When building a new WordPress site, in the case where the client has an existing site that we’re re-creating, I like to see the existing site’s Google Analytics reports. If the client has several months of Google Analytics data I can see how well the existing site is doing, and which problems we specifically need to address or improve upon. Also, it’s nice to see and record the current levels of traffic before we get involved and so we can compare the improved traffic levels later on.
However sometimes clients present without any Google Analytics stats at all. In these cases the very first thing I do after moving the existing site to a new server (and away from the previous web designer’s server) is to run the site for 2 or 3 weeks with Google Analytics installed. This provides us all with some clear reporting and an indication of visitor numbers right now.
In either case, somewhere along the line I usually share a Google Analytics stats account with the client. To do this I, or they need to add a new user to the Google Analytics profile for the domain. The video below shows how to do this.
