Lost access to Google Analytics for your website? It’s a common problem, since we don’t all check it regularly (even though we should!) and sometimes it’s left up to someone else, who may have changed the password and left the company long ago. Web developers may come and go, and within a hectic business environment it’s understandable that logins aren’t kept up to date. But if you find yourself needing to access your old Google Analytics account, there is a solution.
1) Register a Google AdWords account, and if you’re setting up a fresh one, you may be presented with a tutorial on creating your first campaign. Don’t worry about that – you won’t need to use it. If you already have an account, you can just log in.
2) You need to know your AdWords Customer ID, which is in the top right corner of your screen after logging in. Make a note of this and mention it when you contact Google in step 7.
3) You also need the tracking code for your Google Analytics account, or UA. You can do this by viewing the source code of your website’s homepage in your Internet browser and searching for “UA”, which should bring up your code.
4) Go directly to the Google AdWords Help Centre. You can access it through the dashboard on AdWords (unless you’re trapped in the opening tutorial), but the easiest way is to click the link above and go straight to it.
5) Click “CONTACT US” in the upper right corner of the AdWords Help Centre.
6) A box appears to help narrow down the topic you need help with. Select “Google Analytics” followed by “Analytics admin has left”.
7) Here you have a choice. You can send an email explaining your problem i.e. that you no longer have access to Google Analytics, providing your website address, UA and AdWords account number as explained above. Alternatively you can live chat or call the support line.
8) Google will most likely ask you to confirm you are the owner of the website in question. To do this they will send a simple text file and ask you to upload it to the site. You can do this using FTP (file transfer protocol).
Once you have confirmed this, and complied with any other requests, Google Analytics access should be granted to your account! Although this can be an awkward process, it’s the most effective and straightforward method to regain your Google Analytics access without starting fresh.
This is, of course, really important for any small business looking to improve their website by looking at past user data for trends and changes. We assist with Google Analytics tracking for all our clients, since it’s a great way of measuring organic search traffic among other things. If you need any further help with Google Analytics or you’re not sure how it can be useful to you, please let us know and we can talk you through your options.
