ALWAYS have the ability to track the data generated by what you create.

It’s an important lesson I learned early on in my career, and it’s one that I’ve applied consistently to blogging.

Why?

Well, it’s cute to have great photos and an awesome website but when your goal is to monetize your brand, you need analytics in order to understand:

1. Who your audience is
2. What questions they have
3. What they usually buy
4. How they engage with your content
5. How well your content converts readers

The best way to do this for a blog is to set up a Google Analytics account!

What Is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free tool that gives you the ability to access valuable insights associated with your website traffic, including visitor details!

This popular website analytics tool also automatically collects data, and integrates with many other types of software, like WordPress.

Why Is Google Analytics Important?

I’ve mentioned it before but I think it’s worth repeating.

If your end goal is to get paid by brands as an influencer, you need to set up a Google Analytics account!

With an account, you’ll be able to understand how your audience engages with your content online plus easily view metrics like:

• Audience demographics, including age, gender, and location.
• How long your audience stays on your website
• What they will most likely buy
• The type of device most used by your readers
• What websites send you the most traffic

And more!

This data is empowering, to say the least.

It gives you, the content creator, confidence in who your target audience is and what your content is worth.

So for the next step, let’s jump into how you can set up a Google Analytics account.

How to Create A Google Analytics Account 

You can create a Google Analytics account at any stage of your content creation journey.

And here’s how you do it!

1. Go to google.com/analytics.
2. Create an account.
3. Set up a property. This means add your website as the source of data.
4. Set up a reporting view for your website. This includes customizing the time zone.
5. Create your Analytics tag code. 

That’s only part one!

Keep reading for the next step, the actual set up of Google Analytics on your blog website.

How to Set Up Google Analytics On Your Blog

Now that you have your Analytics tag, you need to add it to the header of each page.

That definitely sounds like a lot but here’s how you can do it for a few of the best blog platforms.

(1) WordPress.Org

Take the stress out adding your Google Analytics ID (aka Analytics tag), and use a plugin to add it to your website.

My suggestion is to use Google Analytics Dashboard for WP.

I’ve used this plugin for over 5 years on my own blog website, and it displays your data on your WordPress dashboard in an easy to understand way!

(2) Squarespace

If you’ve chosen to use Squarespace as your blog platform, you can also easily integrate Google Analytics!

Squarespace actually has a built-in integration for this and all you need to do, is add the code in your settings.

The steps as listed on Squarespace are:

1. Go to your Home Menu and click Settings.
2. Then click Advanced.
3.  Enter your ID in the Google Analytics Account Number field.
4. Click Save.

(3) Blogger

Another popular blog platform, Blogger, can be used with Google Analytics.

In fact, this is another easy add because this content management platform is a subsidiary of Google!

Anyway, to integrate your Google Analytics Tracking ID, follow the steps outlined in the photo below:

And that’s it!

Remember, Google Analytics is a free, powerful tool!

You will need it whether you’re a new content creator or have been doing this for some time.

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