Google Analytics is a powerful tool that churches can utilize to gather valuable information pertaining to the reach and effectiveness of their website.
Creating a church website is your first step in growing your online presence. It is likely that those who walk through your doors for the first time on Sunday have already visited your church website.
These days, we probably don’t have to do much more to convince you how important your website can be. So now let’s take it one step further and talk about how important utilizing Google Analytics can be to having a more effective website and a better understanding of your reach.
Google Analytics allows you to track who is looking at your website, where they are from, where they enter the website, where they leave the website, how long they stay on each page, and much more! These insights can help inform you on what your users are looking for and how to adjust to better meet their needs.
Step 1: Sign Up With Google Analytics
First, you’ll need to sign up on the Google Analytics site. Sign in or Sign up to get started. One of the best things about Google Analytics is that it is free to use!
Be sure to fill in the “Account Name” for your new Google Analytics account. You will see some data sharing options under “Account Data Sharing Settings.” By default, all four Data Sharing settings are selected. You can read the description for each setting to decide if you would like to opt-out. When you’re ready, click Next.
Step 2: Set Up Your Property
Each website you choose to add to Google Analytics is a property.
On the Property Setup screen, fill in the following details:
- Property Name: Enter a name for your property, such as your site title.
- Reporting Time Zone: Choose the timezone you want the reporting of your website to be in.
- Currency: Choose the currency of the location you normally operate in.
On the next screen, fill in your business information and click Create:
Lastly, a pop-up will appear with “Google Analytics Terms of Service Agreement” and “Additional Terms Applicable to Data Shared with Google”. You will need to click the checkbox for both and accept the terms to continue.
Step 3: Connecting Your Church Website to Google Analytics
You will then be presented with this screen asking you to choose a platform:
Choose Web and insert your website’s domain. Make sure to keep https:// selected. Type something in the Stream Name box (this can be your site’s title again) and click Create Stream.
Get Your Measurement ID
After following the steps in the previous section, you will be presented with this screen that provides you with your Measurement ID.
Click the copy icon next to your Measurement ID to copy it to your clipboard.
On Your WebSite
Copy the measurement ID and go to Tools → Marketing → Traffic.
Paste the entire ID you copied from the Google Analytics site into the “Google Analytics Measurement ID” box. After you click “Save Settings” your site will be connected to Google Analytics and start sending data to Google. (Sometimes this can take 24-48 hours to activate)
What’s Next?
We know this process can be a little tricky to ensure each step is done correctly. At Torrch we happily help all our clients connect their websites to Google Analytics so they can reap the benefits of tracking valuable statistics and optimizing their sites.
So now what? You have all this information at the tip of your fingers, what do you do with it? Check out our guide to the basics of church website analytics here!