Google is king when it comes to Marketing. I could not run my Architectural business on the internet without it.
In order to work out how your site is performing with Google you need Google Analytics. The idea is that you add a bit (snippet) of code into your site which lets Google monitor how people find you and how they navigate through your site. The Google information and help files on how to do this are well put together, but a little confusing if you don't have much experience with code or haven't had much experience in building websites.
RVsitebuilder CMS and Google Analytics Tracking Code Insertion
Rvsitebuilder is a default program for building websites that comes with my provider (Ventraip). It really isn't that easy to use compared to modern website building programs but it does have a lot of flexibility. The problem is that it makes .Php files not .Html. If you look at the filenames shown on your browser the filetype is shown at the end of the URL. Most content manager driven website or blog programs such as wordpress, Drupal or rvsitebuilder use the php file system. This means that access to parts of the code that forms the website may be difficult, or in some cases (depending on what CMS software you are using) impossible. HTML code is easy to change as you just can paste bits of code in where you want. Php is trickier however as the code isn't directly accessed as changes are made through the Content management system (CMS) of the RVsitebuilder program. Analytics typically asks the snippet to be put at the end of the head tag just before the body. How to edit a header or body tag in a RVsitebuilder .php file isnt that obvious.
Which Google Tracking Code Snippet Type To Use On RVsitebuilder Generated Website?
The Google analytics help files give a lot of information for different website setups with several different snippets of code available and several methods of implementation depending on what kind of site you have. They aren't that good at explaining where you put your code in specific cases like RVsitebuilder generated websites. The Rvsitebuilder help files aren't that good either. I have built several websites for friends over the past decade and every time I do it seems that the Google analytics snippet changes, as does the process to insert it. This means that what should take 5 minutes usually takes me half a day.
Typical Google Analytics gtag.js Snippet
A typical analytics gtag javascript snippet looks like this (I have blanked out the actual UA code portion). This is the recommended basic snippet installation and it is to be put at the end of the head tag in your page. It will be generated for each individual user as part of the analytics registration process.
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-xxxxxxxxx-x"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-xxxxxxxxx-x'); </script>
How To Insert Your Analytics Snippet Into Your Rvsitebuilder Webpage
To insert the Analytics snippet into my Architectural business site using RVsitebuilder I needed to:
Navigate to step2 in RVsitebuilder
Go to "Site Properties". (This lets you edit your template). It is at the bottom of the left menu so you may need to scroll down to see it. Next Click on "Edit head tag" then click into the "other embedded" edit box. Paste the code in to this box. Press the "update" button then "save" then re-publish your site. It may take a few days for google to start entering data, so be patient.
