Google Analytics will provide you useful information about who is visiting your Blogger blog and how they're finding it. In order to install Google Analytics on Blogger, you will need a currently active Blogger blog. If your Blogger blog was created after 2006, you'll be able to use the first steps. If you have a blog started before 2006, and you haven't migrated from the Classic template, you'll need to follow the Adding Google Analytics to the Classic Template steps or convert your blog to the new template..[1] Google Analytics can take up to 24 hours before it starts working.
If you have a blog, no doubt you’re curious as to how many people are reading it. Blogger has some built-in stats, but unfortunately they’re not very reliable. If you want your true blog stats, you will need to install Google Analytics.
You can click any of these screenshots to enlarge them.
Signing up for Google Analytics
Step 1. Go to http://www.google.com.au/analytics/ and click the “Create an Account” button in the top right corner. You will need to do this even if you already have a Google (Gmail or Blogger) account.
Step 2. You will be taken to the Sign In page, where you can enter your Google account details. Your Blogger account is also a Google account.
Step 3. After you have signed in with your Google account, you will be taken to the Google Analytics sign up page. Click "Sign Up".
Step 4. Select Web Site and Classic Analytics (they should be selected by default). Enter the following details:
- Website Name: The name of your blog (eg. Every Little Polish)
- Web Site URL: The URL of your blog, without the “http://” in front (eg. everylittlepolish.blogspot.com)
- Industry Category: There is no beauty-related industry to choose from, so I chose Retail. You can choose whatever you like, because it doesn’t affect the tracking data.
- Reporting Time Zone: Your time zone. (eg. Australia, GMT +10:00 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney)
- Account Name: The name that you would like your account to be called. This is useful if you have several blogs. I have named mine the same as my blog.
- Data Sharing Settings: You can enable or disable these as you wish. It doesn’t affect the tracking data.
Step 5. Click “Get Tracking ID” and accept the terms of service.
Adding Google Analytics to Blogger
You will be taken to a page with your unique tracking ID displayed at the top. This page can look intimidating, but ignore all of it except your tracking ID! Especially the bit that says “This is your tracking code. Copy and paste it into the code of every page you want to track.” - You do not need to do this!
Step 6. Highlight and copy your unique tracking ID (or write it down somewhere).
Step 7. In your Blogger Dashboard, go to Settings > Other. Paste your tracking ID into the Analytics Web Property ID under the Google Analytics section, right at the bottom.
Step 8. Click “Save Settings”.
You have 2 options here:
- If you are using a Blogger template you can stop here. Google Analytics is now installed on your blog! Skip the next part of the tutorial and go straight to the “Checking your Analytics stats” section.
- If you have installed a third party template, you will need to add some extra code to the HTML. Keep reading to see how to do this.
Step 9. Go to the Template tab, and click “Edit HTML”.
Step 10. Using Ctrl+F (or Command+F on a Mac), find the </body> tag.
Step 11. Just above it, copy and paste the following code:
<b:include name='google-analytics' data='blog'/>
If you are reading this because you’re not sure if you installed Analytics properly the first time round, use Ctrl+F to find that piece of code. If it’s already in your HTML, Analytics is installed correctly.
Step 12. Click “Save Template”. And you’re done! Google Analytics is now installed on your blog!
Checking your Analytics stats
Analytics takes 24 hours to kick in, so wait a day before checking your stats. Analytics only counts stats from the date it was installed, so you will need to wait a month before being able to see reliable monthly stats.
To check your stats, simply go to http://www.google.com.au/analytics/, sign in, and click on your blog name.
A few things to keep in mind
- Blogger tends to count bots and spiders indexing your blog, as well as real human readers. While this may make your numbers look more impressive, it won't give you useful,reliable information on what your readers are interested in, or where they're coming from.
- Because of this, your traffic stats will be lower on Analytics - don't be too discouraged when you first start!
- Analytics has more detail about traffic sources and demographics, which can help you work out what topics your readers are interested in, where they're coming from and how to boost your blog's visibility.
- If you want to work with brands, or are thinking of monetising your blog in the future (even just to cover the costs of your domain name and so on), you'll need Analytics for your media kit, since this is the standard statistics measurement tool for bloggers.
Common problems/Troubleshooting
- A common mistake is forgetting to add the extra code to the template HTML. If your stats seem suspiciously low, two easy ways to check that Analytics is installed properly are:
- In Google Analytics, go to Traffic Sources > Overview. Click on the “Landing Page” link underneath the Direct Traffic heading on the bottom left. If all of the most popular URLs end in ?m=1, you probably need to add the extra code to your template HTML. This is because the Blogger mobile template already has that extra code installed, so it is only counting stats when people are viewing your blog from a mobile device, and not when they are viewing it from a computer.
- In Blogger, go to the template HTML and use Ctrl+F to search for <b:include name='google-analytics' data='blog'/>. If it is there, then Analytics is installed correctly and everyone is just viewing your blog from a mobile device. If not, and you are using a third party template, you should add the code following the instructions in Steps 9 - 12.
I hope this helps, and if you have any questions just ask in the comments below. Happy blogging!
You can click any of these screenshots to enlarge them.
Signing up for Google Analytics
Step 1. Go to http://www.google.com.au/analytics/ and click the “Create an Account” button in the top right corner. You will need to do this even if you already have a Google (Gmail or Blogger) account.
Step 2. You will be taken to the Sign In page, where you can enter your Google account details. Your Blogger account is also a Google account.
Step 3. After you have signed in with your Google account, you will be taken to the Google Analytics sign up page. Click "Sign Up".
Step 4. Select Web Site and Classic Analytics (they should be selected by default). Enter the following details:
- Website Name: The name of your blog (eg. Every Little Polish)
- Web Site URL: The URL of your blog, without the “http://” in front (eg. everylittlepolish.blogspot.com)
- Industry Category: There is no beauty-related industry to choose from, so I chose Retail. You can choose whatever you like, because it doesn’t affect the tracking data.
- Reporting Time Zone: Your time zone. (eg. Australia, GMT +10:00 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney)
- Account Name: The name that you would like your account to be called. This is useful if you have several blogs. I have named mine the same as my blog.
- Data Sharing Settings: You can enable or disable these as you wish. It doesn’t affect the tracking data.
Step 5. Click “Get Tracking ID” and accept the terms of service.
Adding Google Analytics to Blogger
You will be taken to a page with your unique tracking ID displayed at the top. This page can look intimidating, but ignore all of it except your tracking ID! Especially the bit that says “This is your tracking code. Copy and paste it into the code of every page you want to track.” - You do not need to do this!
Step 6. Highlight and copy your unique tracking ID (or write it down somewhere).
Step 7. In your Blogger Dashboard, go to Settings > Other. Paste your tracking ID into the Analytics Web Property ID under the Google Analytics section, right at the bottom.
Step 8. Click “Save Settings”.
You have 2 options here:
- If you are using a Blogger template you can stop here. Google Analytics is now installed on your blog! Skip the next part of the tutorial and go straight to the “Checking your Analytics stats” section.
- If you have installed a third party template, you will need to add some extra code to the HTML. Keep reading to see how to do this.
Step 9. Go to the Template tab, and click “Edit HTML”.
Step 10. Using Ctrl+F (or Command+F on a Mac), find the </body> tag.
Step 11. Just above it, copy and paste the following code:
<b:include name='google-analytics' data='blog'/>
If you are reading this because you’re not sure if you installed Analytics properly the first time round, use Ctrl+F to find that piece of code. If it’s already in your HTML, Analytics is installed correctly.
Step 12. Click “Save Template”. And you’re done! Google Analytics is now installed on your blog!
Checking your Analytics stats
Analytics takes 24 hours to kick in, so wait a day before checking your stats. Analytics only counts stats from the date it was installed, so you will need to wait a month before being able to see reliable monthly stats.
To check your stats, simply go to http://www.google.com.au/analytics/, sign in, and click on your blog name.
A few things to keep in mind
- Blogger tends to count bots and spiders indexing your blog, as well as real human readers. While this may make your numbers look more impressive, it won't give you useful,reliable information on what your readers are interested in, or where they're coming from.
- Because of this, your traffic stats will be lower on Analytics - don't be too discouraged when you first start!
- Analytics has more detail about traffic sources and demographics, which can help you work out what topics your readers are interested in, where they're coming from and how to boost your blog's visibility.
- If you want to work with brands, or are thinking of monetising your blog in the future (even just to cover the costs of your domain name and so on), you'll need Analytics for your media kit, since this is the standard statistics measurement tool for bloggers.
Common problems/Troubleshooting
- A common mistake is forgetting to add the extra code to the template HTML. If your stats seem suspiciously low, two easy ways to check that Analytics is installed properly are:
- In Google Analytics, go to Traffic Sources > Overview. Click on the “Landing Page” link underneath the Direct Traffic heading on the bottom left. If all of the most popular URLs end in ?m=1, you probably need to add the extra code to your template HTML. This is because the Blogger mobile template already has that extra code installed, so it is only counting stats when people are viewing your blog from a mobile device, and not when they are viewing it from a computer.
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| You can see that my stats increased a lot halfway through the month, after I installed Analytics correctly. Before then it was only counting mobile pageviews. |
I hope this helps, and if you have any questions just ask in the comments below. Happy blogging!
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