What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free tool that collects data from your website to create reports about how your site is being used. We recommend that you set up a Google Analytics account for all the University websites that you manage.
On 1 July 2023, Google retired Universal Analytics. This has been replaced by Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The main difference between the 2 versions is that Universal Analytics tracked sessions and page views while GA4 tracks events. You can read more about the differences between Universal Analytics and GA4 on the Google Analytics help site.
How to set up Google Analytics
You can use your University Google account to create a new Google Analytics account. If you have a Drupal website, you can follow instructions from the Office of External Affairs and Communications (OEAC) about how to set up your GA4 account for Drupal. You will need to contact webmaster@admin.cam.ac.uk to get the Google Analytics tag added to your Drupal site.
You can find out more about how to use GA4 on the Content Community SharePoint site.
What is Google Search Console?
Google also provides another tool called Google Search Console that can help you understand how your website is performing on Google Search. It will flag issues that you can fix to improve your website’s performance.
How to set up Google Search Console
You can follow the instructions on the Google Search Console support site to find out how to set up an account. If you want access to Google Search Console for your cam.ac.uk subdomain and don’t already have it, please send your CRSid and subdomain to the Web and Email team in OEAC at webandemail@communications.cam.ac.uk.
You can find out more about how to use Google Search Console on the Content Community SharePoint site.
Get help
If you need more information or assistance, please email webmaster@admin.cam.ac.uk.