Add a user to Google Analytics 4

Go to analytics.google.com/analytics/web. That address opens the tool directly, without going through the marketing page.

Check you are on the right Google Account. Look at the circle at the top right. If you juggle a personal address and a work address, this is where it all plays out.

What you should be seeing now.

• Curves showing visits. You are in the right place, move on to the next step.
• A screen offering to create an account. Your website does not have Google Analytics yet. Write to us, because this is an installation we take care of.
• An empty page or an error message. You are probably not on the right Google address, so switch account at the top right.

Find the name of your website, at the top of the page. That is the one we are going to follow together.

30 seconds of explanation that will stop you landing on the wrong screen.

The account is your company. It can hold several websites.

The property is one specific website. That is the name Google Analytics gives to the tracking record of a website. It carries an identifier starting with G, in the form of a G followed by a few characters.

What that changes for you. The admin screen offers 2 lines that look alike, account access management and property access management. Choose the property one. It opens access to that website, and to that website alone.

Right at the bottom left, click the cog labelled Admin.

You land on the settings page. It is organised into 2 families, the account settings and the property settings.

In the part that concerns the property, click Property access management.

You can now see the list of people who have access to your figures. It contains your own address at the very least.

Take the chance to read it through. An old agency or a former intern is often still there. This is a good moment for a clear-out.

If the cog is nowhere to be found, your window may be too narrow. Make it bigger, or open the 3-line menu at the top left to unfold the column.

At the top right, click the blue button with the plus sign, then Add users.

• In the email field, enter our address contact@metabacklinks.com.
• Choose the Editor role if you want us to set up the tracking of your quote requests and your phone calls as well. Choose Viewer if you would rather limit us to reading.
• Leave the box ticked that offers to send a notification email. It tells us straight away.

Why the Editor role changes everything. Without it, we see your traffic but we cannot declare what really counts for you, a form sent or a phone number tapped. You would have visits, without knowing which ones pay off.

If Google rejects the address as invalid, it is almost always a space stuck to the front or the back of it. Type it out by hand rather than pasting it.

Click Add at the top right. That is it, the access is live immediately.

Our address now appears in the list, with the role you chose. There is no invitation for us to accept, and nothing to send us.

A word on wording. Google renames its screens several times a year. If a button says Add on your screen and Invite on an older screenshot, it is the same action. Trust the meaning rather than the exact word.

You stay the owner of your account. You are the only person who decides who comes in and who goes out.

To remove this access one day, you come back to this same page, tick our line and delete it. It is immediate, with no notice period and with no need to tell us.

What it sets off on our side. Your agents look at which pages people arrive through, which ones hold them, and which ones send them away in 5 seconds. Those pages can be fixed, and it is often the quickest win a website has.

One access often goes with another. To see which words Google shows you for as well, it takes 3 minutes, see give access to Google Search Console.