Google makes available a variety of essential services and features, one of which allows for the creation of a Google Business Profile as well as website performance tracking with Google Analytics. These services can aid in reaching more customers, improving marketing campaigns, and gaining valuable information on the activity of users. This document will assist you to create a google business profile and link up Google Analytics for effective website tracking.
Create your Google business profile
The first stage to consider before interacting with Google Analytics is registering an account with Google. Here is what you need to do:
Sign up for a Google account
- Go to the page where accounts can be created, then click on “Create account”
- Fill out the appropriate fields: name, email address, password, phone number, recovery email and date of birth.
- A code will be sent to your phone in the form of an OTP. Enter that together with the phone verification code to be progressed further.
- Review and consent to Google’s terms and conditions to complete the process.
Adding the business on Google
- After setting up an account with Google, you will be prompted to input your business information.
- Click on Add your business to Google, then give them your business name, category, and address.
- If you have a location, tick Yes for the question, Do you want customers to visit your business location. Otherwise tick No if your business is online only.
- Fill in the phone number and email address for your business.
Verification Process
- Google will send a postcard with a verification code to your business address which creates a second level of verification. This step verifies your business resides at the address given.
- After receiving the postcard, enter the verification code into your Google business profile and your account will be verified. Your business will now show on Google, but not until that happens.
Setting Up Google For Your Business
Once your Google business profile is up, the next step is to create a Google Analytics account to track your website visits and activity. Below, we break down how to get started.
Set up your Google Analytics Account.
- Go to the Google Analytics page and click Start measuring.
- Enter the necessary information; account name, property name (your website name), time zone, currency, industry category, and business size.
Implement the Global Site Tag
- Work together with your developer in adding the GTag to the head section of your website’s HTML code. This serves as proof of ownership of the website and permits Google Analytics to start monitoring the pages of the site.
- Click on “Create” and after accepting the terms and conditions, you will be ready to set up your data stream.
- Google will provide you with a GTag, a code snippet which you will need to insert in your website. 4. You will have to re-install the Global Site Tag to be able to create stream.
- Choose “Web” to set up a new data stream for the site.
Set Stream Data
- Provide the name of your website and your URL, then select “Create Stream”.
Monitor your Website Data
- Google Analytics allows telling exactly how much users access your site and monitor the growth rate. You can check the activity of the users like traffic and page views on a minute basis.
Now that Google Analytics has been setup, monitoring and analyzing critical metrics of a specific website can already be done. Following are some of the top benefits:
Understand User Actions
- Using important metrics like bounce rate (the number of single-page viewers), you gain insights on user activity and identify areas for improvement to your site.
Identify Sources Of Traffic
- Google Analytics demonstrates where your traffic is coming from, be it organic, paid, social media, or direct. This assists you in determining which campaigning efforts are successful.
Assess Campaign Success
- Keep track of your paid campaigns and improve them in correlation to the ROI received. Google Analytics assists in monitoring your campaigns through conversion rate and visitor interaction with your site.
Track Customer Activity
- Record the amount of times a viewer comes back to your site. Google Analytics provides information on user retention for daily, weekly, and monthly visits which assists in understanding customer retention rate.
Regional Data
- Identify sites of your visitors. This helps you focus your marketing initiatives in certain regions and put more effort in the right places.
Final Thoughts:
Creating a Google Business account alongside Google Analytics is crucial for the growth of a business on the internet. These tools help you not only increase your presence on Google, but also provides detailed information on the traffic to your website and what users do on it. Using Google Analytics, you can sharpen your marketing strategies, evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns, and make data-driven decisions that foster growth for the business.
These Google tools can give you a competitive edge and greater insight into your customers, whether you have a physical store, an online business, or both.
