How To Implement Google Analytics In React Js

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An important aspect of enhancing your React applications is understanding usage patterns and user engagement. To track this information, Google Analytics offers a simple and effective solution. In this blog post, we will guide you through the necessary steps to integrate Google Analytics into your React JS application.

Step 1: Google Analytics Account Setup

Before we begin the technical process, ensure that you have a Google Analytics account. Once you’ve created an account or are logged in, add a new property for your React application. Upon completion, Google will provide you with a Tracking ID (usually in the format UA-0000000-0) which we’ll be needing later.

Step 2: Install the react-ga Library

Next up, we need to install the react-ga library into our project. It’s a lightweight React-specific library for integrating Google Analytics in your applications. To install this library, you need to run the following command in your project directory:

    npm install react-ga --save

Step 3: Initialize Google Analytics

With the library installed, you can now initialize Google Analytics in your application. This initialization should be done as soon as possible in your application’s lifecycle. Typically, this is done in the main index.js file. Here’s a simple example:

    import React from 'react';
    import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
    import { BrowserRouter as Router } from 'react-router-dom';
    import App from './App';
    import ReactGA from 'react-ga';

    ReactGA.initialize('UA-0000000-0'); // replace with your Tracking ID
    ReactGA.pageview(window.location.pathname + window.location.search);

    ReactDOM.render(
      <router>
        <app></app>
      </router>,
      document.getElementById('root')
    );

In this code, we first import the ReactGA library. We then initialize it with ReactGA.initialize(‘UA-0000000-0’), replacing ‘UA-0000000-0’ with your Tracking ID from Google Analytics. Then, ReactGA.pageview(window.location.pathname + window.location.search) is used to record a pageview for the current page.

Step 4: Add Trackers to Different Pages and Events

Now that we’ve set up Google Analytics, we can start adding trackers for various pages and events. For example, to track page views, add the following to each of your components:

    useEffect(() =&gt; {
      ReactGA.pageview(window.location.pathname + window.location.search);
    }, []);

And to track specific events, use the ReactGA.event() function as follows:

    ReactGA.event({
      category: 'User',
      action: 'Clicked Button'
    });

In conclusion, integrating Google Analytics into your React application is a straightforward process that provides valuable insight into your users’ behavior. Happy tracking!