Weekly Food Blog Update #3: Setting Up Google Analytics
Hey everyone! It is time for another weekly food blog post. This week, we are going to go over how to measure your traffic. You have your food blog or website set up, your social media accounts set up, and you probably even have a few posts. Nice work! The next thing you need to start thinking about is measuring your traffic, and eventually using tools to analyze it. Enter Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tool available for you to measure and analyze your website traffic. Some insights you can get through using Google Analytics are:
- How many people are visiting my website?
- How are people finding my website (keyword, social media, etc.)?
- Where do the people live/what language do they speak?
- Are most people viewing my website on a desktop computer or mobile phone?
- What pages are the most popular?
- Is my website loading fast enough?
Setting Up Google Analytics
If you already have a Google account, you can use this to set up a free Google Analytics account at analytics.google.com. Type in your website (or “property”) information and get your code. You will need to put this tracking code into the header section of your blog. In WordPress, you go to appearance -> theme editor and find the header file you need to edit in order to install your tracking code.
There are many tools available for you that you should read about through Google Analytics, and I won’t go through them all today. For example, you can use the site search tool to see what people are searching for on your website. You can also generate customized reports to learn more about your audience. If you intend to make money with your website, installing analytics should be one of your first steps.
Every Friday I publish a blog update which provides insight on how to start and maintain a food blog, and turn it into a business. Check back weekly for new tips!
