site’s domain to the country you promote it to.
- Upload the Sitemap – a map that lists the structure of the site content and enables Google to update pages, images, and other files that uploaded to the site, so Google will index the site better.
- Track popular keywords.
How to set up Google analytics?
Before you get started with Google Analytics, you need to create a Google account.
Click here to open Gmail account>
With your new Google account, you can access Google Analytics.
Click here to access Google Analytics>
Click on the “Analytics“ tab and then click on the green “Sign up for free” button.
Then you will be provided with the three steps you need to take in order to set up your Google Analytics account.
Step 1 – Sign up
Fill in your Account Name, Website name, Website URL, Industry Category, Reporting time zone.
Then you will need to configure your data sharing settings, the options for which will be right below, and click on “Get Tracking ID”.
Step 2 – Add the tracking code to your blog
Download the plug “Header and Footer Scripts” (which I mentioned in the last chapter) and copy and paste the tracking code into the <HEAD> section. Check out the next two images:
Copy the Tracking Code, go to your blog’s “Settings”, Click on “Header and Footer Scripts”, and paste the code in the “Scripts in header” section.
To make sure that the tracking code is working you can send test traffic by clicking the “Send test traffic” button and watching the “Overview” in the “REAL-TIME” tab.
Step 3 – Exclude your public IP address
Now you should exclude your IP address to avoid Google Analytics from tracking your own traffic on your website. To do this you need to track your IP address by searching on google “What is my IP address”, copy the IP number you get. Go to the “All Filters” tab and click on the “ADD FILTER” red button.
Enter the filter name “Exclude_IP”, choose “Exclude“, “traffic from the IP addresses“, “that are equal to“, and paste your IP address. Then select “All web site data” and hit the “Save” button below.
Congratulations, you now officially have Google Analytics!
How to set up Google Webmaster Tools?
Now that you have Google Analytics, setting up the Google Webmaster Tools is very easy.
Click here to access Google Webmaster Tools>
Click on the “Search Console” green button.
Click on “ADD A PROPERTY”.
Enter your website domain and click “Add”.
Click on the “Alternate methods” tab, select the radio button next to “Google Analytics” and click the “Verify” button.
That’s it! Your Google Webmaster Tools account is ready to go. Move on to the next step!
