Tracking website traffic using Google Analytics 4

Overview

Google is introducing a new tracking service called Google Analytics 4 that will eventually replace the current version called Universal Analytics. You can continue to use the version along with the new one. If you're new to tracking website traffic using Google, you'll only have the option of using the new version.

Instructions for third-party services like this are provided as a courtesy and may contain out of date information or screen clips. For the latest instructions, click here.

Setting up Google Analytics 4

To use Google Analytics, you need both a Google account and a Google Analytics account. Both are provided free of charge by Google.

If you already have an Analytics account, follow the steps below. If you don't have an Analytics account, click here.

If you already have an Analytics account

1. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics. 
2. Click Sign in to Analytics.
   
3. Sign into your Google account.
4. Within the banner at the top announcing the end of Universal Analytics, click Let's go.
   
5. From the Property Setup Assistant, click the Getting Started button under I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property.
   
6. From the popup window that appears, click Create and continue.
   
7. From the Installation instructions screen, click Install manually.
   
8. From the Install manually tab, click the icon to copy the tag code.
   
9. Paste the copied code into a text file and save the file somewhere.
10. Click the Done button and proceed to the Adding the tag code to WildApricot section (below).
    

If you don't already have an Analytics account

1. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics. 
2. Click Get started today.
   
3. Sign into your Google account.
4. From the Analytics welcome screen, click Start measuring.
   
5. On the Account setup page, you choose an account name, which can be any identifier you want.
   
6. Under Account Data Sharing Settings, choose whether you wish to share your analytics data with Google then click Next to continue.
7. On the Property details screen, enter a property name, set your time zone, and choose your currency then click Next to continue.
   
8. On the next screen, select your industry and business size then click Create.
   
9. Accept the Analytics Terms of Service and the Data Processing Amendment.
10. Choose the types of emails you want to receive then click Save.
11. Under Choose a platform, click Web.
    
12. On the Start collecting data screen, enter the URL of the site you want to track, give your stream a name, and choose the interactions you want to track then click the Create stream button.
    
13. From the Installation instructions screen, click Install manually.
    
14. From the Install manually tab, click the icon to copy the tag code.
    
15. Paste the copied code into a text file and save the file somewhere.
16. Proceed to the Adding the tag code to WildApricot section (below).

Adding the tag code to WildApricot

Once you've copied the tag code from Google Analytics, you can insert the code into your WildApricot website using the following instructions:

1. Select Website in the admin sidebar menu.
2. Select Settings in the far right corner of the top menu.
3. Select Global JavaScript under Site settings. 
4. On the Global JavaScript screen, paste the tag code from Google Analytics. If there are other scripts already there, be careful not to overwrite any of them.
5. Click Save.
6. Return to Google Analytics, reload or refresh the page, and check the tracking status.

It may take up to 48 hours for Google to activate the tag code. The traffic recorded by Google Analytics tends to be 3-4 hours in the past, so when you first set it up, you'll likely see no traffic at all.