Setting Up Google Analytics – A Walkthrough For Photographers

Ever wondered how you can get more clients to hire you? The answer is simple: Have more consultations. And to get more consultations you just need more inquiries. And to get more inquiries you just need more people to visit your contact form. And to get more people to visit your contact form you only need more people to visit your website. And to get more people on your website, all you have to do is get better at SEO and social media. But the key to all of this is knowing your numbers and tracking them carefully! If you don’t know these numbers, it is going to be really hard to determine what you can do to increase them! Enter Google Analytics. I’m guessing you’ve probably at least heard of Google Analytics. If not, you can head over to their website and learn everything you need to know! Setting up Google Analytics is pretty straightforward, but customizing it to give you the best information (the stuff important to the funnel I described above) takes a few extra steps. In this post, I’m going to outline the steps you need to take to set up Google Analytics for your photography website. We’ll get through step 1, then I’ll dig deep on the other steps in separate posts. First, we’ll get the code installed. Second we’ll create a filtered view to weed out referral spam. Then we’ll set up goals so we can make sure the website is doing its job. Finally, we will set up a custom dashboard to have all the right information at our fingertips.

Getting the Google Analytics Code

Head on over to google.com/analytics… After you click sign up, fill out the basic information and click “Get Tracking ID.” Accept the terms of service. At that point, you should come to a page with your tracking code. THAT WAS EASY!! If you’re using WordPress, just copy that code and move on to the next step! Some other platforms might require you to copy the tracking ID (mine is blurred out in the image above)… but it’s all on the same page!

Installing Google Analytics On WordPress

Almost ALL WordPress themes will have a section where you can easily paste your Google Analytics code. Some will be clearly labeled for Google Analytics, and some might say something like “insert this code into the head of every page.” If you can’t find a section like that on your WordPress theme, no worries! There are about a gazillion plugins that will allow you to easily enter your tracking code. Pick one and install it! Easy Peezy. If you still have problems, join the Fuel Your Photos Facebook Group and let me know how I can help!

Setting Up Google Analytics on Squarespace

If you’re using Squarespace, basically all you need to do is paste the Tracking ID in the right place. I’m a WordPress guy myself (still love Squarespace, just don’t have an account at the time), so here is a link to the official help document (its very easy to follow). If that doesn’t help, just do a Google search for “Setting up Google Analytics on Squarespace” and you’ll get a plethora of great tutorials!

Setting Up Google Analytics Everywhere Else

I know there are a million website builders out there, and I don’t have experience with all of them. Here are some links to a few other popular website platforms for photographers. Showit Zenfolio Photobiz BigFolio And of course, if you are using something else and need to find out how to set it up, a Google search for “setting up Google Analytics with [your platform]” will probably get you everything you need!

Setting Up A Filtered View

By default, when you look at your analytics, you’ll see “All Web Site Data.” Unfortunately, there are some really annoying spammers who make that data less than accurate. In fact, the real traffic is often DRASTICALLY different than all website data! Here is a screenshot from my filtered vs. non-filtered views for last month. Ready to get started? Its not a walk in the park, but I’ll try to make it as easy as possible for you! Since there are so many steps I broke it out into its own post. Setting up a filtered view in Google Analytics to get rid of referral spam.

Setting Goals

Setting goals is great way to know if your visitors are doing the things you want them to do on your site. There are SO many different applications for goals but my FAVORITE is tracking how many people filled out the contact form! I mean everytime someone fills out my contact form I just want to do this: Maybe that’s just me? lol. Here is the post that goes more into detail about setting goals.

Setting Up A Custom Dashboard

When you log into Google Analytics, it can be a little overwhelming. There is so much great information, but it requires some digging to find everything you need! Sometimes you just want to get in and see a quick overview so you can know where you stand on your goals. In this post, I write about exactly which widgets you should add and how to set them up for the perfect photographers analytic dashboard! Now, when you look at your Google Analytics, you can quickly see where you stand, without having to dig through all the data! If you’re still having problems, feel free to leave a comment below or you can join the Fuel Your Photos Facebook Group and let me know how I can help!