What is Google Analytics and how does it work?

At Previous article of Apchar We talked about website analytics and explained why the information we get from analytics tools is critical to the success of our website. In this article, we are going to talk about one of the most popular website analysis tools, the Google Analytics service.

SEO and website optimization experts always advise site managers to use Google Analytics to analyze audience behavior and site performance. But many still do not know this service, or are not familiar enough with it.

Don't worry if you don't know analytics. Because you are not alone.
Most business owners and managers are not interested in becoming analysts. They are mostly looking to grow and develop their business.

And the website is usually an important part in the growth and development plans of companies. So how do you know if a website is headed in the right direction, or if it's failing?

Google Analytics reveals all the facts. But, where to start?

Here is the starting point: you need to know what Google Analytics is and how it works. So let's explore it further.

Get to know Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web analysis service that provides accurate and complete statistics about the activities performed on a website. Google introduces the analytics service on its website as follows:

"Analytics service helps you analyze visitor traffic and get a complete picture of your audience and their needs, according to where they are in the process of buying and becoming a customer."

Analytics uses cookie files on the user's computer, which store various information. These files aggregate and provide behavioral information about your site visitors. A full description of cookies is available on Google's website, which you can read to learn more about how they work.

Google Analytics is the most popular web analytics service
Do you want to know how popular the analytics service is? Take a look at these statistics compiled by MarketingLand:

Google Analytics is installed on more than 10 million websites.
About 60% of the world's top 10,000 websites use Google Analytics.
About 50% of the world's top 1 million websites use Google Analytics.

The reason why website owners use Analytics is not only because the service is free and popular, but also because of its reliability.

Using this service, you can get very valuable information about your website and its performance. Google has also designed this service in such a way that it is as simple and convenient as possible and beginners can use it easily.

How does Google Analytics work?

Google Analytics is a software that communicates with your site through a tracking code. This code is actually a JavaScript shortcode that is generated inside your analytics account. Something like this:

You need to get this tracking code from your analytics account and put it in the HTML code of your site. This tracking code should be placed inside all the pages you want to be analyzed.

Setting up Google Analytics is a simple task
You can easily set up and run the analytics service for your site. To do this, you need to do these three steps:

1- Enter the Google Analytics website and create an account for yourself.

2- Configure your account settings to track your website. Generate the analytics tracking code to be placed on your website or blog. Each of these steps has specific settings that Google will guide you step by step.

3- Place the tracking code on your website. This code, which is a unique code and is generated specifically for your site, should be included in your JavaScript code. The main task of collecting information and providing it to the analytics service is the responsibility of this tracking code.

Setting up Google Analytics is as simple as that.