When Google Analytics isn't Counting your Visits

We recently joined CMF Forums and read of one member's frustration with Google Analytics not working properly. They included an Analytics screen shot that says they only had 1 Visit with 0.0 time on the site and 100% bounce rate.

We visited their site for a couple of days so we know that there are more than 1 visitor. So, we decided to investigate a little deeper.

We went to their site again, and used our browser's option to look at their page's html source. We found their tracking code and believe that there may be 4 problems with it:

• First, the tracking code may be in the incorrect location. Google recommends that it be located at the very end of the HTML and just before the < /body > tag. Their's is in the middle of the page.
• Second, and perhaps most importantly, the code is missing the "try {} check {}" error block. That's not good.
  
• Third, you may have another script that prevents this from working. If so, place the tracking code at the top of your source code, just before the < /head > tag.
• Fourth, look at your account number. We don't know what it should be, but if you have multiple sites, you may be using the wrong one.

To correct the above, we recommend you remove the existing code, get new tracking code, and use the Google Utilities to check that it is working.

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How do you go about doing the above?

Follow these Steps:

1. Log into your Google Account
2. Go to your "My Account" Page
3. Under the My Products Heading, Look for and click the Analytics Link
4. Click on the Edit links under Action. This will show your Profile settings. It will display your site name & profile ID, then a table of your website info.
5. Look to the top right of the 1st table and it will display the green check mark & Receiving Data label. If it doesn't, something is wrong.
6. Also in this area of the page is a (Check Status) link. You should press this!
7. And then see what the status is. (It should say Receiving Data, if not, something's still wrong)
   
8. Most Importantly, it will give you the Tracking Code you need to place on your site.
9. Copy the code and paste it in your site's HTML Code. (don't forget to remove the old stuff)
10. Save your new sites HTML page, and then repeat Step 6

Once added correctly, it will take around 24 hours before data flows correctly.

Good Luck & Happy Easter!

JL.......