KB User's Guide - Settings Tab - Google Analytics

In this document:

• Overview
• Setting up Google Analytics
  • Understand the difference between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4
• Finding your code snippets
• Navigating to the Settings section and applying code snippets
• Reviewing data within Google Analytics

Overview

Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources. It is intended for learning more about how people use your website.

This tool helps with tracking things like:

• Page views
• Time on site
• Bounce rates (how quickly someone is coming to the page and leaving)
• User journey flows
• New users vs returning users
• User demographics

Please note that support of this tool is limited within the Google and KnowledgeBase teams at DoIT.

For a full list of Google Analytics’ abilities, please see Google’s documentation.

Setting up Google Analytics

1. Navigate to Google Analytics
2. If you have already created an account, click Sign in.
   • It is recommended that you use an Office 365 Service (departmental) account for this purpose. For more information regarding Service Accounts, please refer to Office 365 - Getting Started with Service Accounts.
   • You would use that account to sign in
3. Once you have gone through your sign-up process and verified your account, you'll be directed to the starting steps for your Google Analytics. Click the Sign up button. The views and screens change often, so be sure to follow the on-screen steps set up your analytics account.
4. Enter in the Property details information: Name, time zone, and currency.
   
   
   
   Note: When setting up Google Analytics, by default you are presented with setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 presents new views and reporting functions for you to take advantage of, such as tracking Events such as clicks and file downloads, among others. You do have the opportunity to create both a UA and GA4 account at the same time, however it is recommended to work with Google Analytics 4 as the Universal Analytics properties will no longer be used for tracking data starting July 1, 2023.
   
   
5. Click Next.
6. Answer the Business information section, and click Create at the bottom of that screen.
7. The next screen presents you with the platform options for your  tracking data. For your website or Knowledgebase space, click the Web option.
8. You will be presented with the options to create the Data Stream - enter the website URL and give the data stream a name, as well as reviewing the various measuring options that could exist within this data stream. At the bottom, click Create stream.
   
   
   
   
9. The Web stream details screen will provide you with the Measurement ID value, as well as options for installing the code into your site.

Finding your code snippets

Now that you have set up your Google Analytics account(s), you can get the appropriate code snippets to put into your Knowledge Base Admin area. It is important to know which account you want to use so that you access the appropriate code snippet. To change views between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics accounts:

1. Click on the Accounts section in the upper right corner of your screen.
   

   

2. Select the account that you want to access, either Google Analytics 4 or Universal Analytics. Remember GA4 stands for Google Analytics 4.
   
   

Google Analytics 4

To access your Google Analytics 4 code snippet:

1. Click on the Admin cog at the bottom left of your screen
2. Under the Property column, click on Data Streams
   
   
   
   
3. In the next screen, click on the Data Stream that you want the code snippet for.
4. In the next screen, find the Tagging Instructions section, and click to expand the Add new on-page tag section.
   
   
5. Highlight and copy the code snippet displayed.

Navigating to the Settings section and applying code snippets

Once you have copied your desired code snippet, follow these steps to apply it to your KB space.

1. Navigate to the KB admin area, and click on the Settings tab at the top of your screen.
   
   
   
   
2. Here, click on the Google Tracking on the left menu section
   
   
   
   
3. You have the opportunity to track both Internal and External data. Click in the appropriate drop down section based on the code snippet that you are going to use, and paste in the code that you have copied from Google Analytics. Be sure to check the box for enabling the site tag for your chose section.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Update button.

Reviewing data within Google Analytics

Once you have added your code snippet for Google Analytics, you can follow these steps to check if the data is being collected using real time views.

Google Analytics 4

1. To test this yourself, open a browser window in Private or Incognito (somewhere you are not logged into the KB Admin view) and open your KB web space (kb.wisc.edu/your-space/)
2. Navigate to Google Analytics and click on the Reports menu item on the left, and select Realtime.
   
   
3. If you have set up the code correctly, you should see at least 1 user viewing your site within minutes of applying the code snippet.
   
   

Universal Analytics

1. To test this yourself, open a browser window in Private or Incognito (somewhere you are not logged into the KB Admin view) and open your KB web space (kb.wisc.edu/your-space/)
2. Navigate to Google Analytics and click on the Realtime menu item on the left, and select Overview.
   
   
   
   
3. If you have set up the code correctly, you should see at least 1 user viewing your site within minutes of applying the code snippet.