Setting up Google Analytics requires two steps - creating a Google Analytics account and tracking a website. First, an account is created by signing up with Google and providing account details. Second, the tracking code from Google Analytics is pasted into the website code to begin tracking visitor data such as number of visits, visitor demographics, country of origin, and device properties. Google Analytics then provides analytics on the tracked website data including number of daily visits, visitor profiles, and metrics that can be analyzed over different time periods.