So I got all excited I figured out how to add the adverts to my site. If you use Google Adsense for this which is one of the things I did. Then you start to get a little information about visits to your site. The other thing you can do is to set up Google Analytics. Both will tell you something about your traffic. And it’s kind of cool information.
First how to set up each. For Google Adsense go to the site at: http://www.google.com/adsense and apply for an account. Yes, apply. Their email or message says they will give you an answer within about 2 days. I had mine back in a few hours. When you get notified that you’ve been approved, then you will need to create/set up the type of ad you want to display. Don’t ask me too much about this as I’m still figuring it all out and I haven’t read all the details. Once you have created your code you will place it in your banner for that client on your site. For a bit more on this see the article on adding adverts to your site under the Joomla! section. Read carefully because you don’t want to break the rules. Don’t click on your own ads for Google and you can only have so many of each type on a page.
For Google Analytics you will need to go to that site at: http://www.google.com/analytics and get set up there as well. This doesn’t really require an application process so you won’t have to wait for approval. Once your account is created and you give some general information you will then get the code to add to your site. When the code displays it provides instructions as to the best place to paste this code on all the pages you want to track. If you are using a static site that is not created using a content management tool then you will likely want to add it to every page. You paste it into the html code at the very end just before the </body> tag. That is just before the closing body tag. And then away you go. For Joomla! users, this turns out to be way easy. Ok, I confess I have a book I looked it up in. Basically, from within you administrator console, under extensions go to the template manager, click on the template you are using and then click on ‘Edit HTML’. It will open up the index page and you will paste the analytics code in just before the closing body tag (</body>) towards the end of the page. Save it and you are in business. For template users it’s much the same as for Joomla! users. Paste the code in your template just before the closing body tag (</body>).
So what will all this tell you? Well with the Adsense page, when you log into your account you can see how many page impressions and click throughs are happening. This also tells you how much cash you might have made so far. The Analytics page has more information. You find out how many hits you have had on your page, if they have been organic or direct. Did some come from search engines? Of those visiting your page what browsers were they using? How are they connecting to the internet, are they using cable, DSL or what? You can even find out what pages they are visiting so you can tailor your content more effectively. You can also find out how long they are staying on your page.
You can connect your Adsense and Analytics accounts to make accessing the info easier. I haven’t done this yet so I can’t tell you what other advantages it might have. If you are an iPhone user there is a Google Analytics Lite app that you can download for free at this time. It will give you a quick view. Not as indepth as the full Analystics site but still helpful.
Cheers
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
