Using Google Analytics with Actinic Express

[G.W.Green]

Google Analytics is a free web analytics package that enables you to monitor the behaviour of visitors on your web site, track the effectiveness of your sales and marketing strategies, and measure the performance of your site.

To be able to use Google Analytics you will need a Google Account. If you already have a Google Account you can use it. If not you can sign up for one free at https://google.com/accounts/. From within your Google Account you will need to sign up for Google Analytics.

After creating your Google Analytics account, you will need to create a new Website Profile, for which you will be required to enter your website domain. This is the first part of the address that customers use to access your online shop. It could be an Actinic Express (default) domain, or a domain name you have purchased (or already owned). You must include everything from the http:// up to and including the .com, .org, .co.uk or whatever Top Level Domain (TLD) your site uses.
The following table shows some example URL’s and what you will need to enter into Google Analytics:-

Once you have entered your URL you will be given the tracking code for your web site. You do not need to use all of this, because we have already built the basic code into the Actinic Express system. You will need to find and make a note of your Google Analytics ID which is within the code and looks like this: UA-3674634-6. The images below use this example ID for illustration - you will need to find the ID for your own site.

Once you have your Google Analytics ID you need to enter it into your Actinic Express store. To do this, go to your Actinic Express store Admin and find ‘Google Analytics Settings’ which is within the ‘Marketing’ menu: -

Enter your Google Analytics ID into the box provided, and click 'Apply'.

It will take up to 24 hours before you see any data in Google Analytics as although data is sent continuously it is only processed once a day by Google.

NB you can set up multiple Website Profiles within your Google Analytics account, either for multiple websites, or to generate different sets of reports on the same site. Each site will be allocated a different ID.