Google Analytics - Understanding Account structure, Views and Permissions

Hello Learners,

Welcome back to my blog. In my previous blogs, i shared ways to link your website to Google analytics. As we know, that most forward looking companies of our times rely on effective data to make sound business decisions. Decisions that are backed with numbers have proven to be far better and beneficial to a business, that decisions that were taken due to a hunch, or just a judgement call. Thats where Google Analytics & Digital Analytics chip in. In order to make an accurate decision for your online business, its important to set-up your tracking infrastructure in the right way. Lets rally through the account structure Google Analytics allows businesses on its platform to track data effectively.

Google Analytics Account structure

The above chart indicates the structure Google Analytics implies. To simply understand, all Google Analytics accounts can be grouped under "Organization"(Optional), this allows you to manage multiple analytics "Account" under one grouping. When you create an account, you also automatically create a "Property". A property is your website / mobile site / app. Within each property, a "View" is created for that account. A view is a set of data that you want to see pertaining to the said property. Each "Account" can have multiple "Properties", and each Property can have multiple "Views"

Weather you are an agency with multiple client accounts or a small business with a single website, this structure works with you to suit your business needs. Each analytics property is able to independently collect data with the help of a unique Analytics "Property ID"

Understanding "Views" in Google Analytics

To determine what data you want Google Analytics to collect within a specified view, you can use a feature called "Filters" within the "View settings" of your dashboard configuration.

In case of the above example, if Buyfromdharavi.com, which sells products across multiple geographical areas and multiple categories. They could create

• One view with All website data covering all regions
• Separate views for each different region (Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, etc)
• View to ignore traffic coming from internal company IP address (using IP filter)

Its a good idea to keep a default view which collects "All website data" and create custom views which allows you to create segmented data based on your business needs. Be careful while setting up views for your property because you cant change data once its captured and processed by Google Analytics.

A few things to remember

1. Views will not include past data. It will show data from the day the view was created.
2. Only admins can recover views that were deleted. (Generally within 35 days) 

Setting up "Views" in Google Analytics

Step 1 - Log in to your Analytics dashboard
Step 2 - Click on the Admin wheel and define the property from the drop-down
Step 3 - Under Views, select "Create New View"

Step 4 - Add View name & details & click "Create View"
Step 5 - Change country & Currency setting & click "Save"
Step 6 - Add Filters & Goals to Customise Views

Understanding "Permissions" in Google Analytics

You can assign permissions to other users at...

• Account level
• Property level
• View level

Each level inherits permissions from the level above it. Which means, if you have access to View level, you wont have access to modify the property or account associated with that view.

There are 4 types of user permissions

1. Manage - that allows you to add/remove users
2. Edit - That allows users to Edit configuration settings in Google Analytics
3. Collaborate - That allows you to add users to view / share data with
4. Read & Analyse - A version on "Read Only" data

To assign permissions...

Step 1 - Log in to your GA dashboard. Click on the Admin wheel on the left of your screen
Step 2 - Under Property, pick the property under consideration
Step 3 - Click on User management



Step 4 - Click on "+" sign
Step 5 - Add email ID
Step 6 - Select permission level
Step 7 - Add

Hope the above steps were easy to implement. Do feel free to write back in the comments section to address any doubts you might have.

Hope to hear from you soon. Have a great festive season.

Cheers,

Mitul

Setting up Google Analytics on a Wordpress website

Hi Learners,

A website can only be as effective & efficient as the data it collects. Data is king & user experience on your website is the queen. When you know what channels are driving the most profitable traffic to your website, you want to put your efforts into that particular channel. Same goes for the popularity of your pages, the demography of your visitors on the site and content on your website. Such data can prove to be invaluable to a marketer, business owner or a brand manager.

You can effectively understand, interpret and implement insights from this data by placing a simple java script code on your web pages that you want to track. If you are managing your website on Wordpress, you can simply link your website to your Google Analytics account without any fuss or need to implement an HTML script. Wordpress works best with the help of small piece of "software" called "plug-ins" To browse through different kinds of plugins you can use with your Wordpress website, visit here. For Google Analytics implementation, we will use a plugin called MonsterInsights.

Step 1 - Activate the Monsterinsights plugin:

• Log into your Wordpress dashboard & click on Plugins on the left menu. Then click on Installed Plugins. Search for monsterinsights on the top search box. Ensure the plugin is activated.

Step 2 - Signing up with Google Analytics

• Signup with Google Analytics with the gmail ID associated with your website. You will be directed to add a property. Fill up the form as above with Account Name as your business name for eg, DBS Trade Corp, Website Name as what do you call your website for Eg: "Buy From Dharavi" & finally the website URL. The actual link. Follow the steps & agree to all the popups that come in the process.

• You should be driven to the Admin page of Google Analytics. Review the information you see under Account & Property. Then click on Tracking Info under Property column. Under View column, you should see "All Website Data".

Step 3 - Authenticate your Wordpress website with Google Analytics.

• Visit your WP dashboard, click on Insights on the left menu & then go to "Settings. You should see the blue Google Authentication button. Click on it to reach the gmail verification. 

• Click on "Get Google Code"

• After email verification, you will see a multi-digit code like the one above. Copy that code and reach out to your Google code window message.

• Paste this code in the empty box and hit "Next"

• You will be directed to the Profile page. From the drop-down menu, pick "All website data" for your domain and click on Next.

• You should see a success message like the one above. Close the message box & Save the changes you made to this page.

Congratulations, you have successfully linked your Wordpress website with Google Analytics. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. Be sure to leave your comments to this post. Also Follow this blog to stay updated and keep learning ways to work with your website. Please ask your friends to follow this blog if you think it will help them. Feel free to reach out to me in case you have any queries about your digital marketing learning.

Keep coming back. 

Cheers,

Mitul Shingadia

Setting up your website - Working with CMS - Part 3

Uploading Wordpress for your website

Start with Part 1. For the Host, either type in your domain IP or just your domain name. For Username & Password, use the ones that you use to access the hosting or control panel (CPanel) After you add your details, click on "Quickconnect" Once you do that, you will see files populating in Part 3, which means we are now remotely connected to the server via FTP. You will see a list of directories in Part 3 of the Filezilla, we will only concern ourselves with a directory named "Public_html", any content within this directory will be seen live on your website.

Locate your Wordpress setup folder from Part 2 and click on that folder. You will see a list of all the folders within the wordpress setup folder in Part 2. Select all the files & folders from the Wordpress folder (including wp-admin folder) and "drag & drop" them inside the Public_html folder. The file transfer will now start. Which means, wordpress is now being uploaded.

While the transfer is in progress, lets create a database in the CPanel. A database is where Wordpress stores content of your website, including posts, pages, comments, etc

Creating a database for your website

A database is where Wordpress will store data of your website, including images, videos, text files, etc. Start by logging in to your CPanel and look for Databases. Click on MySQL database. Under create new database, Give your database a name.

You want to give this database a friendly name so its recognisable & in future if you have more than one database, its easier to locate your website database.

Now you have the database. Next you need a "User" To create a new user, simply click on New user, assign a username and password. When you are done, come back to the Mydatabase home page.

The next step is assigning "User" to this database. Assigning user (in this case Wordpress) means you are giving privileges (to Wordpress) to modify & manage this database.

To create a new user, you need a give that user a name & choose the database you just created from the drop-down list and click "Add"

The last step in setting up your CMS is to add privileges to your assigned user. To do this, right after assigning the user to a database, you would be driven to the privileges page.

Click on All privileges and then "Make changes" once you see the success message, go back to your database view. Make note of your username, password & database name as this information will be used to connect your database to Wordpress.

Go back to Filezilla to see if the Wordpress upload is completed. If its done, delete the readme.html & licence files.

We will start installing Wordpress by typing in your domain name on the browser. You should see a page which looks something like the below picture.

Proceed after choosing your preferred language. Next you will see a notice which will specify the information you will need before proceeding. It would look something like this...

Follow the proceeding steps to complete a form which will ask for all the above information. Look back to your cPanel dashboard to fill that information without error.

Once you have added all the information correctly, click on submit. A success message will be displayed. Click on "Run the install".

Next you will be prompted to add credentials to your website on Wordpress. Fill in these details

The username and password you provide here will be used as the Admin login for your website. So ensure you have it written down somewhere. When done, click on install Wordpress.

Wordpress is now installed successfully for your website. Click on Login to start using your website with Wordpress.

 .      

This completes our 3 part series of Working with CMS for your website. If you wish to re-read the series to get a better picture of how its done, follow the below links.

1. Working with CMS - Part 1
2. Working with CMS - Part 2

I hope you enjoyed reading this series. Do leave your messages and doubts in the comments section on this blog. Alternatively you can also leave a message through the Contact form on this website.

Our next blog will be on Setting website visitor tracking with Google Analytics. Thanks for taking the time to read through this blog. Keep coming back for more digital dope.

Happy learning.

Mitul Shingadia

Setting up your website - Working with CMS - Part 2

Hello Readers,

Welcome to the second part of Setting up your website - Working with CMS. In my previous post i wrote about how to work with Fully managed Wordpress hosting. If you have missed it, you can check it out here. This post will talk about how you can get a CMS working for you if you do not have a managed wordpress hosting plan. This post will also be relevant to you if you are planning to manage the CMS all by yourself without any external help. So, lets get started.

To get started with installing your CMS, you will need 3 things.

1. Wordpress installation file
2. Zipping software
3. FTP client (File Transfer Protocol)

Step 1 - Go to www.wordpress.org and click on the Download button to download the wordpress setup file.

The download should start immediately. It will be downloaded in a .zip format. Hence you need a zipping software like a Winrar which can help you extract these files. 

Step 2 - Get a zipping software on your system

If you do not have a zipping software, simply download Winzip or Winrar from the internet. My recommendation is, visit www.rarlab.com and click on downloads from the menu on the left hand side. A list of available zipping software should load. If you are using a 32 bit Operating system, pick the x86 version of the file, if you are using a 64 bit Operating system, pick the x64 version of the file. If you do not know the version of your OS, simply download the x86 version. Below is a screenshot for your reference.

Just click on the desired version of the Winrar file and let the download begin. Install the Winrar setup and run the setup. After this you should be able to open any zipped files on your system.

Step 3 - Setting up the FTP (File transfer Protocol) client

Next, you need an FTP which is used to transfer files from one host to another. Which means we will be transferring files from our computer to the web server. My recommendation for FTP software is filezilla. There are many out there, but Filezilla is free and is compatible with all OS. To download Filezilla, go to www.filezilla-project.org  and click on the download button. You will be redirected to sourceforge.com and the setup file will start downloading immediately.

Go ahead  and install Filezilla on your system.

Now that we have all that we need to install & run our CMS, we can get started with the installation. Its a good idea to check beforehand if the Hosting & the Domain are working in sync (propagated) To check that you can use online tools like whatsmydns.net Pick NS from the drop down and see if everything is green ticked on the right hand side result.

If you see a red cross, check with your domain service provider and resolve the issue.

Another way to check propagation is simply type your domain on the browser and if you see a page that looks like the below one, you are good to go.

Open up the Filezilla FTP client that you just downloaded. The interface will look something like this...

Filezilla essentially has 3 parts.

1. Part 1 - Credentials tool bar
2. Part 2 - Local file browser
3. Part 3 - Remote file browser

Now that you have all you need to get started with setting up your CMS, i will guide you through a step by step process to setup Wordpress for your site, setting up a database for your website, setting users for your website and finally Going live with your website. All this and more in part 3 of the this blog series.

Stay tuned and leave your comments, views and doubts on this blog in the comments section. 

Keep coming back for more.

Happy learning.

Mitul Shingadia

Setting up your website - Working with Content Management Systems (CMS)

Hi Readers,

Firstly, sorry to keep you all waiting for our next post. Its been a while i know :( So lets do the next best thing, pick up the threads from where we left off. You can do one of the few things..

1. Look at the previous post here so you can catch up and get up to speed on what we are talking about. 
2. Follow this blog to ensure you do not miss any important & relevant updates that are posted on this blog.
3. Use the Contact Us form on the Right Hand Side of this blog template.

Great, so let get started. After you have picked the domain that is right for you and the hosting plan that is right for you, your next challenge is to find the right CMS or a Content Management System. For beginners its highly recommended that you pick a hosting plan which  has a CMS integrated along with it. Godaddy has a Wordpress hosting, where Wordpress is the CMS. This means that all the optimizations & updates that wordpress come up with in the future will be taken care by the folks at Godaddy.

Here's how this works...

• After the payment is processed, you will get a welcome mail with a get started link.

• Once you click on "Get Started" you will be redirected to Godaddy India's hosting gateway where you have to login using your "user name and password" Remember, you have chosen a Fully managed Wordpress hosting for your website. This means, the Control Panel (CPanel) will be managed by Godaddy. 

Here, you will be guided to stuff like.

1. Setting up WP panel login and credentials (Wordpress Only, after clicking on "manage")
2. Adding DNS IPs from your domain control panel. (If you have a problem finding your Domain IP, you can use Godaddy Live Chat support. They are pretty prompt.
3. Preview of your website
4. Recommendations from Godaddy team.

 

If you have serious plans for this website, and want to communicate with people in a more professional way, you might want to consider purchasing an email hosting plan (Separately) your web hosting does not always  have email hosting as part of a plan. The benefit is you would be able to set permissions based on professional emails (adam@brandwebsite.com). Also you can link auto -responder email to professional email IDs (offers@brandwebsite.com) benefits for professional emails are many.

Once you have added / linked your DNS you need to go back to the hosting dashboard and click on WP Login.

This will take you to your website's WP dashboard. Something like this.

There we go, your wordpress website is LIVE! In case you have a feeling, what if i do not want to opt for a fully managed Wordpress hosting? What if i have a team of developers who can build a website for me (Expensive option), a team which can manage content in-house (Expensive again) and if i have a team of professionals who can maintain the website without outside help? Dont worry, the answer to your questions will be shared on our next post, Meanwhile you can use the contact form and the comments section to stay updated!

If you have any questions on the above content, feel free to reach out to me. God bless.

Happy learning.

Mitul

Setting up your website - Choosing a hosting plan

Hi Readers,

Welcome to the next post in the series of Setting up your website series. Its important to own a domain before you can start the process of setting up the "Hosting" for your website. So its a good idea to take a look at my previous post on How to get your domain, if you have not read it yet.

What does hosting mean?
So lets begin. The million dollar question is, What is hosting? Hosting is a space on an actual computer that you rent from a hosting service provider. In simple words, its online real estate (space) to setup your shop (domain) in a building or an office premises (server). Hope this analogy helps :)

Where to buy hosting?
The next valid question is, who sells these server hosting spaces and where to find them? Server spaces could be sold by virtually any large or small service providers in the web space. They could be anybody, an independent website owner, a small or medium  web / digital or an IT service company, or large domain registrars like Godaddy, Bigrock, hostgator, etc. Who provides server space is a fairly dynamic question as it keeps changing every minute. A simple google search would yield great results.

What kind of hosting is right for me?
This question is like asking, how much office / shop space do i need for my business? The true answer can come only from YOU! However its important to understand your business needs and learn more about your hosting options available to you.

Things to look for in a server space

• Memory & backup capacity - Auto backups & storing that version of your website. Expressed in GBs
• Storage space - Physical storage capacity of the data
• No. of IPs - Links to physical servers that would be used to direct traffic to your website.
• Security features - SSL certificates, support, licences etc.

Checkout the video below to get more clarity


There are various types of servers & hosting plans available to business owners and individuals. Some of the prominent ones are as below.

1. Shared Web Hosting - Its where your domain is placed in a shared space along with other website. Its like staying as a paying guest :) This option is perfect for websites that are new to the internet, have fewer daily & monthly visitors & have fewer features & tools implemented on their website.
2. Reseller Web Hosting - This type of hosting is designed for individuals & companies who plan to resell hosting spaces to others. Since this is a business oriented hosting environment, the "Reseller" also offers additional tools like access to free website templates, free web support to your clients, Private Name Servers, means having an option of asking your clients to point their DNS details to your company servers e.g: nsl.yourwebdesignfirm.com (refer to my previous post for details on DNS)
3. Cloud based Web Hosting - Fairly new hosting technology that lets hundreds of individual servers work together so it looks like one big integrated server. This was introduced so that when the hosting company needs more space during high demand, it can simply add more commodity hardware to make an even larger grid. The advantage to website owners is, when they see a sudden surge in traffic, it could be managed by the hosting service provider rather than shutting your website down.
4. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting - VPS servers share one physical server but acts like multiple separate servers, this allows hosting service providers to manage resources effectively & website owners to save costs on buying more hosting space. Each website on a VPS server has their own dedicated resource. 
5. Dedicated Servers - One physical server is used only for your website. It means all the resources on that servers are used exclusively by your website only.

How to Purchase a hosting Plan?
The hosting service providers offer various packages based on the type of your website and scale & nature of your business. Once you decide on the package & the plan based on the features of the hosting service, its a simple click & follow process, like on an e-commerce website. You will be directed to a confirmation page followed by the payment redirect page. Once the payment is processed, you will get a link from the hosting provider to access the control panel (CPanel)

In our next post we will cover how to work with CPanel and link your hosting with Wordpress CMS.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Leave your doubts in the comments below & fill out the form on the blog if you have any specific concerns.

Happy learning.

Mitul

Setting up your website - Domain name

Hi Readers,

To get started with digital marketing, the first thing you need is a well set-up website. Its difficult to ensure a smooth flow to things if there are errors in the way your website is set up. You can choose from a variety of options available to potential website owners today. If you decide to start with a free website, there are loads of options available. Some of them are as follows.

• Google's Blogger platform (The one i am using for this blog)
• Wordpress free website builder
• Google Sites, Google's own website builder tool.
• Weebly: This is a frequently used tool for new website owners. It provides better quality templates & more editable options
• Wix: This platform is getting popular these days due to easy setup & smooth user interface (drag & drop functionality). Its definitely worth a try.

However if you are in this for long & if you have some serious plans about your blog, business or any other type of website, you need to get the below in place.

1. Website domain (Unique name for your website) for eg: www.yourwebsitename.com Watch the video below to see how to register a domain.

Since the process to register a domain is standard across all domain name providers, the above video should act as a decent starting point. There are other players as well where you can compare the prices before purchasing a domain.

You can glance through and compare domain prices on the below list of websites

1. Godaddy India
2. Bigrock
3. Onlydomains
4. Hostgator
5. Google Domains

Once you purchase your domain. You will receive access to the domain dashboard which typically looks something like this...

Once you have your own dashboard, you will have options like...

• Domain Settings: This is where you see stuff like, when your domain is set to expire, the domain is registered at what address, is the address Private or Public. If you set it as Public, people who are "Looking up" for your domain name using websites like Whois.com would be able to see your domain related information. You can purchase domain registration separately depending on your preferences.
• Manage DNS: This is the place where you will find a unique IP for your domain name. DNS stads for Domain Name Server, which means you can add / edit FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Hosting services & many more services like security certificates, verification updates etc. In the initial stages, all you need to use is the CNAME servers to link your hosting plan with your domain.

In our next post, we will go through the process of Hosting for websites, its various types & how to go about setting it up for your website. I hope you found this post useful. If you have any queries make sure you fill the form on this website along with your message. Leave your comments below to express your opinions.

Happy Learning,

Mitul Shingadia

Welcome to the blog

Dear Reader,

I often wonder how digital has impacted our day to day lives. We come from times when there was a single television in a home and all the family members gathered around to see our routine programs. The remote (authority) to decide which channel to watch however remained with the senior most member of the family. Well it looked something like this...

Well you got the picture right? The something happened. We started having two TVs in our living rooms & suddenly we started having our choices on the programs to watch. The number of channels on TVs grew exponentially. The number of Adverts grew with them. It was the golden era for television advertisers and channels alike. this went on for a couple of more years and then something happened again... We know that something to be "Internet". We started having more devices in our homes and before we knew we were spoilt for choices on everything related to our lives (how we look, how we project ourselves, what we wear, etc...) So from the what we looked earlier we took a leap to look something like this...

Digital just did not change the way we placed ourselves in a family, but also within our work groups, friends and the world at large. Its not just we who adapted to the new technology, its also the brands, products and services that changed their ways of finding us.

Today we not only share online but virtually live online. Which means...

• If you want to express something, you go to the internet. (Social Media)
• If you want to research about something, you go to the internet (Search Engines)
• If you want to reach out to someone in person, you go to the internet (Instant Messaging / Emails)
• If you want to shop for OR Sell something, you go to the internet (E-commerce)
• If you want to pay for something, you go to the internet (E-Wallets)

With the help of this blog, i wish to illustrate loads of information in the form of How to guides, my opinions on matters related to digital, interesting videos, comments and more.

If you enjoy reading about the internet in simple language, follow this blog & be sure to share this blog with people like you within your own network.

I hope to see you all soon.

Keep reading, keep learning.

Mitul