How to set up Google Analytics on your website

Google Analytics setup comes down to three tasks: you create an Analytics account and a property, add a data stream and connect your website. A data stream carries your website's data into that property. What your website is built with decides how to set up Google Analytics on it, because you connect it with a plugin, a setting in your website builder or a short piece of code. Then you check that your own visit shows up in the Realtime report. Google Analytics is free to use, and you'll need a Google account and access to your website, or to the tool you built it with. If your visitors are in the UK, we recommend asking for their consent before Google Analytics tracks them.

Create a Google Analytics account and property

Inside Google Analytics, the account is the container for your properties, and each property holds the reports built from the data your website sends. For a single website, start with one account and one property. If you run more than one website, you can give each its own property, so their data stays separate.

You create both at Google Analytics, signed in with your Google account:

1. Go to analytics.google.com.
2. If you're new to Google Analytics, click Start measuring.
3. If you already use Google Analytics, go to Admin, click Create and select Account instead.
4. Give the account a name and choose which data you share with Google.
5. Click Next to add the first property to your account.
6. Name the property and choose your reporting time zone and currency.
7. Click Next and select your industry category and business size.
8. Click Next and choose how you intend to use Google Analytics.
9. Click Create, then accept the Analytics Terms of Service and Google's Data Processing Amendment.

Your answer in step 8 shapes the reports you see first, so pick the objectives that fit what you want to learn.

Add a data stream for your website

Without a data stream, your property receives no data and your reports stay empty. A website sends its data through a web stream, and once you've created the property, Google moves you on to this step.

1. If you come back to the property later, go to Admin, click Data streams under Data collection and modification, then Add stream.
2. Choose Web.
3. Enter the address of your website and a name for the stream.
4. Leave enhanced measurement on, so page views and other events are collected automatically.
5. Click Create stream.

Ask UK visitors for consent before you track them

Your visitors need to know about Google Analytics before it collects anything, and a cookie banner is the usual way to tell them. In the UK, the ICO, which oversees the cookie rules, says you must tell visitors which cookies you use and what they do, and get their clear, active consent first, unless an exception applies. Cookies that are essential for a service the visitor asked for, such as a shopping basket, are one exception. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 brought changes to these rules, and the ICO's guidance on storage and access technologies, finalised on 29 April 2026, also describes a narrow exception for analytics. It only applies when you use the data as statistics to improve your website, not to track individual visitors or for advertising, and when your analytics provider acts only on your behalf. You also have to tell visitors about it and give them a simple, free way to object.

Unless you're sure your setup meets all of those conditions, we recommend asking for consent and putting your cookie banner in place before you connect your site. On our classic drag-and-drop builder, you can switch on the built-in consent banner. On WordPress and other platforms, a tool such as Termly manages cookie consent for you. Whichever you use, check in its settings that it holds Google Analytics back until the visitor accepts analytics cookies.

How to add Google Analytics to your website

You add Google Analytics to your website by linking it to the data stream you just created, with either the stream's Measurement ID or its Google tag. The Measurement ID is your data stream's ID, starting with G-, and you paste it into a plugin or a website builder's settings. The Google tag is the snippet of code that connects your website to Google Analytics, and it goes into the code of your pages. Which one you use depends on what your site is built with: where your platform offers a ready-made route, use it, and add the code yourself only when it doesn't.

Connect a WordPress site with Site Kit

On WordPress, the simplest route is Google's own plugin for WordPress. It connects your Google account to WordPress and sets up Google's tools without you editing your site's code.

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for Site Kit by Google.
3. Install and activate the plugin.
4. Connect Site Kit to your Google account.
5. Open the new Site Kit menu and follow the setup flow.
6. Connect Analytics under Site Kit > Settings, if the setup flow didn't already do it.

Other plugins and manual methods work too, and you'll find them in our guide to installing Google Analytics on WordPress, where we also explain when you need the Measurement ID or the code.

Site Kit is one more plugin to look after. Our Hosting for WordPress keeps WordPress, your theme and your plugins up to date automatically every day, and checks each update to make sure your site still looks right.

Connect a site builder with your Measurement ID

Many website builders and shop systems have a Google Analytics field where you paste your Measurement ID, so there's no code involved. You find the ID in Google Analytics:

1. In Google Analytics, go to Admin and click Data streams under Data collection and modification.
2. Click the data stream for your website.
3. Under Stream details, copy the Measurement ID. It starts with G-.

Then paste the ID into your builder's analytics or tracking setting and publish your site, so the change goes live. On our classic drag-and-drop builder, the ID goes into your website settings, and our help article explains how to add Google Analytics to a site on our classic drag-and-drop builder and which plans include it.

Connect any other website with the Google tag

If your platform has no field for the Measurement ID, add the Google tag to your pages yourself:

1. Make sure you can edit the HTML of your web pages, or ask your web developer to do these steps.
2. In Google Analytics, go to Admin and click Data streams under Data collection and modification.
3. Click Web, then the data stream for your website.
4. Under Google tag, click View tag instructions.
5. Select Install manually and copy the whole Google tag, from <!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> to the closing </script>.
6. Paste the tag immediately after the <head> tag on each page of your website. On a website builder or shop system, use its custom HTML feature instead.

Check that Google Analytics is working

The quickest check is the Realtime report, which shows activity on your website as it happens. Your own visit only counts if you accept analytics cookies in your own cookie banner.

1. Open your website in one browser tab.
2. In another tab, sign in to Google Analytics and pick the right account and property.
3. Select Reports in the menu on the left.
4. Click Realtime and look among the active users for your own visit.

Data collection can take up to 30 minutes to begin, and on a new installation your data can take up to 24 hours to show in the Realtime report, so give it time after you connect your site. If nothing shows up there after a day, check your installation: the Google tag belongs on every page, and a change in a website builder only goes live once you publish. Your other reports are slower, as many of them can take 24 to 48 hours to process your data.

How to use Google Analytics once it is set up

Once data comes in, the Reports menu is where you start. If it looks different from the screenshots in other guides, one reason is that it follows the objectives you chose when you created the property.

The Acquisition reports show where your visitors come from, grouped into channels such as:

• Direct: visitors who typed your address or used a saved link.
• Organic Search: visitors who clicked a link in the search results that wasn't an ad.
• Referral: visitors who clicked a link to your site on another website.

Knowing which channels bring you visitors tells you where your target audience finds you, and so where your time and money are best spent.

The Engagement reports show what visitors do once they arrive. The Pages and screens report shows which pages they open on your website, which makes it a good starting point for a content audit. If you sell online, the Monetisation reports show the revenue your website brings in.

Read together, these reports follow the stages of a marketing funnel: how people find you, what they do on your site and whether they buy. The stage where most visitors drop out is usually the first place to work on your conversion rate.

If your site is built with our classic drag-and-drop builder and you'd rather have an expert use these reports to bring in more visitors from search, we can help with your SEO. Our SEO service covers content improvements, link building and technical fixes, and you get a performance update every month.