# Analytics, User Feedback, and SEO > Add Google Analytics tracking to your site, collect user feedback and learn about the page description meta tag. --- ## Adding Analytics The Docsy theme builds upon [Hugo's support for Google Analytics][hugo-ga], which Hugo provides through [embedded templates][]. Once you set up analytics as described below, usage information for your site (such as page views) is sent to your [Google Analytics][] account. ### Prerequisites You will need an **analytics ID** for your website before proceeding (technically it's called a measurement ID or property ID but we'll use the term "analytics ID" in this guide). If you don't have one, see the **How to get started** section of [Introducing Google Analytics 4 (GA4)][ga4-intro]. > [!TIP] > > Your project's **analytics ID** is a string that starts with `G-` (a GA4 > measurement ID) or `UA-` (a universal analytics property ID). ### Setup Enable Google Analytics by adding your project's analytics ID to the site configuration file. For details, see [Configure Google Analytics][]. > [!WARNING] Deprecation note and warning > > While you can configure your project's analytics ID by setting either the > top-level `googleAnalytics` config parameter or `services.googleAnalytics.id`, > **`googleAnalytics` was [deprecated in Hugo 0.120.0][v0.120.0]** and will be > removed in a future release. > > **Do not define both parameters,** otherwise this can result in [unexpected > behavior][#921]. For details, see [Is services.googleAnalytics.id an alias for > googleAnalytics][alias-discussion]. [alias-discussion]: https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/config-is-services-googleanalytics-id-an-alias-for-googleanalytics/39469 [#921]: https://github.com/google/docsy/issues/921 [v0.120.0]: https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/tag/v0.120.0 > [!NOTE] Production-only feature! > > Analytics are enabled _only_ for **production** builds (called "environments" > in Hugo terminology). For information about Hugo environments and how to set > them, see the following [discussion][]. [discussion]: https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/what-does-setting-hugo-env-to-production-do/24669/2 ## User Feedback By default Docsy puts a "was this page helpful?" feedback widget at the bottom of every documentation page, as shown in Figure 1.

The user is presented with the text 'Was this page helpful?' followed
by 'Yes' and 'No' buttons. — Figure 1. The feedback widget, outlined in red

After clicking **Yes** the user should see a response like Figure 2. You can [configure] the response text in your project's [configuration file][].

After clicking 'Yes' the widget responds with 'Glad to hear it!
Please tell us how we can improve.' and the second sentence is a link which,
when clicked, opens GitHub and lets the user create an issue on the
documentation repository. — Figure 2. An example **Yes** response

### How is this data useful? When you have a lot of documentation, and not enough time to update it all, you can use the "was this page helpful?" feedback data to help you decide which pages to prioritize. In general, start with the pages with a lot of pageviews and low ratings. "Low ratings" in this context means the pages where users are clicking **No** --- the page wasn't helpful --- more often than **Yes** --- the page was helpful. You can also study your highly-rated pages to develop hypotheses around why your users find them helpful. In general, you can develop more certainty around what patterns your users find helpful or unhelpful if you introduce isolated changes in your documentation whenever possible. For example, suppose that you find a tutorial that no longer matches the product. You update the instructions, check back in a month, and the score has improved. You now have a correlation between up-to-date instructions and higher ratings. Or, suppose you study your highly-rated pages and discover that they all start with code samples. You find 10 other pages with their code samples at the bottom, move the samples to the top, and discover that each page's score has improved. Since this was the only change you introduced on each page, it's more reasonable to believe that your users find code samples at the top of pages helpful. The scientific method, applied to technical writing, in other words! ### Setup {#user-feedback-setup} > [!WARNING] Version note > > As of Docsy version [0.8.0], feedback will be enabled whether > `site.Config.Services.GoogleAnalytics.ID` is set or not. This supports the use > case where analytics is configured outside of Docsy. 1. Open your project's Hugo configuration file. 2. Set the response text that users see after clicking **Yes** or **No**.

[params.ui.feedback]
enable = true
yes = 'Glad to hear it! Please <a href="https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new">tell us how we can improve</a>.'
no = 'Sorry to hear that. Please <a href="https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new">tell us how we can improve</a>.'

params:
  ui:
    feedback:
      enable: true
      yes: >-
        Glad to hear it! Please <a
        href="https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new"> tell us how we
        can improve</a>.
      no: >-
        Sorry to hear that. Please <a
        href="https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new"> tell us how we
        can improve</a>.

{
  "params": {
    "ui": {
      "feedback": {
        "enable": true,
        "yes": "Glad to hear it! Please <a href=\"https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new\"> tell us how we can improve</a>.",
        "no": "Sorry to hear that. Please <a href=\"https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY/issues/new\"> tell us how we can improve</a>."
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Save the edits to your configuration file. By default, Docsy emits an event value of 100 when a user clicks "yes". You can change this value by setting `params.ui.feedback.max_value` to a positive integer. Docsy uses 0 for "no" events. ### Access the feedback data Page feedback is reported to Google Analytics through [events]. > [!WARNING] Version note > > As of Docsy version [0.8.0], page feedback is reported as custom > `page_helpful` events, rather than `click` events. This section assumes basic familiarity with Google Analytics. For example, you should know how to check pageviews over a certain time range and navigate between accounts if you have access to multiple documentation sites. 1. Open Google Analytics. 2. Open **Reports** > **Engagement** > **Events**. 3. Click **page_helpful** in the events table. If there is no `page_helpful` event, then none have been registered for the selected period. Adjust the period as necessary. Note that you might be required to create a custom report if you'd like to better visualize individual data points (per page) along with average values. [events]: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9322688 ### Disable feedback on a single page Add the parameter `hide_feedback` to the page's front matter and set it to `true`.

+++
hide_feedback = true
+++

---
hide_feedback: true
---

{
  "hide_feedback": true
}

### Disable feedback on all pages Set `params.ui.feedback.enable` to `false` in `hugo.toml`/`hugo.yaml`/`hugo.json`:

[params.ui.feedback]
enable = false

params:
  ui:
    feedback:
      enable: false

{
  "params": {
    "ui": {
      "feedback": {
        "enable": false
      }
    }
  }
}

## Add a contact form with Fabform You can create a contact form for your site and collect your form submissions at [fabform.io](https://fabform.io). To use this feature, you first need to sign up for an account with Fabform. The following example shows how to add a simple form that collects the user's email address to your site source: ```html ``` ## Search Engine Optimization meta tags To learn how to optimize your site for SEO, see [Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide). Google [recommends](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide?hl=en%2F#descriptionmeta) using the `description` meta tag to tell search engines what your page is about. For each generated page, Docsy will set the content of the meta `description` by using the first of the following that is defined: - The page `description` [front matter field](/docs/content/adding-content/#page-front-matter) - For non-index pages, the page [summary][], as computed by Hugo - The site description taken from the [site `params`][] For the code used to perform this computation, see [page-description.html]. Add more meta tags as needed to your project's copy of the `head-end.html` partial. For details, see [Customizing templates](lookandfeel/#customizing-templates). [0.8.0]: /project/about/changelog/#v0.8.0 [Configure Google Analytics]: https://gohugo.io/templates/embedded/#configure-google-analytics [ga4-intro]: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1042508 [Google Analytics]: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/ [hugo-ga]: https://gohugo.io/templates/embedded/#google-analytics [embedded templates]: https://gohugo.io/templates/embedded/ [page-description.html]: https://github.com/google/docsy/blob/main/layouts/_partials/page-description.html [site `params`]: https://gohugo.io/variables/site/#the-siteparams-variable [summary]: https://gohugo.io/content-management/summaries/ [configure]: #setup [configuration file]: https://gohugo.io/getting-started/configuration/#configuration-file