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How to Add a Website to My Google Analytics Account

Cody Schneider•

Ready to see who’s visiting your website, what pages they love, and where they’re coming from? Setting up Google Analytics is the first step to unlocking those powerful insights. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add your website to Google Analytics, even if you’ve never touched a line of code or opened a reporting tool before.

First, Why Even Bother with Google Analytics?

Before jumping into the setup, let’s quickly touch on why this is so important. Google Analytics is a free and incredibly powerful tool that acts like an answer machine for your website. It helps you understand your audience and their behavior so you can make smarter decisions instead of just guessing.

With it, you can answer questions like:

  • How many people are visiting my site? Track daily, weekly, and monthly traffic trends.

  • Where are my visitors coming from? See if your traffic is coming from Google search, social media, email newsletters, or other websites.

  • What content is most popular? Identify your top-performing blog posts, landing pages, and products.

  • What are my visitors doing? Learn which pages they visit first, how long they stay, and where they leave your site.

  • Are my marketing efforts working? Measure the exact impact of your Facebook ads, Google Ads campaigns, or SEO work.

Installing it is a one-time setup that pays dividends for years. It’s the foundation of any data-driven marketing or business strategy.

Before You Start: A Quick Checklist

You only need two things to get started:

  1. A Google Account. If you use Gmail, YouTube, or Google Drive, you already have one. If not, you can create one for free.

  2. Access to your website’s backend. You’ll need to add a small snippet of code to your site. Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds, and for many platforms like WordPress or Shopify, it’s just a copy-and-paste job.

Got those? Perfect. Let’s get you set up.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your Google Analytics 4 Account

We’ll be setting up Google Analytics 4, which is the latest version. The process involves creating an account, a “property” for your website, and a “data stream” to collect the information.

1. Create Your Google Analytics Account

First, head over to the Google Analytics website and click “Start measuring.” You’ll be prompted to sign in with your Google account.

The first screen is “Account creation.” Think of the Account as the highest-level folder, which can contain multiple properties (websites or apps).

  • Account name: Enter your business name, like “My Awesome Company.”

  • Account Data Sharing Settings: These settings give you control over how your data is shared with Google. You can leave these as the recommended defaults and click Next.

2. Create Your Property

A “Property” represents your website or app. If you have multiple websites, you could create a different property for each one under the same account.

  • Property name: Enter the name of your website. Something like “My Website (mywebsite.com)” is a good practice.

  • Reporting time zone: Select the time zone your business operates in. This is important for ensuring reports align with your business day.

  • Currency: Select the currency you use for your business (e.g., US Dollar). Click Next.

On the next screen, Google will ask for some optional information about your business. You can fill this out to get more tailored benchmark reports later, but it’s not required. Select your industry, business size, and how you intend to use Google Analytics. Then click Create and accept the terms of service.

3. Set Up Your Data Stream

A “Data Stream” is the source of data for your property. Since you’re adding a website, your source will be the web.

  • Choose your platform: You’ll see three options here: Web, Android App, and iOS App. Click on Web.

  • Set up your web stream:

    • Website URL: Enter your website’s address (e.g., mywebsite.com). Make sure to select https:// from the dropdown.

    • Stream name: Give it a descriptive name, like “My Website Stream.”

“Enhanced measurement” should be enabled by default. Leave it on—it automatically tracks common user interactions like page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, and downloads for you, which is a huge timesaver.

Click Create stream.

Success! You now have a Google Analytics 4 property and data stream. A new screen will pop up showing your “Web stream details,” including your Measurement ID which starts with “G-”. This ID is a unique identifier for your data stream, and you’ll need it shortly.

Installing the Google Analytics Tracking Code on Your Website

Now that your GA4 property is ready, you need to connect it to your website. You do this by adding its tracking code to your site. This code is a small JavaScript snippet that runs on every page, collecting data and sending it back to your Google Analytics account. There are a few ways to do this, ranging from super easy to slightly more technical.

Method 1: The Easy Way (Using a CMS Plugin or Integration)

If you use a popular platform like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix, this is the simplest method. Most of these platforms have built-in integrations or plugins that do the heavy lifting for you.

For WordPress Websites:

The easiest option is to use a plugin like Google’s official Site Kit or others like MonsterInsights. With these, you just install the plugin, follow its setup wizard to connect your Google Account, and it will automatically find your GA4 property and add the code. There’s zero code editing required.

Alternatively, many WordPress themes have a specific field in their settings/customizer where you can paste your Measurement ID (the “G-XXXXXXXXXX” string). Just copy the ID from your data stream details and paste it there.

For Shopify Stores:

Shopify has a native Google Analytics integration.

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.

  2. Scroll down to the “Google Analytics” section.

  3. Paste your entire Global Site Tag (gtag.js) into the box. To find this, in GA go to your Data Stream details, scroll down to “View tag instructions,” and copy the full code snippet.

  4. Click Save.

Method 2: For Most Users (Using Google Tag Manager)

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the recommended method for anyone who might want to add other tracking codes later (like a Facebook Pixel or a LinkedIn Insight Tag). It acts as a container for all your tags, so you only have to add one piece of code (the GTM container) to your website, and then you can manage everything else from the GTM interface without ever touching your website’s code again.

The basic steps are:

  1. Create a free Google Tag Manager account and set up a container for your site.

  2. Install the GTM container code on your website (this is a one-time step).

  3. Inside GTM, create a new tag. Choose the “Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration” tag type.

  4. In the “Measurement ID” field, paste your GA4 Measurement ID (“G-XXXXXXXXXX”).

  5. Set the “Triggering” to “All Pages.” This tells GTM to fire the GA4 tag on every single page of your website.

  6. Save, and then click “Submit” to publish your changes.

This method separates your tag management from your website development, giving you much more freedom and control as a marketer.

Method 3: The Manual Way (Pasting gtag.js into your HTML)

If you’re comfortable editing your website’s HTML source code or don’t use a CMS, you can add the tracking code manually. This method is straightforward but requires direct code access.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Go to your Google Analytics account. Find your data stream details (Admin > Data Streams > Click your stream).

  2. Scroll down and click “View tag instructions”.

  3. Under the “Install manually” tab, you will see a JavaScript code snippet. It starts with <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->.

  1. Copy this entire code block.

  2. Paste it immediately after the opening <head> tag on every single page of your website. If you use a template or a single header file, you only need to paste it once there.

Heads up: Be very careful when editing your site’s code. If you make a mistake, you can break your website’s layout or functionality. Always keep a backup before making changes.

Final Step: Verify That It’s Working!

With the tracking code installed, the final step is to make sure it’s actually collecting data. Google Analytics has a fantastic feature for this called the “Realtime” report.

  1. Open your Google Analytics dashboard.

  2. On the left navigation menu, go to Reports > Realtime.

  3. Now, open your own website in a new browser tab or on your phone.

  4. Switch back to the Realtime report page. You should see at least “1” in the “Users in last 30 minutes” card.

You can even see “Views by Page title” to confirm which page you are on. If you see your activity, congratulations! You have successfully installed Google Analytics on your website. It can take up to 24–48 hours for regular reports to start populating, but the Realtime view confirms the connection is live.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations! Setting up Google Analytics is a foundational step in understanding your website’s performance. By creating an account and placing that small piece of tracking code on your site, you’ve unlocked a treasure trove of data that will help you understand your audience and grow your business.

Getting the data flowing is the first step, but the real challenge is turning that data into clear, actionable insights without spending all day lost inside the GA4 interface. That’s why we built Graphed. After easily connecting your new Google Analytics account, you can simply ask questions in plain English, like “Show me my top 10 landing pages by sessions last month” or “create a dashboard comparing traffic from Google vs. Facebook,” and get instant dashboards and reports. We help you skip the learning curve and go straight from data to decisions.