Install Website Analytics (Web Traffic Stats)
How To Install Google Analytics, Simple Analytics (and others)
Want to know how many people are visiting your website, which pages they spend time on, and how they found you? That's what website analytics are for. In Nucleus you can connect just about any analytics tool to your Nucleus site by adding a small snippet of code.
If coding sounds complicated, take a deep sigh of relief here—we're going to walk you through it. This one is about as easy as it gets.
This guide covers the two most common tools our churches use: Google Analytics (free, powerful, lots of data) and Simple Analytics (privacy-first, no cookies, much easier to read). The install process in Nucleus is identical for both, only the code you paste is different.
Note: Adding custom code is an advanced option. The good news is that analytics snippets are about as safe as custom code gets, as they don't change how your site looks. Still, paste carefully and only add code from a tool you trust.
Use these handy links to skip ahead to any one of these topics:
- Before You Begin
- Where To Add Your Code In Nucleus
- Install Google Analytics
- Install Simple Analytics
- Enable & Publish Your Code
- Check That It's Working
Before You Begin
A few things to know before you start:
- You'll need Nucleus Web and admin access to your site's Design settings.
- You'll need an account with Google Analytics or Simple Analytics already created, so you have a snippet to copy.
- Your analytics code goes in once and tracks every page on your site. You don't need to repeat this for each page you build.
Where To Add Your Code In Nucleus
All of your site-wide code lives in one place.
From your Nucleus dashboard, choose Web in the main menu, then click Design, then Custom Code along the left side.
You'll see four types of code you can add: CSS, Head Code, Body Code, and Javascript.
For analytics, you want Head Code—this places your snippet in the <head> of your site, which is exactly where both Google and Simple Analytics expect it to be.
Note: Head Code supports the tags you'd expect for this kind of install, including <script> , <noscript> , <meta> , and <link> . Anything outside that list is ignored, so stick to the snippet your analytics tool gives you.
Install Google Analytics
Step 1: Copy your Google tag
In Google Analytics, click Admin, and under Data collection and modification, click Data streams.
Click Web, then click the data stream for your website.
Under Google tag, click View tag instructions, then select Install manually.
You'll see a block of JavaScript. Copy the entire thing. It's two parts (a <script> that loads Google's tag, and a second <script> that configures it). You need both.
Step 2: Add it to Nucleus
Back in Nucleus, in Web>Design>Custom Code, click to add a new snippet and choose Head Code.
Give it a name, something like "Google Analytics" works great. (This name is only visible to admins.)
All that's left to do is paste your Google tag into the text box, then click Save Changes.
After you've saved your code, you need to enable your code and then publish the changes in the upper right hand corner. Your code won't take effect until you do.
Install Simple Analytics
The path to installing Simple Analytics is virtually the same concept. In fact, installing analytics from any web tracking service will follow the same path. Copy the snippet, paste it in your head code.
For Simple Analytics:
Step 1: Copy your script
Simple Analytics uses the same snippet for every site, so you can copy it straight from here:
<script async src="https://scripts.simpleanalyticscdn.com/latest.js"></script>
That's it. One line. Simple Analytics automatically picks up which site it belongs to based on your domain.
Optionally, if you'd also like to count visitors who browse with JavaScript turned off, you can add this line underneath:
<noscript><img src="https://queue.simpleanalyticscdn.com/noscript.gif" alt="" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /></noscript>
Step 2: Add it to Nucleus
In Web>Design>Custom Code, click to add a new snippet and choose Head Code.
Name it something like "Simple Analytics," then click Save & Start Editing.
Paste your script into the text box and click Save Changes.
Enable & Publish Your Code
This is the step people miss, so we'll say it loudly: your code is saved, but it is not on yet. 🙂
New snippets are created in an inactive state. You'll see a "Heads up!" message letting you know the code won't render even after publishing.
To turn it on, click Enable in the top right of the code editor.
Once your code is enabled, publish your site to push the change live. Analytics only track your live, published site, not your editor or preview.
Check That It's Working
Give it a few minutes, then visit your live website in a browser.
- Google Analytics: open the Realtime report. You should see yourself listed as an active user. (Google notes it can take up to 30 minutes for data collection to begin.)
- Simple Analytics: open your dashboard. Your visit should appear within a minute or two.
Not seeing anything? Run through this quick list:
- Did you click Enable on the snippet?
- Did you publish your site after enabling it?
- Did you paste the entire snippet? (For Google, that's both
<script>blocks) - Are you checking your live domain, rather than a preview link?
- Do you have an ad blocker or privacy extension running? Those often block analytics scripts, so try a different browser or device.
Note: If something looks off with your site after adding code, don't worry! You can always go back to Web>Design>Custom Code and switch the toggle to the "off" position, then publish again.
Can I use both at once?
Yep. Some churches run Google Analytics for depth and Simple Analytics for a quick, readable weekly glance. Just add them as two separate Head Code snippets, name them clearly, and enable both.
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