Site Analytics

Currently, there are multiple ways to implement site analytics within RED:  Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and the Slate Ping Component. With either of these 3rd party software providers, you can track your visitor's behavior and analyze how they are arriving at your site.

Implementing Google Analytics & Tag Manager

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Google Analytics is included in the suite of apps in UIC’s Google Workspace. We recommend using this service to secure your GA account and tracking ID.

Check with your college or parent unit to see if they have a GA account for their units. If so, work with them to get the appropriate tracking ID

To create a new account follow these steps:

  1. Login to Google Analytics with your UIC email and common password. To create an account, click More options > Create account.
  2. Set up a GA4 property in your Analytics account. Do not add the property to the existing Analytics field in Theme Settings which is configured only for the UA properties that will be retired in June 2023. To add GA4 to your site Red sites Use GA4 via Tag Manager.
    • If you have an active Universal Analytics property attached to your site, you can run it parallel with GA4 until that property is retired. When dealing with analytics, you can’t retroactively change data that has been collected, so GA4 only provides data going forward and you don’t want to lose historical data.

Google Tag Manager

To use Google Tag Manager you can create a GTM account. When you create an account, it will have a unique GTM ID. To add this ID to your Red website, go to Theme Settings in the dashboard and enter the ID in the appropriate field.

The Google Tag Manager will allow you to select/deselect what information you are going to share to the Google platform and specific collection of data/visitor interaction for Google Analytics (such as scroll tracking, events, basic data, etc.).  Google Tag Manager is also an excellent way to facilitate the management of marketing campaigns analysis within Google Analytics as well as other third-party tracking (i.e. Facebook pixel).

Resources for Google Analytics and Tag Manager

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Implementing the Slate Ping Component

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The Slate Ping Component requires that you already have an account set up with Slate.

For each page you want to track, you will need to click “Add Component” from the Content (Interior Page) section of a page. After selecting “Slate Ping” from the list of components, you will be required to add a Title (which can be hidden from the visitor – this is suggested) as well as the domain. The domain is whatever site URL you have registered within Slate. Then click Update/Publish on the page and the Slate Ping Component will start tracking that page. You can view the analytics in your Slate dashboard.