Google Analytics for Bloggers

We’re halfway through the Digital Marketing class here at General Assembly. One of the biggest challenges in the class is tackling Google Analytics, which is a big, hairy, complex beast of a tool that can either overwhelm you or totally guide you.

If you are or aspire to be a digital marketer, then you must embrace the beast that is Google Analytics, and learn how to use it, piece by piece. Why? Because if you don’t measure it, you cannot manage it, and measuring your web site and marketing metrics is the foundation of digital marketing.

To get over the first big hump that greets most beginner bloggers, I wrote a series of posts for GA on connecting your blog to Google Analytics.

  1. How to setup a Google Analytics account – It’s not difficult, but not nearly as easy as getting a GMail account.
  2. How to connect your Blogger account to Google Analytics – You’d think that, since Google owns Blogger, Analytics would be automatic, but you’d be wrong. Blogger has its own “Stats” package, but the numbers are always different from Analytics.
  3. How to connect your WordPress site to Google Analytics – Manually or with a plugin, and I highly recommend the plugin method. Dirt simple.
  4. How to connect your Tumblr blog to Google Analytics – This one’s the easiest by far. A few navigational clicks and copy/paste.

I was also planning to write a similar post on connecting Medium to Google Analytics, but it would have been a very short post, because you just can’t. I talked to the folks at Medium, and they said they were working on a couple of things in that realm.

  1. Using Medium to blog on a custom domain, instead of medium.com/@yourname
  2. Building their own analytics tools to compete with Google Analytics

You kinda have to take what the folks at Medium say pretty seriously. One of the founders of Medium was a founder of Blogger before Google acquired Blogger, and then that same guy went on to build a little company called Twitter. You know him better as @ev.

Comments

Leave a comment

More from Kevin

  • What’s Your Ted Lasso Talent?

    What’s Your Ted Lasso Talent?

    Ever drive home and realize you have no memory whatsoever about driving home? You’re on auto-pilot, completely lost in your thoughts, yet successfully navigating your car in Atlanta (or wherever) traffic? Yeah, me too. Happened just the other day. When I got home, I went out into the yard to do some much needed yard…

  • Search + Rescue Graduation

    Search + Rescue Graduation

    From November through April, these state guard soldiers endured freezing cold temperatures, inclement weather, and the grueling topography of the north Georgia mountains around Dahlonega to earn what we commonly call “The SAR Tab”. It starts with the understanding that “Search is an emergency!” Everything that follows that mindset is part of the training to…

  • Consistency is King

    Consistency is King

    I used to say often, “Content is King.” Now I believe consistency is more important. Just like physical exercise: doesn’t matter how much you do, just show up and don’t put up a “0”. Do it. Last Tuesday, our weekly Bible study group completed our “season” of Bible study. Our season is generally the school…

  • Do Hard Things: Why?

    Do Hard Things: Why?

    “Do hard things.” I hear that a lot lately. Actually, that message has probably been pointed at me all my life, but I only started hearing it “lately”. My first instinct upon hearing those 3 words was, “why?” What’s your first gut reaction? Because my first question is “why?”, I pursued that question, and I…

  • Choose the Adventure

    Choose the Adventure

    Always choose the adventure. That’s a rule for me. Not that every decision has an adventure attached, but many do. When adventure is an option, choose the adventure. ✔️ 2001 – I chose the adventure of building a startup (CWNP) from $250. 13 years later, we were acquired by a P/E firm, and CWNP thrives…

  • I Heart Coffee

    I Heart Coffee

    I drink 30 oz of coffee every morning. That’s 2 servings from a Yeti rambler. Hot, black, and strong. My wife buys the Costco brand. It’s got an orangy-red label that I’ve never read, because I don’t care. I know a lot of people – my daughter comes to mind – who wouldn’t drink this…

  • Sharpen Your Axe

    Sharpen Your Axe

    There’s an old tale about a tree felling contest. The two contestants were charged with chopping down a large tree, and the contest was to be won or lost based on the time it took to chop the tree down with an axe. The first contestant was a young man of 24 years, 6’4″, 225lbs…

  • What’s Your Dream?

    What’s Your Dream?

    Is “The American Dream” dead & gone? Yes or no? Why? I’m a hard “no.” Here’s why. The American Dream, in the late 1800s and throughout most of the 20th century was something like this: * Move to America (or be born here)* Grow up in a community that you remember with fondness and joyful…

  • LV: The Forgotten Trade

    LV: The Forgotten Trade

    We had an intro/discovery call with a prospective low voltage client today. We do these calls all the time. Every call, just like every client, is completely different. This one was different because the client had a plan; an LV spec document. Wow. That’s rare indeed. The spec called for different colored Cat6 cables for…