If you’ve set up a UMass Blog to document your research or teaching, you might be interested to know who your visitors are. The days of the simple hit counter are gone, replaced with Google Analytics, a Google tool that tracks a wealth of data about where your visitors are coming from, which sections of your blog they are reading, and how often are they returning.
Here’s how to enable Google Anayltics on your blog, (instructions via Kevin Skelly’s OIT Software Support Blog)
- Log in to the administrative dashboard of your blog.
- Click the Plugins link (at the right hand side of the banner.)
- Click Activate to the right of Ultimate Google Analytics.
- Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/
- Click the Access Analytics button.
- To the right of Website Profiles click Add New Profile.
- Enter the URL of your blog. The http:// is already supplied, so enter the rest of the URL e.g. “websites.umass.edu/YourUsername”.
- Click Finish.
- Select the string that looks like UA-#######-# and copy it.
- Return to your blog dashboard and click Settings (at top right).
- Click Ultimate GA under the banner.
- The box labeled Account ID should now have that same number in it, but if it doesn’t, you can paste it in now.
- Click Update Options.
- After some people have visited your blog, you can go back to Google Analytics and click “View report” in the line next to where your blogs website is displayed. This will take you to the report for your blog, where you will be able to see how much activity your blog has received.