This is not really Internet Explorer related, but still something many web developers would like to know.

For starters, I’m going to assume you know what Google Analytics is. If not, head over to their website and check it out. You should be using this.

There are three divisions of “accounts” in Google analytics.

  • Google Account (the account you use to log into google analytics with)
  • Google Analytics Account (You select these from a drop-down at the top-right once you have logged in)
  • Website Profiles (typically used to manage filters, sub-domain tracking, etc. but can also track a different domain per profile)

Personally, I create an Analytics account (“Create New Account…” in the drop down where you select which account to view) for each client. And then I create a Profile for each domain that client has (90% of the time, they only have one)

This keeps things fairly organized, but maintains my access to analytics all under one login.

I can permit another Google Account to have access to a Google Analytics account (either entirely as an Administrator, or profile-specif access as a “user”). When you do this, the Google Analytics Account automatically shows up in the top-right drop-down when they log into Google Analytics with their Google Account.

Recently, I ran into a problem. I went to create a new account so I could set up Google Analytics for them, and I got this message:

Unable to create a new account. You’ve reached the maximum number of accounts allowed. The current number of Analytics accounts you are allowed to create is: 25

What!? There’s a limit to the amount of accounts you can create? I began to get concerned. I counted how many Google Analytics Accounts I had access to. I counted 27. This confused me. Was this a new limit? I Googled it, and I found it has been around for a long time. How did I have more than 25 Google Analytics Accounts then? I thought for a while, but then I had an idea!

I knew that a few of these accounts were not created by me, I was added as an Administrator at a later date. Turns out, this happened twice. Did this explain my 27 Google Analytics Accounts?

I did a test:

  1. Create new Google Account
  2. Log into Google Analytics with this new Account.
  3. Create the Google Analytics Account for the new client.
  4. Add my old Google Account as an Administrator to this Google Analytics Account
  5. Log into Google Analytics with my old Google Account.

Aha! I now had the new Google Analytics Account under my old Google Account!

For now, this will work. Every 25 Google Analytics Accounts, I will create a new Google Account, and I will just add my old Google Account as an Administrator onto each Google Analytics Account. Hopefully this will keep working.