Texas A&M University 150 Here for Good logo
Celebrate 150 Years

Google Analytics and Search

The Aggie UX Cascade templates are configured to allow for search and analytics tracking through tools and services provided by Google.

Cascade CMS logo

Search

Google Programmable Search provides the sitewide search functionality for Aggie UX Cascade sites.

It is very important to configure search on your site because search is in your navigation by default. Without configuring your search, the search bar will not work and will create frustration for site visitors.

You will set up search as part of launching a new site. You must configure your sitewide search through Google Programmable Search Engine and submit your sitemap to Google Search Console in order for search to work both internally and externally.

How to Configure Sitewide Search

  1. Configure your site’s search settings
    1. Open the Google Site Controller Block by going to _custom-content-blocks > google-tags > google-site-controller-block
    2. Click Edit
    3. Open the Google Site Search Settings section and make changes to the available fields as needed.
      1. Programmable Search Engine ID: Enter your Search engine ID from Google Programmable Search Engine to enable sitewide search on your site.
        1. Use the Search Engine ID from your old website if you are migrating an existing Cascade site to Aggie UX.
        2. The Central MarComm web team can help set up Google Programmable Search for new Aggie UX sites. Email web@tamu.edu to request assistance.
      2. Search Page | Search Field Header: The label above the search box on the Search page. It can be helpful to state what you are searching (e.g., “Search the College of Arts and Sciences”).
      3. Search Page | Search Placeholder Label: This text will display inside of the sitewide search box. We recommend using this field to indicate what you are searching (e.g., “Search this site”).
    4. Click Preview Draft
    5. Click Submit
  2. Review that the search page looks as expected by opening the search page in the preview pane
  3. Publish your site to production
    1. Open the root folder of your site in the preview pane
    2. Click Publish 
    3. Check the destinations you want to publish to
    4. Click Publish
  4. Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console. Email web@tamu.edu if you do not have access to your site in Search Console.

Note: It may take a few days for Google Programmable Search to have the most recent results for your website.

How to Make Changes to the Search Page’s Page Header

Information in the page header can be edited in the normal way you would edit a page. To make changes to the search box itself, you’ll need to edit the search page’s search block, accessible in the site information block.

Note: you must configure sitewide search before making changes to the search page itself.

  1. Open the search page in the preview pane.
  2. Click Edit
  3. Make changes to the page header section
  4. Click Preview Draft
  5. Click Submit
  6. Enter version comments
  7. Click Submit
  8. Click Publish
  9. Check the destinations you want to publish to
  10. Click Publish

Analytics

The Aggie UX Cascade implementation has built-in ways to integrate either Google Analytics (GA) on its own or Google Tag Manager (GTM) to track web analytics, such as views and users.

Google Analytics provides detailed metrics for traffic and visitor behavior on your site. For most sites, GA is all you need.

Google Tag Manager is a marketing tool that allows you to add many tracking products to your site including GA. GTM is powerful but more work to set up and maintain. Only select GTM if you need to add custom tracking pixels for ad campaigns or other marketing, advertising or analytics tools.

Introduction to Google Analytics

Introduction to Google Tag Manager

Connecting to GA4 or Google Tag Manager

  1. Open the Google Site Controller Block by going to _custom-content-blocks > google-tags > google-site-controller-block
  2. Click Edit
  3. Under “Which Google product do you want to use for setting up analytics?”, select either “Google Analytics 4” or “Google Tag Manager”
    1. If using Google Analytics 4: Insert your Google Analytics ID (e.g., G-XXXXXXXXX). If this ID is present, the Google Analytics tracking code will be added to every page.
    2. If using Google Tag Manager: Insert your Google Tag Manager script code (e.g.,G-XXXXXXXXX). This code enables analytics tracking using Google Tag Manager and adds the appropriate script to the head and body of every page.
  4. Click Preview Draft
  5. Click Submit
  6. Enter version comments
  7. Click Submit again
  8. Publish your entire site to ensure analytics tracking is active.
  9. Verify that analytics are working by visiting the Realtime view in Google Analytics.

Recommendations for Google Accounts for Business Continuity

If you manage multiple sites, you might already have a Google Search Console account set up and can add each site as a separate property within your account. This account can be connected to your Google Analytics property so that you can connect external search information to your dashboards.

Here are instructions for setting up a Google Analytics account if you don’t have one for your site.

There have been many instances of units losing access to Google Analytics accounts as people change jobs or lose passwords. For business continuity, we recommend:

Google Resources