How do I setup Google Analytics on my Storefront?

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What is Google Analytics and why do I need it?

Creating a Google Account (If you don't already have one)

Adding a Domain in Google Analytics

Adding the Code to your Store

Enabling E-Commerce Tracking


What is Google Analytics and why do I need it?

In order to market effectively to your audience you must know the following information:

Who is looking at your storefront?
Where are they coming from?
What are they purchasing?
Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that allows you access to detailed statistics about your website's traffic. It will show you important information that will help you be more effective in marketing your Homestead Storefront powered by Bigcommerce to your target audience online.

After successfully setting up Google Analytics with your Homestead Storefront powered by Bigcommerce you will know:

How many people are viewing your website (daily, weekly, monthly)
What pages they are viewing
What search engine/website from which they were referred
What your conversion rate is. (The conversion rate is determined by the ratio between your sales and visitors.)
Click here to view an example of a statistics report.

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Creating a Google Account

1.) Go to the Google Analytics homepage: http://www.google.com/analytics.
2.) Click on the Create an account link on the right side of the page.



3.) You will be prompted to Sign In to your Google Account. If you already have a Google account, you can sign in and skip to the next section. Otherwise, choose Sign Up.


4.) Fill out the Create an Account form.


5.) Once you have entered in the required form fields, Please read the Terms of Service and then check the box labeled I agree to the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and click Next step.


6.) You will then be asked to check your email inbox for the account verification message.


7.) Check your inbox, and click the verification email to activate your Google account.

8.) You will then be taken to a welcome page where you choose Back to Google Analytics.


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Adding a Domain to Google Analytics

1.) Go to Google Analytics homepage and click on Sign In.


2.) If you've already signed into your Google account, you should see this. Click on Sign up. (If not, you may have to login to your google account first.)


3.) You will be asked what you want to track. Choose Web Site.


4.) You will also select a tracking method. You can choose either, but for our purposes the Classic Analytics is all that is necessary.


5.) Now, name the domain you are adding, and put in the URL for it (make sure to only include the www.domain.com portion). You can also add your industry and time zone.

6.) Now, name your account and decide whether you want to share your analytics or not. Click Get Tracking ID.


7.) The Google Analtyics Terms of Service should appear in a pop-up. Read the terms and if you choose to proceed, click I Accept.


8.) You should now be brought to your Analytics page where you can see your Tracking ID.


9.) We recommend using the Traditional Code for Google Analytics. To find this code, go to this site, and copy the block of code like you see below (we do not keep a copy here in case of any code updates that Google may make to its script). You will need to replace the highlighted portion with your tracking ID found on your Analytics page in step #8.


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Adding the Code to your Store

1.) Login to your store's control panel.
2.) Click on Apps and then Analytics.


3.) Check the box next to Google Analytics and click Save.


4.) Now, click on the new Google Analytics tab.


5.) Paste the code from the previous section and click Save.

Now, you should be set up to track your store's traffic with Google Analytics. If you want to set up your store to use the conversion tracking, please follow the instructions in the next step to set up your domain as an e-commerce site.

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Enabling E-Commerce Tracking

You can easily track sales conversion with Google E-Commerce tools within Google Analytics! Just follow the simple steps below.

1.) Login to your Google Analytics account.

2.) Click on Admin in the top-right corner.


3.) Click the account you want to manage.


4.) In the Profiles tab, click on the Property you want to setup (in most cases, your site name).


5.) Now, click on Profile Settings.


6.) Make sure to set the default page to index.php.
7.) Select Yes, an E-Commerce site.
8.) Then, click Apply.

That is all that you need to do to setup Google Analytics E-commerce tracking. Homestead Storefront powered by Bigcommerce automatically creates the code needed to track each transaction.

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