Google Analytics

Hi Developers!

So this week I would like to introduce google tools for web design.

I will start with the Analytics but before I do that I need to say one important thing: first of all - get yourself a google account if you haven't one already.

Google is the most popular search engine and it plays top role in lives of a web design personel. Google account is also a requirement for use of google apps for web design.

Now - back to the analytics.

One of apps provided by google is the website statistics and traffic directory called analytics. It's basically a tracker that keeps the record of entries and clicks on our website and provides a descriptive and straightforward data about those. By means of that we can easily find out how our website is performing and for example compare the page clicks with the sales figure to evaluate the effectiveness of our website.

It features many usable modules, one of the most important is the traffic directory where the traffic sources are described on a pie chart with actual figures and their percentage. It divides the overall search into the organic (through google search), refferal (if somebody followed a link to your website found elsewhere) and direct (if you said somebody to visit your website).

To install the tracker you need to upload the code name of the tracker given to you by google and insert it along with a special script into the footer (or the bottom part of your website if you don't have a footer specified).

Although there is no direct need to put it exactly there I belive it is a good practice since you usually put other code into header (search engines verification codes, related links to stylesheet or favicon, etc., etc.)

See you soon Developers!