Imagine you started a business competently: you created a high-quality product, analyzed the target audience and studied the market, decided on the optimal type of hosting (from your point of view) and prepared excellent content for the site. But this is not enough for promotion. If you plan to develop a business and reach a high level, ahead of competitors, special attention should be paid to analytics. So, today we'd like to tell you what Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrika are and how to connect a site to them, but first we will figure out why web analytics is so important for the development of your Internet site.
Why should I use analytics tools on my site?
Web analytics is required for a comprehensive analysis of the user's actions on the site. It allows you to collect, measure, and analyze data and report on them.
Web analytics tools are systems that automatically collect and analyze data. The user can view the analysis result presented in a readable format. Web analytics tools can tell you the following:
- from where visitors go to the site;
- how users behave (which pages they visit and which content they interact with most often)
- how much time the average visitor spends on the site.
Based on this data, you will be able to understand how to improve your site and what are its weaknesses.
What tasks do web analytics tools solve?
If you use analytics services, you easily solve 3 problems at once:
- You understand the audience better. The data is based on the user history: who and from where comes to the site and what are the interests of this or that visitor. Using web analytics tools, you can determine the age, gender, and geographic location of users. The system also displays information about where they found the link to your resource. You will be able to determine what visitors like on sites because web analytics tools show which content people interact with more often and more actively.
- You can make decisions based on your data. Thanks to web analytics, you will be able to take effective measures to increase the performance of the site and even the number of sales. Using analytical tools, you will identify what development factors need to be emphasized. Besides, you'll be able to solve problems with conversion or simply increase it.
- You will create reports easily. In addition to helping you make decisions, web analytics will become an important source of reporting information for your business. Having received structured and understandable data, it will be easier for you to compile reports on the operation of the site for a certain period.
Thus, it is difficult to do without web analytics if you want to competently develop a site. It is easy to introduce such tools into the work of the site, taking into account you do not have to spend weeks finding a suitable service. You can use Google Analytics or Yandex.Metrika - these are the two most popular and free web analytics systems. Both collect data efficiently, analyze traffic, and present the resulting data in an understandable form.
What is better to connect to your site: Google Analytics or Yandex.Metrika?
In fact, you can configure both web analytics systems, but not all users do this. According to recent studies, this approach is used on slightly more than 20% of sites. Yandex.Metrika is more popular only in runet - around the world Google Analytics is the leader, speaking about the number of users.
We should also note that there are not only Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrika: you can find other services for web analytics. Large companies also order the development of such systems to ensure the confidentiality of the collected data. But this is quite expensive, and for small and medium-sized businesses it is completely unprofitable. Both Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrika are quite easy to use, and their capabilities allow you to conduct detailed and effective analytics.
If you have already decided which tool to integrate into the site, use the step-by-step instructions below.
How to connect Google Analytics
Only Google users can work with the Google Analytics system. Respectively, to connect the tool, it is necessary to create the account or to become authorized if you already registered earlier.
After authorization, the algorithm of actions is the following.
Register in Google Analytics
The system will ask you to enter the name and to choose basic operation parameters (for example, it is possible to open access for technical support at once). After that, you need to add the website: at this stage, you enter the page address to the corresponding field. Be sure to check that the link contains the correct protocol (http/https). After this, it is necessary to choose the country, the time zone, and the currency. By default, the USA and dollars are already chosen in Google Analytics. Nevertheless, you will be able to find any time zone and currency in a drop-down list.
Get and download the ID
Once you cope with all the settings we have described, the Google Analytics system will create a unique identifier in the form of a script that needs to be loaded on your resource. The identifier is formed for the specific website, but not for all your account. If you add new pages to connect analytics to them, each time the system will issue you new identifiers.
The ID that you receive needs to be inserted into the code of your website. Let's have a look at how to do it:
- For single-page sites without engines. Open the page with the code and insert a script into the second line after <head>.
- For large platforms on engines. If you have a multipage website, you certainly use CMS like Joomla! or WordPress. In that case, to add a script, you can use a special plug-in. It is possible to do it independently: just find the header.php file with the <head>, and insert the identifier by a similar principle (in the line that follows this tag).
After uploading the identifier, check if you accidentally deleted the original code: even if it lacks one character, for example, a curly brace, the site will not work correctly.
Check Google Analytics operation
The system begins to analyze data approximately 5 hours after loading a script in the code. Sometimes waiting time can take several days; therefore, you won't be able to proceed to data analytics immediately. But you will be able to understand whether the tool is connected correctly if you do the following:
- Visit the website.
- Open the page with reports in Google Analytics.
- Start a real-time check.
After that, turn on the overview, which will show the number of users on the site right now. Considering that at least you have already visited your page, the system will show 1 visitor.
How to connect Yandex.Metrika
By analogy with Google Analytics, only authorized users of Yandex can use Yandex.Metrika service. You either need to log in to an account or create one.
After you go through the registration, follow these steps:
Register in Yandex.Metrica
When you open the page, you will see the "Get Counter" button. Click on it and a page with basic settings will open in the browser. In the corresponding fields, you need to enter the name (name of the counter), the address of your site (one or more), and also select a time zone. Unlike Google Analytics, the time zone of one of the Russian regions is indicated here by default. Yandex, logically enough, is guided by the runet. You can also change configurations and select the desired time zone.
Next, you need to turn on the webvisor, which will mark all the actions of visitors in the system. Check the box next to the item that confirms your acceptance of the terms of the user agreement - and you can move on.
Get and download the code
After you set up the basic configurations, the system will give you a script that you need to insert into the html-code of your site. The system itself will offer you 3 download options (HTML, CMS, and site constructors or tag management systems), and you will be able to choose the best option for yourself.
Here you can also connect the e-commerce option, which is especially important if you want to run web analytics in an online store. You can also run content analytics, which will report on text content and user interactions with it.
Also, when you change configurations, you can define the currency (the default is rubles), the time of the visit timeout, and set up a counter code (for example, select alternative CDN or informer).
You can find the script you need in the Additional Settings category. You can place it within the <head> or <body> tags. Better to locate it as high as possible. So the system can count a user's visit, even if they close your page a few seconds after uploading when all the content has not yet had time to load.
Select additional options
Next, you can configure filters. For example, you can choose an option so that the system does not take into account visits to the site from your account. After this, you must configure notifications. In the corresponding tab, you need to specify a convenient way for you to receive error notifications (e-mail or SMS).
Irrespective of which web analytics system you choose, once installed, you can effectively analyze traffic and make decisions that help make your business even more productive.
