How to add Google Analytics Tracking ID to GitHub

Question

Could be a simple question but I am full of doubts right now about adding Google Analytics Tracking ID to GitHub page.

I am using GitHub automatic page generator to create my GitHub page but it asks for "Google Analytics Tracking ID". I tried to sign up with Google Analytics but there on it asks for website URL.

Now what I am supposed to do?

One more ques: can we add Google Analytics Tracking ID later on after GitHub Page has been created?

Answer 1

I use the README.md file as a source for my GitHub personal page. I also use one of the GitHub supported themes 'cayman'. No more files is required in the repository apart from _config.yml (unless you want to modify your supported theme).

To add Google Analytics, I just followed the advice in the 'cayman' repository (https://github.com/pages-themes/cayman):

Cayman will respect the following variables, if set in your site's _config.yml:

google_analytics: [Your Google Analytics tracking ID]

Full stop! Anything else! Everything works on the side of Google Analytics! It may be a viable option for those who look for a quick set up of GitHub Pages with Google Analytics.

Answer 2

If you're using an automatically generated github page from your github README.md I found this to be the easiest way: Just edit your _config.yml to look like this (with your own google analytics UA id):

theme: jekyll-theme-cayman
title: My Site
description: My site description
url: https://example.com
author: MyName
plugins:
  - jekyll-seo-tag
google_analytics: UA-xxx

Then add a new file to your repository root named Gemfile with this content:

source "https://rubygems.org”
gem "github-pages", group: :jekyll_plugins
gem 'jekyll-seo-tag'

Then wait a bit and refresh your github page and show page source code. Verify that the SEO plugin has inserted your analytics java script. More info here: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-seo-tag

From the installation instruction, I didn't have to add the {% seo %} in the html, luckily, because I have no html. Github seems to have thought of that.

Answer 3

Is better to use GA-Beacon for that. GA-Beacon can track all your GitHub repo, even if the visited link isn't an html document.

Please check: https://github.com/igrigorik/ga-beacon

Answer 4

If you are using the minima template provide by Jekyll then -

1. Add google_analytics: UA-xxxxxxxx-x to your _config.yml
2. Create a file _includes/google-analytics.html and add the google analytics js code in it.

Replace

ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x', 'auto');

with

ga('create', '{{ site.google_analytics }}', 'auto');

and you are set!

The google analytics code will now display if your site is built in production environment. For reference see the template's source code here - https://github.com/jekyll/minima

You can follow the same approach if you are using a different template by referencing the template's source code and replacing the corresponding files.

Answer 5

For anyone interested, if you are using Jekyll with GitHub pages, I just wrote a post showing how to correctly add Google Analytics Tracking ID to Jekyll.

1. You will find your Universal Analytics tracking code under Admin > Property > Tracking Info > Tracking Code.

2. Create a new file called analytics.html in the _includes folder found in your Jekyll website’s directory.

3. Add Google Analytics Tracking ID code to analytics.html.

4. Finally, open _layouts/head.html, and add {% include analytics.html %} just before the end </head> tag. Google recommends this placement to track all of the pages on your website correctly.

Answer 6

Update: Added steps descriptions for others

Solved it:
had to include username.github.io (link that I want to track) in Google Analytics website section.

you can check GitHub help page here

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After that I was provided with an Tracker ID.

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Note: You can easily change or add more websites on Google Analytics page from your Google Analytics admin panel.

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Update 2: - Adding Google Analytics Tracking ID to Already created Github pages (As requested by @avi-aryan )

1. Browse to your github pages branch - which would be something like -
   ( https://github.com/YourUserName/YourRepository/tree/gh-pages )
   
2. Then edit index.html from listed files
3. Now in within HEAD tag of index.html - paste your Google Analytics Tracking ID Script ( if have already signed up for Google analytics then you can browse it under admin and then tracking info tab )