So you've setup your blog using Blogger for your great domain name you've configured your template and maybe even starting writing posts. But how do you know if you are reaching your audience? How can you tell if your viewers are sticking around or "bouncing" off as soon as they get the chance? Well, that's what Google Analytics is for.
Every website you have, whether it's through Blogger or not, should be setup for Google Analytics. Sure, some hosts allow you to track your traffic, but having a consistent platform for monitoring your traffic across all your sites is tremendously valuable. Whether you are growing your site's traffic organically or if you are starting up an ad campaign, you need to know how your site is doing and Google Analytics is a great, free way to do that.
So now that you are convinced that you want Google Analytics to monitor your sites traffic, you need to configure it.
Step 1. Go to http://google.com/analytics and click to Access Analytics or Sign Up. On the main "Settings" page, click the link at the bottom of the page for "Add Website Profile".
Step 2. Enter your URL name and then click Finish (but you aren't finished).
Step 3. You will be presented with some html code (specifically a bit of <script> code) that you need to copy out of the text box. Make sure you copy all of it or else the script won't work.
Step 4. Open a new browser window/tab and go to your Blogger page, choose Layout and then Edit HTML.
Step 5. At the very bottom of text area of your template you should see
</body>
</html>
Right before the body tag you'll want to Paste the script into the text area. It should now look something like:
<script ... blah blah blah
</script>
</body>
</html>
Step 6. Save your template and head back to your Google Analytics page. Click Finish and you should now see your site listed. In 24 hours (or less) you should start seeing traffic stats for your site. If not, you've likely not setup the template properly.
If you think you've gotten it all setup right, but aren't seeing any data, give me a shout and let me know your website address. I can check to see if the script is configured properly for you.
There are lots of things you can do with Analytics such as watch what keywords people are using to reach your site and what web pages are referring people to you. I'll post a more complete list of Analytics tips in the future, but until then, have fun with all the new pretty pictures!
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Blogger and GoDaddy - Step By Step How-to
There are a lot of ways to monetize your domain name, but one of the cheapest and easiest solutions is to setup a blog and use the incoming traffic (SEO, paid advertising, type in or other) to generate revenue. How you choose to generate revenue from your blog depends on what you want to do with your blog... For example, you can become an affiliate and sell/promote items for sale, or you can place ads and get revenue from click throughs. You can also just promote that the domain name is for sale.
So what does any of that have to do with GoDaddy and Blogger? Well, I've found, through setting up a number of sites in various ways, that Blogger is a great platform for developing quick, search optimized sites. I also really like GoDaddy's name registration services, including the full control over domain forwarding, masking and DNS records. When you use the two together you can take advantage of the SEO power of a great keyword domain name combined with the ease of use (and free hosting no less!) of Blogger. But, getting the two to cooperate can be a bit tricky. Once you get the steps down though, you can get your Blogger based site up and running in just a couple of minutes. So here we go:
Step 1. Register your domain name with GoDaddy.com. If you already have a domain name through another registrar, you may want to consider transferring your domain to GoDaddy as they offer some great deals for transferred domains as well, including adding an extra year to your registration for like 6 bucks (or less). Anyway, from here on out we will assume you have a domain at GoDaddy.com. We'll call this domain UtterDomain.com for simplicity.
Step 2. Create your Blogger blog. When you create your blog it'll ask what domain name you want to use. For now, go ahead and name it along the lines of UtterDomain.blogspot.com. This really isn't going to be used so if that particular name isn't available, it's okay to try variations as long as it has some semblance of meaning.
Step 3. Login to GoDaddy.com's Domain Manager. Find your domain and verify that you are using GoDaddy's "Hosting Nameservers". If you've previously setup your domain to point to a different host, or if it was previously parked, you'll want to modify the DNS settings under the "Nameservers" menu option and select the "Hosting Nameservers" option. You may need to wait a few minutes for this change to take affect.
Step 4. Click on the option under your Domain called "Total DNS Control and MX Records". Find the entry under the CNAMES section called www. If you do not see a www CNAME record, you will need to add it. The "Points to Host Name" needs to be set to ghs.google.com otherwise nothing will work. Once the www alias is pointing to ghs.google.com, you are almost done.
Step 5. If you have other sub domains that you were previously using, such as blog.UtterDomain.com, then you'll need to make sure that you have an A record for the subdomain ("blog" in our example) that is pointing to the same IP address as your "@" A record. The reason for this is due to step 6. If you don't want or need another subdomain besides www, then you shouldn't mess with the A record at all.
Step 6. Configure domain forwarding. We want UtterDomain.com to resolve to our blog as well as www.UtterDomain.com, right? Well, in order to do that we need to go back to the domain manager for UtterDomain.com and click on the Forward menu option. Select the option to enable forwarding, then type in either http://www.UtterDomain.com or http://UtterDomain.blogspot.com (I prefer the first option). Also select the option for "301 - Moved Permanently" and save your changes. Your GoDaddy side of the setup is now complete. We just need to let Blogger know which domain name to use.
Step 7. Login to Blogger, go to the "Settings" tab and then choose "Publishing". If you haven't already, you'll need to choose the "Custom Domain" link and then click the "Advanced Settings" option. This is where you'll enter your url (http://www.UtterDomain.com) and ensure that you include the www as Blogger won't be happy without it. Don't worry, anyone who forgets to type in the www part will still be forwarded to your blog.
Step 8. Wait and Test. Within 24 hours (and often times in as little as a couple of minutes), your domain settings will propagate out to the world and you should be able to browse to your blog with or without the www.
Troubleshooting:
1. If you've configured Google Apps you'll need to disable it prior to publishing through Blogger.
2. If you've configure your CNAMES and A records properly and configured forwarding and waited 24 hours, but one or both of your domain names are not working properly, you may need to contact GoDaddy support. I've only had this happen once and it was one of the first ones I setup (when I still didn't know what I was doing!). It's not the end of the world to ask GoDaddy to verify your setup just ensure that you provide them with an adequate explanation of what you are trying to do.
3. If all else fails, drop me a line here and we'll see if we can't figure out what went wrong. I can't provide support for GoDaddy but I've gone through the setup enough times and in enough different ways that I may have suggestions.
Good luck!
So what does any of that have to do with GoDaddy and Blogger? Well, I've found, through setting up a number of sites in various ways, that Blogger is a great platform for developing quick, search optimized sites. I also really like GoDaddy's name registration services, including the full control over domain forwarding, masking and DNS records. When you use the two together you can take advantage of the SEO power of a great keyword domain name combined with the ease of use (and free hosting no less!) of Blogger. But, getting the two to cooperate can be a bit tricky. Once you get the steps down though, you can get your Blogger based site up and running in just a couple of minutes. So here we go:
Step 1. Register your domain name with GoDaddy.com. If you already have a domain name through another registrar, you may want to consider transferring your domain to GoDaddy as they offer some great deals for transferred domains as well, including adding an extra year to your registration for like 6 bucks (or less). Anyway, from here on out we will assume you have a domain at GoDaddy.com. We'll call this domain UtterDomain.com for simplicity.
Step 2. Create your Blogger blog. When you create your blog it'll ask what domain name you want to use. For now, go ahead and name it along the lines of UtterDomain.blogspot.com. This really isn't going to be used so if that particular name isn't available, it's okay to try variations as long as it has some semblance of meaning.
Step 3. Login to GoDaddy.com's Domain Manager. Find your domain and verify that you are using GoDaddy's "Hosting Nameservers". If you've previously setup your domain to point to a different host, or if it was previously parked, you'll want to modify the DNS settings under the "Nameservers" menu option and select the "Hosting Nameservers" option. You may need to wait a few minutes for this change to take affect.
Step 4. Click on the option under your Domain called "Total DNS Control and MX Records". Find the entry under the CNAMES section called www. If you do not see a www CNAME record, you will need to add it. The "Points to Host Name" needs to be set to ghs.google.com otherwise nothing will work. Once the www alias is pointing to ghs.google.com, you are almost done.
Step 5. If you have other sub domains that you were previously using, such as blog.UtterDomain.com, then you'll need to make sure that you have an A record for the subdomain ("blog" in our example) that is pointing to the same IP address as your "@" A record. The reason for this is due to step 6. If you don't want or need another subdomain besides www, then you shouldn't mess with the A record at all.
Step 6. Configure domain forwarding. We want UtterDomain.com to resolve to our blog as well as www.UtterDomain.com, right? Well, in order to do that we need to go back to the domain manager for UtterDomain.com and click on the Forward menu option. Select the option to enable forwarding, then type in either http://www.UtterDomain.com or http://UtterDomain.blogspot.com (I prefer the first option). Also select the option for "301 - Moved Permanently" and save your changes. Your GoDaddy side of the setup is now complete. We just need to let Blogger know which domain name to use.
Step 7. Login to Blogger, go to the "Settings" tab and then choose "Publishing". If you haven't already, you'll need to choose the "Custom Domain" link and then click the "Advanced Settings" option. This is where you'll enter your url (http://www.UtterDomain.com) and ensure that you include the www as Blogger won't be happy without it. Don't worry, anyone who forgets to type in the www part will still be forwarded to your blog.
Step 8. Wait and Test. Within 24 hours (and often times in as little as a couple of minutes), your domain settings will propagate out to the world and you should be able to browse to your blog with or without the www.
Troubleshooting:
1. If you've configured Google Apps you'll need to disable it prior to publishing through Blogger.
2. If you've configure your CNAMES and A records properly and configured forwarding and waited 24 hours, but one or both of your domain names are not working properly, you may need to contact GoDaddy support. I've only had this happen once and it was one of the first ones I setup (when I still didn't know what I was doing!). It's not the end of the world to ask GoDaddy to verify your setup just ensure that you provide them with an adequate explanation of what you are trying to do.
3. If all else fails, drop me a line here and we'll see if we can't figure out what went wrong. I can't provide support for GoDaddy but I've gone through the setup enough times and in enough different ways that I may have suggestions.
Good luck!
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