Google Analytics is a free service from Internet giant Google. It allows webmasters to track information such as page views, traffic sources, pay per click performance, ecommerce tracking, conversion tracking and more detailed information such as the location of visitors and what browser they are using. It is an invaluable tool for those with an SEO campaign as amongst other things it allows you to see which search engine keywords are performing well or not and you can compare these against other keywords or traffic sources.

Also of interest are the conversion tracking and ecommerce tracking features. The conversion tracking allows you to track when visitors have filled out a contact form, signed up, completed an order, or anything else that you can define as a conversion. This way you can see, in addition to how many people have visited your website, how many have completed a certain action; generally the bigger the ratio of conversions to visitors the better. Ecommerce tracking allows the same benefits for purchases, but with much more detail. You can see which products are the most popular, how much revenue you have generated for a given period of time and how many items you have sold.

Tracking Code

To add the Google Analytics tracking code to your website, log in to your Analytics, go to Overview, select the individual account/website. Click Edit and on the next page click Check Status and a text box with the HTML code in it will appear. The code will look something like this:
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
     var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
// ]]></script>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
     try{ var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-x"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}
// ]]></script>

Copy this code into the HTML source of your website just above the closing </body> tag on every publically accessible page. This will allow Google Analytics to start reporting on data such as traffic sources, browser versions etc.

Conversion Tracking

Next you may want to set up conversion tracking. To do this click Edit next to the website profile. On this page you will see a “goals” section. Enter the name for the goal and a URL for this goal. An example might be the thank you page after a visitor has filled out a contact form. The conversion tracking code will look something like this:
<!– Google Code for purchase Conversion Page –>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
      var google_conversion_id = 000000001; var google_conversion_language = "en_GB"; var google_conversion_format = "1"; var google_conversion_color = "993333"; if (1) { var google_conversion_value = 1; } var google_conversion_label = "purchase";
// ]]></script>
<script src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<img height=1 width=1 border=0 src="http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1061401171/imp.gif?value=1&#038;label=purchase&#038;script=0">
</noscript>

Copy this into your HTML source code for the page you want to track and place it just above the normal tracking code for Google Analytics. Now whenever anyone goes to the page it will register as a conversion in Google Analytics and you will be able to track conversion rates and other data relating to it.

Ecommerce Tracking

Perhaps the most useful for an ecommerce site is the ecommerce tracking. This allows you to track in fine detail orders made through your website. The tracking code for ecommerce tracking should be placed on the page that the user is directed to after paying for their order. This is the first bit of code that should be entered:
pageTracker._addTrans(
"1534", // Order ID
"12 Road Street", // Affiliation/Address Line 1
"100", // Total
"15", // Tax
"3.50", // Shipping
"Liverpool", // City
"Merseyside", // State/County
"GB"// Country
);

This should be placed within the normal Google Analytics tracking code, under the line “pageTracker._trackPageview();”. Obviously it should be changed to reflect the order information; I have commented next to each line what information should be in it. Next, you will have to track each product that was in the order. The code looks like this:
pageTracker._addItem(
"1534", // Order ID
"PRODUCT1", // SKU (Product code)
"Product 1", // Product Name
"Products", // Category
"5.99", // Price
"5"// Quantity
);

Again this should be changed for each product and the values are commented for what information should be in them. This snippet should be repeated for each product and placed directly under the the main order information. Finally, under these product snippets, place this one last line of code:
pageTracker._trackTrans();

Now the ecommerce tracking should work.

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<!– Google Code for purchase Conversion Page –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>// <![CDATA[
var google_conversion_id = 1061401171; var google_conversion_language = "en_GB"; var google_conversion_format = "1"; var google_conversion_color = "993333"; if (1) { var google_conversion_value = 1; } var google_conversion_label = "purchase";
// ]]></script>
<script src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js”>
</script>
<noscript>
<img height=1 width=1 border=0 src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1061401171/imp.gif?value=1&label=purchase&script=0″>
</noscript>

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