If you try to find the best analytics tools online, you will end up in Google Analytics or Statcounter.
Statcounter is run by a private company. They may sell your website traffic results data to someone else. So you can’t trust them. Actually, I love Statcounters UI/UX functionalities very much. I really like how the app gave information about a visitor, their navigation paths, and IP addresses. A visitor’s IP address is a really import one when your site face problem from unknown visitor – hacker or bad person who hate you and your work. Also, you can’t get the user’s IP address using Google Analytics. Because of their policy.
But you can totally trust Google Analytics. Because Google runs search engine and internet advertisement business.
You may say “ I can use self-hosted analytics tools like “Plausible, Matomo, or Umami”. Yes, that’s right. You can use open-source or free versions of the self-hosted analytics tools. But you need a separate or premium NodeJS hosting when you try to use Plausible or umami. I think Matomo is really a waste when you use their free version. So Google Analytics is the best option.
People use Google Analytics to monitor their personal blog or e-commerce site traffic. They also use these tools to track their advertising campaigns and product sales.
After July 1, 2023, Google Replaced Universal Analytics with GA4, and most people can’t understand the new Google Analytics UI design and its functionalities.
I will suggest 2 books “A Car Dealer’s Guide to Google Analytics 4”,”Google Analytics 4: Taming the Beast”, if you want to learn Google Analytics 4 using eBooks.
Let’s move to the tutorial part.
How to get the GA4 tracking code?
In your Google Analytics Dashboard, click the Admin Menu on the bottom left corner of the Screen.
Select your website name in the Property section.
Then choose “Data Streams“.
Select your Website name, if it shows.
Then choose” View Tag Instructions” in the Google Tag section.
It will show 2 sections like “Install with a website builder or CMS”, and “Install manually”.
Choose the appropriate section. If you want to get the tracking code, choose “Install manually“.
Copy the tracking code and paste the code into the webpage file immediately after the <head> tag.
That’s all.
How to See the Website Traffic Sources, Visitors Information?
When you click the Report option on the left side of the screen, you will get a lot of sub-options.
There are 2 options that are very useful for everyone. They are “Acquisition” and “Engagement“.
Acquisition (To find where customers came from)
Acquisition has 2 main options ” User Acquisition” and “Traffic Acquisition”.
User Acquisition – You can find information like where new customers come from like Organic Google searches, social media platforms, referrals, or videos.
Traffic Acquisition – You can find both new and returning site visitor details.
Engagement (It gives you a quick glimpse into how your visitors interact with your site)
You can find the user’s actions when they land on your website page in the Engagement section.
Also if you run any paid advertisement campaigns like Google Ads, you can find which campaign works well and which landing page gets the most visitors. How much time they spend on your site in the Engagement -> Landing page section.
