Google Analytics & It's Use

I've been in despair for the past several days because Google Analytics says only one person (I think of him or her lovingly as "Old Number One") has visited ' The History of Gin ' .

Google Analytics is a neato tool that can be used with Blogger to count visits to one's Blog. It keeps track of many aspects of each visit, but it boils down to counting visits. Analytics is neato because without it one doesn't know if anyone is visiting and it's FREE.

Some may claim Analytic's only flaw is that it doesn't tell you your Blog visitors' street addresses so you can show up unexpectedly for dinner. But then, some privacy whackos probably would think that's a "Good" thing.

Anyways, like the Ads I've mentioned, Google Analytics gives you some HTML code to embed in your Blog in every page you want it to monitor. I thought the best place to put the code would be in Blogger's basic Template for my Blog. . .That is, under the "Template" tab and "Edit HTML" option when Customizing a Blogger Standard Format Blog. At that point, put the Analytics code among the other HTML code you see where it won't cause any trouble -- just be careful because you're looking at Blogger's fundamental code for your Blog's layout and format. All danger aside though, if you put the Analytics code in this Template, which Blogger uses when composing every page in the Standard Format Blog, then it will be in every page of your Blog, just like Analytics recommends.

AND Just Don't Put It Where I Did.

The thing is, HTML and related web languages have little things called "Comments". . .consisting of stuff (mainly comments) NOT to be executed. . .that are delimited by special combinations of characters (tags), like  < !--  and  -- >  or  / *  and  * /  .

Like quotation marks or parenthesis, these delimiters can span several lines. . .even vast geographical expanses of lines. . .and you Might Not Even Know It (Although some text editors used for viewing HTML code flag sections of code with different colors).

AND I put the Google Analytics code for my Blog in the middle of one of these huge comments, so it's HTML code was not active.

Long story short, that's why no visitors were counted. I don't know how Old Number One managed to get counted on Aug. 5th. . .maybe it was Magic ? ? ?

Bottom line is, do like Google Analytics says (when one finds the place they say it) and put the Analytics code immediately before the < /body> HTML tag near the bottom of the Template for you Blogger Blog. If one doesn't use Blogger, then the Analytics code still can go immediately before the < /body> tag in whatever Blogging tool one is using.


I found the Helpful Link entitled   " How can I confirm that I've entered the tracking code correctly on my pages? "   on the right side of the Analytics page surprisingly Helpful in resolving my little issue.

And remember, Analytics reports data up to the prior day, so Aug. 12th data isn't shown until Aug 13th.