How to Use Google Analytics Without Cookies: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you tired of relying on cookies to track your website's performance? Do you want to use Google Analytics without cookies? Look no further! In this step-by-step guide, we'll show you how to use Google Analytics without cookies.

Google Analytics is still a powerful tool even without cookies, and businesses can still gain valuable insights from the data it provides.

Kristina Podnar

Digital Policy Consultant

What are cookies?

Before we dive into the guide, let's first understand what cookies are. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a user's device when they visit a website. These files contain information about the user's browsing behavior, such as their preferences and history.

Why use Google Analytics without cookies?

While cookies are useful for tracking user behavior, they can also be a privacy concern. Some users may not want their browsing behavior to be tracked, and some browsers may block or delete cookies by default.

Using Google Analytics without cookies can help address these concerns. It allows you to track user behavior without relying on cookies, which can improve privacy and accuracy.

Step 1: Set up Google Analytics

The first step is to set up Google Analytics for your website. If you already have an account, skip to step 2.

To set up Google Analytics, go to the Google Analytics website and sign up for an account. Once you've signed up, you'll be prompted to create a new property for your website.

Follow the prompts to enter your website's information and generate a tracking code. This code will be used to track your website's performance.

Step 2: Modify the tracking code

The next step is to modify the tracking code to use Google Analytics without cookies. To do this, you'll need to add a few lines of code to the tracking code.

First, add the following line of code to the tracking code:

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', {'storage': 'none'});

Replace UA-XXXXX-Y with your tracking ID.

This line of code tells Google Analytics to use no storage for tracking. This means that cookies will not be used to track user behavior.

Next, add the following line of code to the tracking code:

ga('set', 'anonymizeIp', true);

This line of code tells Google Analytics to anonymize IP addresses. This means that user IP addresses will not be stored, which can improve privacy.

Finally, add the following line of code to the tracking code:

ga('send', 'pageview');

This line of code sends a pageview event to Google Analytics, which tracks user behavior.

Step 3: Test the modified tracking code

The next step is to test the modified tracking code to ensure that it's working correctly. To do this, you can use the Google Analytics Debugger extension for Chrome.

Install the extension and navigate to your website. Open the Chrome Developer Tools and go to the Console tab. You should see a message that says "Google Analytics: Initializing analytics.js."

If you don't see this message, there may be an issue with the tracking code. Double-check that you've added the code correctly and try again.

Step 4: Analyze your website's performance

Once you've confirmed that the modified tracking code is working, you can start analyzing your website's performance using Google Analytics.

Log in to your Google Analytics account and navigate to the Reporting tab. Here, you can view a variety of reports that show how users are interacting with your website.

Some useful reports to start with include:

• Audience Overview: This report shows basic information about your website's visitors, such as their location, language, and device type.
• Behavior Flow: This report shows how users navigate through your website, including which pages they visit and how long they spend on each page.
• Conversion Tracking: This report shows how many users are completing specific actions on your website, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Conclusion

Using Google Analytics without cookies can help improve privacy and accuracy when tracking user behavior on your website. By following this step-by-step guide, you can modify your tracking code to use Google Analytics without cookies and start analyzing your website's performance today.