How to Add Google Analytics to Showit

Connecting Google Analytics to your Showit website is one of the quickest wins you can get for your business. It unlocks a wealth of information about who is visiting your site and what they care about most, helping you move beyond guesswork and start making smarter design and marketing decisions. This guide will walk you through exactly how to set it up, verify that it’s working, and start looking at the right data.

Why You Need Google Analytics on Your Showit Site

Before jumping into the steps, it's helpful to understand why this is so important. Without analytics, you're essentially flying blind. You might have a beautiful site and a fantastic portfolio, but you have no real way of knowing if it’s resonating with your audience. Once connected, Google Analytics helps you answer key business questions like:

How many people are visiting my site? Track your daily, weekly, and monthly visitor numbers to see how your audience is growing over time.
Where are they coming from? Find out if visitors arrived from Instagram, a Google search, a Pinterest pin, or a direct link. This tells you which marketing channels are actually working.
Who is my audience? See which countries and cities your visitors are from, giving you valuable insight into your geographical reach.
What content do they like? Discover your most popular pages, blog posts, and portfolio pieces. This helps you create more of what your audience loves and identify underperforming content.
Are my contact forms working? With a little extra setup, you can track how many people complete your contact forms, turning your website into a measurable lead-generation tool.

In short, it’s the difference between guessing what works and knowing what works.

Step 1: Get Your Google Analytics 4 Tracking ID

To connect Showit to Google Analytics, you first need a specific ID number from your Google Analytics account. This ID acts as the bridge that allows data from your website to be sent to your analytics property. Here's how to find it.

If you don't have a Google Analytics account yet:

Go to the Google Analytics website and click "Start for free."
Sign in with your Google account. You'll be guided through setting up a new Account and Property.
Account Name: This is typically your business name.
Property Name: This can also be your business name or your website URL.
When you create a Data Stream, choose "Web," enter your website URL (e.g., www.yourwebsite.com), and give it a name.
Once the stream is created, Google will display a page with your "Measurement ID." This is what you need. It will start with "G-" followed by a combination of letters and numbers.

Copy this Measurement ID to your clipboard. You'll need it in the next step.

If you already have a Google Analytics account:

Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
Click the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner of the page.
Make sure you have the correct Account and Property selected in the top columns.
In the "Property" column, click on Data Streams.
You should see the web data stream for your website listed. Click on it.
In the top right, you'll see a panel with your stream details. Find your Measurement ID, which always starts with "G-".

Highlight and copy this "G-" Measurement ID. Now you're ready to add it to Showit.

Step 2: Add Your Google Analytics ID to Showit

Showit makes this process incredibly simple with a dedicated field for your tracking ID. You don't need to touch any code or worry about complex header scripts.

Log into your Showit account and open the design canvas for your site.
In the top-left menu bar, click on your name. A dropdown menu will appear.
From the dropdown, select Site Settings.
A "Site Settings" window will pop up. Navigate to the Third Party tab. This is where you connect external services.
Look for the field labeled Google Analytics Tracking ID. Paste your GA4 Measurement ID (the one starting with "G-") into this box.
Click the blue Save button at the bottom of the window to confirm your changes.
This is the most important step: You now need to Publish your site. Clicking "Save" just saves the setting within Showit, clicking "Publish" pushes that change live to your actual website so Google Analytics can start collecting data.

That's it! Your Google Analytics tracking code is now active on every page of your Showit website.

Alternate Method: Using Google Tag Manager

For most Showit users, pasting the GA4 Measurement ID directly is perfectly fine. However, if you plan to use multiple tracking scripts in the future (like Facebook Pixel, Pinterest Tag, etc.), using Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a more scalable approach.

GTM acts as a container for all your tracking tags. Instead of adding each new script to your site individually, you just add them within your GTM account. Here's how to connect GTM to Showit.

First, find your GTM Container ID:

Log in to your Google Tag Manager account.
From your main dashboard, you'll see your Container ID in the top right of your workspace view. It starts with "GTM-".
Copy this ID.

Second, add the GTM ID to Showit:

Follow the same initial steps: In Showit, go to Site Name > Site Settings > Third Party.
This time, paste your "GTM-" ID into the Google Tag Manager ID field.
Click Save and then Publish your website.

Important Note: If you use this GTM method, you should not also paste your GA4 ID into the Google Analytics field in Showit. Doing so will cause your site to load the analytics script twice, resulting in inaccurate data (double-counting visitors). Instead, you need to add your Google Analytics tag inside your Google Tag Manager container.

Step 3: Check That Google Analytics is Working

After you’ve published your site, don't just assume it's working. Always double-check to confirm that data is being collected properly. Here are two simple ways to verify your setup.

Method 1: The Realtime Report

The easiest check is to see if Google Analytics registers your own visit to the site.

Open your Google Analytics account in one browser tab. Navigate to Reports > Realtime.
In a separate browser window (preferably an incognito or private window to be safe), load your live Showit website.
Click around a few pages on your site.
Go back to your GA4 Realtime report. Within a minute or two, you should see yourself register as a user. The "Users in Last 30 Minutes" card should change from 0 to 1, and you'll likely see your city appear on the world map.

If you see your activity, you're all set! It’s working.

Method 2: Tag Assistant Companion Chrome Extension

For a more technical confirmation, you can use Google's official browser extension.

Go to the Chrome Web Store and install the Tag Assistant Companion extension.
Go to your live Showit website.
Click the Tag Assistant icon in your browser's toolbar and click Enable.
Refresh your webpage.
Click the extension icon again. It should now show your Google Analytics tag (or GTM tag) with a blue or green icon next to it. This indicates the tag was found and is firing successfully.

What to Check First in Google Analytics

Once you’ve confirmed everything is working and have let data collect for a few days, you can start digging for insights. GA4 can feel overwhelming at first, so here are three simple reports to start with:

1. Traffic Acquisition Report

Where to find it: Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition

This report tells you how people are finding your website. You'll see channels like "Organic Search" (Google), "Direct" (typed your website in), "Organic Social" (Instagram bio link, Pinterest), and "Referral" (links from other websites). This is crucial for understanding which parts of your marketing strategy are driving results.

2. Pages and Screens Report

Where to find it: Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens

This is where you discover your most popular content. The list is sorted by "Views," showing you which pages get the most traffic. It’s a great way to identify what parts of your portfolio are getting attention, which services people are interested in, and which blog topics are resonating with your audience.

3. Demographics Report

Where to find it: Reports > Demographics > Demographic details

This report tells you where your audience is located. You can see a breakdown of your visitors by country, region, and city. If you're a local business, this helps confirm you're reaching a local audience. If you're an online brand, it can reveal new potential markets.

Final Thoughts

Getting Google Analytics set up on your Showit site is a foundational step for growing your business online. By following the steps above, you can quickly move from building a stunning website to understanding exactly how people are using it, empowering you to make data-informed decisions that fuel your growth.

Once your analytics data starts collecting, the next challenge is turning it into easy-to-understand insights. Instead of getting stuck navigating a dozen different GA4 reports, we've found the best approach is to start with a question. With Graphed, you can do just that by connecting your Google Analytics account and asking questions in plain English, like "what were my top 10 blog posts last month?" or "show me website traffic from social media versus search." It's an easy way for marketers and business owners to create reports and get answers in seconds, not hours.