Google Analytics (gtag.js) – traffic analysis¶

Google Analytics is the well-known web analytics service from Google. The product is aimed more at marketers than webmasters or technologists, supporting integration with AdWords and other e-commence features. The global site tag (gtag.js) is a JavaScript tagging framework and API that allows you to send event data to Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Marketing Platform.

Installation¶

To start using the Google Analytics integration, you must have installed the django-analytical package and have added the analytical application to INSTALLED_APPS in your project settings.py file. See Installation and configuration for details.

Next you need to add the Google Analytics template tag to your templates. This step is only needed if you are not using the generic analytical.* tags. If you are, skip to Configuration.

The Google Analytics tracking code is inserted into templates using a template tag. Load the google_analytics_gtag template tag library and insert the google_analytics_gtag tag. Because every page that you want to track must have the tag, it is useful to add it to your base template. Insert the tag at the bottom of the HTML head:

{% load google_analytics_gtag %}
<html>
<head>
{% google_analytics_gtag %}
...
</head>
...

Configuration¶

Before you can use the Google Analytics integration, you must first set your website property ID. If you track multiple domains with the same code, you also need to set-up the domain. Finally, you can add custom segments for Google Analytics to track.

Setting the property ID¶

Every website you track with Google Analytics gets its own property ID, and the google_analytics_gtag tag will include it in the rendered Javascript code. You can find the web property ID on the overview page of your account. Set GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_GTAG_PROPERTY_ID in the project settings.py file:

GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_GTAG_PROPERTY_ID = 'UA-XXXXXX-X'

If you do not set a property ID, the tracking code will not be rendered.

Please note that the accepted Property IDs should be one of the following formats:

‘UA-XXXXXX-Y’
‘AW-XXXXXXXXXX’
‘G-XXXXXXXX’
‘DC-XXXXXXXX’

Internal IP addresses¶

Usually you do not want to track clicks from your development or internal IP addresses. By default, if the tags detect that the client comes from any address in the GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_INTERNAL_IPS setting, the tracking code is commented out. It takes the value of ANALYTICAL_INTERNAL_IPS by default (which in turn is INTERNAL_IPS by default). See Identifying authenticated users for important information about detecting the visitor IP address.

Identifying authenticated users¶

The username of an authenticated user is passed to Google Analytics automatically as the user_id. See Identifying authenticated users.