Adding Google Analytics to your Board
 

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that a webmaster can optimize AdWords advertisement and marketing campaigns through the use of GA's analysis of where the visitors came from, how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics}

Why is Analytics Important?
If you (the Board Owner) want to know what is really happening on your site and how best to optimize it to increase visitors and participation and hopefully...... get a conversion.... (make money).... then GA is an important tool for you...

Isn't it as simple as putting Google's code in your footer and verifying your account?

I second that.

no... if you put google in your footer... it will only read your pages... without conversions... it would be like putting it in a template... it works.., but when you want to measure more than simple page visits....., you put the code in the </body> and each page becomes unique..

so, no, its not that simple...

the idea behind analytics is to analyze.. to measure click-through rates.. conversions... if you just want a counter... get a counter...

OK

Thanks

If the information seems to be overwhelming.., I will show you how to create a dashboard later today... Dash boards off you the chance to view specific data streams that are important to you on one page...
if i dont get back to this in time, I suggest you go to your google account and take a look at that option...

In the directions, I think step two tells me to cut and paste the google code into each template, just before the </body>

But it sounds like step three is doing that with the replacement variable,

Is step 2 just telling me what step three is going to do?

This, to me, seems like the wrong way to go about it. Replacing the /body code with an RV for your analytics code + /body doesn't do anything different than just putting it in the footer. It's the same code.

vBSEO handles my Analytics code so I don't do it either way, but I fail to understand how making a RV would make one page unique any more or less than just hardcoding it into the footer. It's doing the same thing.

listen... trust me when i say this... if you put the code in the footer... you are doing the analytics a great dis-service... because the footer comes up no matter what page you go to.., you are not getting all of what GA is offering...

in order for analytics to work it has to be in a part of the site that is unique from other pages... the body pages are unique. when you put the code in the footer .. you are not getting the results such as site overlay, landing page, bounce rates.., etc....

but if you think its effective for you to put it in the footer... by all means.... do what you do!!

as far #7 is concerned...

no, dont manually put the code in each template... i believe what i meant to say was if you have more than one style........ do this.... but you have the right idea.. about the replacement variable.. that's what i suggested you do...

thanks for all this information.