Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

Tracking your traffics is a key part of understanding and improving your website. Google Analytics is a free and easy tool to track your traffic and website statistics. Click here to read the post about Google Analytics.

There are 2 steps to getting started with Google Analytics – 1. set up an account at Google Analytics. 2. Add the tracking code to your website. Step 1 is easy. Step 2 can get a little tricky. In the past I have just added the analytics code to my wordpress theme, but then when I change the theme, I always forget to add the analytics code to the new theme.

A possible solution – A wordpress plugin for Google Analytics - Google Analyticator. The Google Analyticator is a plug that lets you add your google code once and it updates all of your templates for you. According to WordPress.org – 47,000+ people have already downloaded this plugin. I have installed it on this blog and a few others – so far so good.

Here are some other bloggers that have recommended this plugin:

• No Ordinary Homestead
• The Social Web Diva
• John Cow.com

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• Pingdom: 32% of the Top 500 Web Sites Use Google Analytics

Image by AlphachimpStudio via Flickr

Stats and tracking are one of the greatest things about a website.  While you aren’t able to see the specific people who are reading your blog you can use some tools to see things like

• how many people are reading
• what they are reading
• what they searched for to find you
• what links are refering readers to you
• where those reader live in the world

Google Analytics is a free service from Google that tracks these stats for you.

Here is how the blogger, Sargent Grumpy, describes Google Analytics:

It is a software tool that allows you to put a snippet of code on your blog so you can then track your Internet traffic – how many people are reading your posts, which are more popular, how people are finding you. All useful things to know when you are trying to drive traffic to your site.

Setting up Google Analytics is very easy.

1. register with google
2. add a line of code to your website
3. see your stats

Click here to see a detailed look at how to set up Google Analytics from the website Mahalo.

Some other info on Google Analytics:

• description of Google Analytics from Google help pages
• Official Google Analytics Blog

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• The Google Trifecta – The Purple Squirel looks at how you can use google tools to make more money with your website
• Tracking Reactions on the web – Common Craft looks at ways to track how people are following you on the web