How to assign a user access to your Google Analytics account

MoreVisibility - March 16, 2011

Obtaining access to a web analytics account is the only way in which you can view a web site’s web analytics data. Web analytics vendors do not publish or sell the information that their tools collect and process, and you won’t be able to find some web site’s data using Google or Bing’s search functions. Only you – the web analytics account owner / administrator – can control who sees your valuable, sensitive data.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we’re always sharing tips and strategies on this blog on how you can maximize your Google Analytics account, and for today’s blog, we want to provide the step-by-step instructions for how to assign a user access to your Google Analytics account.

The way in which someone accesses a Google Analytics account is by entering in an E-mail address of a Google account, and the password that the person created during the Google account creation process.

Step 1: Ensure the E-mail address is a Google account
This is the step that is most often skipped over, as many people do not realize that an E-mail address that wishes to access a Google Analytics account must be the E-mail address of a Google account.

If the E-mail address is a Gmail account, then that E-mail address is automatically a Google account as well, which means you don’t have to worry about Step 1 at all. Any other E-mail address from any other E-mail platform must go through the Google account creation process (if not done already).

To turn your Yahoo, AOL, or your work E-mail address into a Google account, go to Google.com and click on “Sign-In” on the upper-right hand side. On the subsequent page, find and click on “Create an account now“. Then, enter in your E-mail address and create a password. Complete the short form, and after a few verification steps, your Google account is created and tied into your regular, non-Gmail E-mail address.

(Note: Google Analytics will not let you add an E-mail address to an account if it is not a Google account – so don’t even think about skipping this step).

Step 2: Ensure that you have Administrative Access to your Google Analytics account
Chances are not that far fetched that you – the person reading this blog and / or wishing to add someone to Google Analytics – don’t have Administrative Access to your own Google Analytics account, yourself. Without Administrative Access, you won’t be able to open up the User Manager control panel and add in a user.

Do you see an “Edit” link next to your account profile(s), and other options in your Overview screen (the screen you see immediately after you log-in)? If you don’t, then you don’t have Administrative Access. Get a hold of the person that originally provided you with access to the Google Analytics account, and either ask them for Administrative Access or ask them to add someone for you.

Step 3: Adding a User (Assuming you have Administrative Access)
To add a user with a valid Google account E-mail address, take the following steps:

A. Log-in to your Google Analytics account
B. If you have access to multiple accounts, select the desired account from the top-right drop-down menu
C. Click on “User Manager” at the very bottom of the screen
D. Click on “+Add User“, which is a white link on the top-right of the table listing all of the other users
E. Enter in the user’s E-mail address, and select the access type. If you grant the user Administrative Access, he / she will have access to everything in the account. If you grant the user View Reports Only access, he / she will only have access to the profiles that you choose for them.
F. Click “Save Changes“, and you’re done!

See how easy that was? Just remember to ensure that the E-mail address is a Google account, or you will suffer the wrath of this warning message from the Google Analytics system:

This user does not have a Google Account.