How to Set Up Google Analytics Click Tracking In as Little as an Afternoon

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If you ever wondered how to track clicks for free using Google Analytics you've come to the right place. She looked at me squarely in the face and said, "I didn't touch the skittles cookies at all." So, I asked her to stretch out her tongue. A few seconds went by and it seems as if the wheels in her head started turning rapidly. What happened next I'll explain in a bit... Have you ever had a situation where you wished that you had sufficient evidence as to exactly what brought you success in your business? If you've struggled with tracking clicks using Google Analytics then you'll love this. Many years ago when I first started in the online world I was told that success depended on my ability to track everything. Does hearing that make you feel lazy? Lol!! I know that I felt super lazy to put tracking in place for everything. However, I have learned that if I cannot track it I might as well not be in business at all. Ever wondered how to set up an effective system to track potential buyers in your business for free? In this post, you will learn how to use free tools to set a system or even several systems that will enable you to track your successes effectively. What is Google Analytics? There are effectively two systems set up by Google to track organic traffic to your website. One is called Google Search Console and the other is Google Analytics. The main difference between the two systems is that Google Search Console tracks the traffic from search engines. Whereas Google Analytics tracks search engines, social media, email, direct and referral traffic. Sometimes you may see one segment called 'Other' because Google has not yet determined a name for the source of that traffic. Google Analytics may not be 100% accurate. However, it is the only free tool that offers traffic statistics that is almost correct and it is trusted by everyone in the industry. Because Google is the number one search engine platform in the world it would be difficult to trust another provider. How to Set Up Google Analytics For the purposes of this blog post I will only be focusing on setting up Google Analytics on a WordPress.org website. These same instructions would apply to a WordPress.com environment as well as I set one up for a client in the last few weeks. Step 1 Head over to your WordPress dashboard and click on 'Plugins' then go to 'Add new'. Step 2 Search for the 'GA Google Analytics' plugin by typing in the name. You will notice that there are several plugins on the market that can do this job. However, this plugin by Jeff Star has been proven to be very lightweight and it would not slow down your website or blog. Next head over to the settings area of this Google Analytics plugin and you should see these options. If you don't already have your Google Analytics (GA) tracking ID then you will need to get one. Step 3 Head over to analytics.google.com and login using your existing Google account. If you don't already have a Google account then this is a great time to create one. You will need to create a new account and property. Be sure to follow the instructions that you see on the screen after logging into GA. Step 4 Click on tracking info and Google will automatically assign you with a GA tracking ID. Grab it and put it somewhere safe for now. Step 5 Enter your tracking ID into the section called GA tracking ID in the settings section of your GA Google Analytics plugin. You will need to wait 24-48 hours for the data to populate into the dashboards. Also, if you have not already done so, take the time to set up your Google Search Console as well. It would make sense to use the same Google account for both also be sure to submit your site map after setting this up. Why Do you Need to Track Clicks Once everything is set up in Google Analytics the cli...