10 or more ways

to destroy yourGoogle

Analyticsimplementatio

n Charles MeadenDigital Nation

30 seconds about me

• Founder of Digital Nation• Been using web analytics in one form or another for 18

years• Using Google Analytics since it was launced

A lesson from my first boss.

•Shit in•Shit out

We shouldn’t be having this talk

• If everyone associated with web analytics on a project did their job properly

• So who’s to blame

– Marketing folk who don’t ‘have the time’ to write a proper brief

– Developers who are too arrogant to follow instructions and do it in their own way

– Analysts who don’t carry out sufficient QA on work they have briefed in

Why do mistakes happen

Lack of knowledge prevents sites from tagged correctly

Organisations don’t truly value the data from their tools and won’t commit sufficient budgets to getting them setup correctly

Agencies who claim ‘expert’ knowledge of analytics yet don’t even exclude the IP address of the client

Not enough attention being paid to analytics, so mistakes are not spotted for weeks or months

You can help

• If there is anything I’ve missed let me know and I’ll add it to this deck

• Get hold of me via– charles@digitalnation.co.uk– @charlesmeaden

Tags Missing From Pages

Consequence• Pages not being recorded at all• Self referrals from your own domain name• Incorrectly recorded landing pages

How to spot• Use custom filters in Screaming Frog to search the UA code

on the page

Fix• Maintain a list of all page types and monitor on a regular

basis– Intelligence Events will give you an early warning

Too Many GA Tags

Consequence• Your bounce rate drops to zero• Multiple sets of data running around your organisation

How to spot• Use either HTTPFox or GA Debug to see which tags are

being fired• If using Wordpress or CMS check which plugins are being

used

Fix• Hunt through the source code till you’ve find them and

work out which one can go

Set Domain Name Not Set Or Misconfigured

Consequence• Traffic from other sites can appear in your domain• Visits from blog.yourdomainname.com come in as separate

visits

How to spot• Pages start appearing that don’t belong to your site• Your subdomains appear as referrers

Fix• Add the setdomainname into the your GA code

Forgetting to exclude yourself / client / employees

Consequence• Inflated visitor figures• Inflated conversion rates from all those tests you run

How to spot• Look and see in Audience > Technology > Networks for

large amounts of traffic from one network• Large visitor numbers from countries outside your target

market

Fix• Use a filter to exclude all known static IP addresses• If on a dynamic IP, set a cookie to fill the User Defined slot

and exclude against this

Excluding Browser Bots

Consequence• Inflated visitor figures• Distorted metric

How to spot• High levels of direct traffic with 100% bounce rate• Look and see in Audience > Technology > Networks for

large amounts of traffic from one network• Visits coming from Mozilla User Agent

Fix• Use a filter to exclude IP address and networks

Not QA’ing Code in the Browser

Consequence• Data either not recorded or wrong• If not spotted in time, long term data quality issues• People stop trusting the data

How to spot• Immediate drops in data • Look for code wrapped in comment tags or no code at all

Fix• Have a test GA account that simulates the standard

account

Losing UTM & Gclid Codes Due To Redirects

Consequence• Marketing information not correctly recorded• Increase in direct traffic

How to spot• Direct traffic is far higher than you’d expect• Missing medium and sources• Use HTTPFox to analyse the redirects and see what gets

stripped out

Fix• Discuss with your developers the most efficient way of

developing the redirects that handle the codes

Not Linking Adwords to Analytics

Consequence• All Adwords traffic is reported as organic• Lose your Matched Search Query report

How to spot• Nothing reported in the Adwords section

Fix• Link Adwords to Analytics

Not Tagging Email Campaigns

Consequence• Visits appear as referrals from webmail accounts or direct• Lose the ability to provide detailed email reports

How to spot• Referrals reports contains traffic from domains such as

mail.yahoo, mail.live.com

Fix• Talk to your ESP about the most effective way to tag your

pages

Events Being Fired on Page Load

Consequence• Drops the bounce rate to zero

How to spot• Use HTTPFox or GADebug to see what is being sent back to

Google and what is firing the eventFix• Set the event to be a non-interaction event

Events Being Fired on Page Load

Consequence• Drops the bounce rate to zero

How to spot• Use HTTPFox or GADebug to see what is being sent back to

Google and what is firing the eventFix• Set the event to be a non-interaction event

None or One Thank You Page for All Forms

Consequence• Incorrect Goal information

How to spot• Goals have almost identical conversion rates

Fix• Create separate thank you pages• Set the pageview element to record a distinct name for

each form

Goals Not Defined Tightly Enough

Consequence• Incorrect conversion rates

How to spot• Funnels that don’t look right – i.e bulge in the middle

Fix• Use regex to tightly define goals• Test, Test and Test again

Session Id’s Not Filtered Out

Consequence• Increase the number of unique page names and running

into Google limits

How to spot• 1000’s of combinations of the same name

Fix• Exclude specific variables in the admin section• Use a search and replace filter to exclude

Site Search Not Implemented

Consequence• Searches just recorded as page views• Can’t use the Site Search tools to segment

How to spot• The Content > Site Section is empty

Fix• Look at URL’s to determine where the query string is

– http://www.example.com/search?controller=search&search_query=zoo

• Set up site search in the Google Analytics Admin section

Zero Search Results Not Tracked

Consequence• You don’t know which search terms failed to produce zero

results

How to spot• You can’t as you’re not tracking them

Fix• Modify your search results URL to include a phrase such as

noresults– http://www.example.com/search?controller=search

&search_query=noresults:zoo• Change the trackpageview element in the code on the zero results page to

capture the search term

Z

Thank You

• Craig Sullivan• Hugh Gage• Philip Holloway• Paul Cook• Micheal Hayes• Diego Marquinez

One More Thank You

http://www.justgiving.com/charlesmeaden