Google Analytics exampleOne of the Best Things You Can Do For Your Church’s Website

If you have any responsibility for your congregation’s website, chances are you need Google Analytics — the analysis tool for website statistics. I don’t say that about many things, so what’s so special about Analytics? It’s the fast track to understanding how and why people are finding your site, what they are doing there, what pages interest them, and what set-up they use. In other words, it’s very revealing – and it’s free, unlike most other good website number crunchers.

Here’s a sampling of things I can tell from Analytics about my church’s site:

  • Many visitors (as opposed to church members) find us from our Association’s site and vice versa.
  • Aside from the home page, our most visited pages are “About Us: An Invitation to Visitors,” “Meet the Minister,” the sermon archives and the calendar.
  • 69% use Internet Explorer and 19% use Firefox, usually with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher, although 8% are still at 800 x 600. Only 4% use dial-up.
  • Wednesdays are the most popular day, and Saturdays the least.

One note: Google Analytics isn’t perfect. It can’t count pages unless they include its script in their code. For example, on my church’s site, it overlooks our current newsletter. That’s a page I know is viewed frequently, but it’s in PDF, so it can’t have the Analytics script embedded in it.

Given how much Analytics does reveal, and the likelihood that you don’t have access to a better tool, missing some pages seems a minor issue. However, if Analytics does have a shadow, it’s that it’s intimidating for the mere mortal (as opposed to an analytics geek). To get out of this shadow, it’s just five steps – four that are easy, and one that might or might not be.

How to Start Using Google Analytics

Step 1: Get a Google Account

In case you don’t already have an account, it’s easy. Here are some directions.

Step 2: Get the “tracking” code

Go to the Analytics home page, sign in and “Create a New Website Profile.” Once you fill in the required fields, the form will give you six lines of code. Hang on to that code. It’s your key to the kingdom.

Step 3: Copy This Code Into the Site

Paste the code near the end every page you want Analytics to count. This is the one step that can be problematic. If you have easy access to your site’s code and host, and use include files, it’s a breeze. You just copy and paste it into your footer include and upload that file. Even if you don’t use includes, though, chances are it’s worth the extra effort.

Step 4: View the Reports

In a few days, check back to see if things are starting to happen. Go to your Analytics page. When you first sign on, you don’t go right to the statistics. There’s an intermediary page, in case you track multiple sites. The important link to click on is “View Reports” (right now “View Reports - New Beta”) — near the bottom, next to your site’s URL. Once you’re starting to get some results, then sit back and wait for at least a month.

Step 5: Explore

After you’ve got some real data, the main thing is to just explore and enjoy. Don’t get overwhelmed or off-put by the odd numbers and charts. There’s a lot to this data. But you don’t have to be an expert or even close to it to find lots of great information. For now, the thing to do is look around and see what you find which makes sense to you. Be sure to explore the links in the left navigation (Dashboard, Visitors, etc). And be sure to tell others in the congregation who might be interested, which brings me to….

One Tip

From the Dashboard page, click the “Email” button near the top. You can create a PDF of your site’s data to send to others. You’ll be amazed how much interest this can provoke in the site. There’s a good chance most of the church staff will enjoy seeing it at least once, and some may want to get a report routinely, which is equally simple to set up. In fact, it’s just this kind of thing that makes Analytics well worth the effort.