Learn about a critical component for search engine marketing: Analytics.

1. By Chris J. Everett, Principal & Founder
Captivate Search Marketing

2. In this, Part V of my advanced SEO tips for Exponent CMS websites, I'll
discuss a critical component for search engine marketing: Analytics.

3. A gigantic aspect of search marketing is measuring, analyzing, and modifying your
SEO and PPC campaigns to ensure they're always performing at their best. The
best way to gather this data is by integrating a comprehensive traffic analytics
program into your Exponent CMS website.

4. One of the most popular Analytics programs available – and is 100 percent free –
is Google Analytics. Google Analytics gathers detailed statistics about web traffic
and its sources and measures conversions and sales. All of this data is essential
for running a well optimized SEO campaign.

5. So how do you get Google Analytics to work on your Exponent CMS website? If
you're the webmaster of an Exponent site, the process takes a few steps but it's
really quite simple.

7. If you or your client don't already have a Google Analytics account set up, it's
very easy to get a new account. Simply go to Google.com/Analytics and sign in
with your Google Account. From there, you'll need to go to Accounts list and
click to add a “New Account.”

8. Next, fill out the pertinent information about your Exponent CMS website, giving it
an account name and providing your website's URL. Whether or not you choose to
allow Google to view your account data is up to you. Follow the series of images:

12. When you're done,
simply click “Get
Tracking ID” and
accept the Google
Terms & Conditions
to get the code
snippet you'll need
to integrate into
your Exponent CMS
theme files.

14. As you can see in the image above, you'll need to simply copy the code snippet
tracking code found in the box that is specific to your account and paste it into
each page of your site.
If you were working with a straight HTML site, this could get a little
cumbersome, however because we're working with a dynamic CMS that uses
themes/subthemes, you'll only need to paste it into each of your theme files.
You can access
these theme files
within cPanel or by
pulling them down
via FTP.

15. Within your public_html directory, you'll need to navigate into your Exponent
theme folder and into the directory of the theme you're using for your website.

16. Within your theme directory you'll first want to edit your index.php file, inserting
your code snippet just before the closing body tag of the file:

17. Once you've pasted
in your snippet, save
the file or push it
back up via FTP. Go
back into your
theme folder and
into “subthemes”
and repeat this
paste/save step for
each of your
website's subtheme
files.

18. Once you've saved the snippet, you can verify its tracking status by going
back to your Google Analytics account and into Tracking Info where you
copied your code snippet. There you'll see the tracking status for your
Analytics account:

19. Now that you've successfully setup and installed Google Analytics into your
Exponent CMS website, you can now set goals, track traffic sources and gather
other pertinent website data that will help you continually measure and analyze the
performance of your SEO marketing strategy.