Presented at the Measurecamp conference, this presentation looks at 31 ways that you can destroy the valuable data going into Google Analytics

1. 31 Ways to destroy your
Google Analytics
implementation
Charles Meaden
Digital Nation

2. 30 seconds about me
• Founder of Digital Nation
• Been using web analytics in one form or another for 20 years
• Using Google Analytics since it was launched

3. The Spirit of Measurecamp
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/rodney-mullen/

4. A Lesson From My First Boss
•Shit in
•Shit out

5. It Used To Be So Easy
• 20 years ago, all we had to was process log files
• It’s quite difficult to corrupt a log file

6. Aggregation of Marginal Gains
http://jamesclear.com/marginal-gains

7. 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..

8. 1. Marketing Teams
• ‘Don’t have the time’
– to write a proper brief
– tag campaigns
– keep people informed of new campaigns
• ‘Its not my job’ attitudes
• Won’t take the time to learn

9. 2. Developers
• Insist they know the best place to add tracking codes
• Won’t read technical briefs or just cherry pick from them
• Don’t see the need to comment or document their code
• And my all time favourite
• Not testing their code in a browser to make sure it deploys
correctly

10. 3. Digital Agencies
• “Of course we know analytics”
• Just adding the code onto the page and nothing else
• Not taking the time to understand what the client wants
• Don’t see how they can make money from this

11. Why Do Mistakes Happen
 Lack of knowledge prevents sites from being 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

12. 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
– Twitter: @charlesmeaden
– Linkedin: uk.linkedin.com/in/charlesmeaden

13. 4. 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 a crawling tool such as WASP or Screaming Frog to search the
UA code on the page
Fix
• Maintain a list of all page types and monitor on a regular basis
– Custom Alerts will give you an early warning

14. 5. Too Many Google Analytics Tags
Consequence
• Your bounce rate drops to zero
• Multiple sets of data running around your organisation
How to spot
• Use either HTTPFox , Google Analytics Debug or WASP 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

15. 6. Mixing ‘Classic’ and Universal Code on the same site
Consequence
• Multiple sessions being recorded
• No guarantee that your data will be recorded correctly
How to spot
• Use a crawling tool such as Screaming Frog or Wasp Crawler to
crawl your site and look for tags on the site
Fix
• Upgrade the site to Universal Analytics
You can run classic and Universal side on the same page without any issues.
This refers to using classic in one section and universal in another

16. 7. 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
• Universal - Add the domain name to the referrer exclusion list
• Add the setdomainname into the your GA code (classic)

17. 8. Your Code Deployed On Other Sites
Consequence
• Inflated visits
• Affects all of your metrics
How to spot
• Look at Year on Year patterns for anything that looks runs unusal
• Use Custom Alerts to alert you to any big increases in traffic
Fix
• Remove the incorrect filter
• Set a filter to only include traffic from your hostname

18. 8. Your Code Deployed On Other Sites
Consequence
• Main site and shop on a subdomain
• Intention was to setup two Google Analytics accounts
– Cross domain tracking not possible for “techical reasons”
• The shop fired both accounts
• Vists from the shop ended up in the main account
• Over the year, figures overinflated by 52%

19. 9. 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 and known ISP
names
• If you have a lot of visits coming from dynamic IP’s, consider using
a custom variables / custom dimensions

20. 10. Not Enabling Cross Domain Tracking
Consequence
• New sessions created as you move between domains
• No true picture of the user journey
How to spot
• Traffic coming in from other subdomains or domains within your
organisation
Fix
• Deploy cross domain tracking
• Google Tag Manager and Universal Analytics make this a far
simpler process

21. 11. Excluding Known Browser Bots
Consequence
• Inflated visitor figures
• Distorted metrics
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

22. 12. Excluding Malicious Browser Bots
Consequence
• Inflated referring sites visits
• Distorted metrics
How to spot
• Look for ‘Semalt’ or ‘Buttons for
Websites’
• Other referring web sites that have
100% bounce rates
Fix
• Enable the Bot Filtering in View > View
Settings
• Create a filter to exclude traffic from
Semalt and Buttons

23. 13. 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
– no code at all
Fix
• Use HTTPFox , Google Analytics Debug or WASP to check whether
the GIF is being fired
• Have a test GA view that simulates the standard account

24. 13. Not QA’ing Code in the Browser

25. 13. Not QA’ing Code in the Browser

26. 14: 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

27. 15. 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

28. 16. Not Tagging Campaigns
Consequence
• Visits appear as referrals or direct
– Email will appear as mail.google.com or direct
– Display campaigns just appear in the referring sites
How to spot
• Peaks in direct traffic or referring traffic when email is sent out
• No campaign traffic when you’re running them
Fix
• Email - talk to your ESP about the most effective way to tag your
pages
• Teach those who run campaigns how to tag them

29. 17. Using Campaign Tracking for Internal Promotions
Consequence
• Existing medium / source / campaign information overwritten
• New sessions are started
How to spot
• People ‘landing’ on pages that don’t make sense such as
• Medium, Source and Campaign tags that refer to internal
Fix
• Remove the tags
• Replace them with events
• Look at Universal Enhanced Ecommerce for banner tracking

30. 18. Events Being Fired on Page Load
Consequence
• Drops the bounce rate to zero for
that page
• Affects the overall bounce rate
How to spot
• Use HTTPFox, Google Analytics
Debug or WASP to see what is being
sent back to Google and what is
firing the event
Fix
• Set the event to be a non-interaction
event

31. 19. None or One Thank You Page for All Forms
Consequence
• Incorrect conversion rates
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
• Fire an event when the form is successfully completed
– Downside is you can’t create a funnel

32. 20. Goals Incorrectly Setup
Consequence
• Incorrect conversion rates
• Zero conversions
How to spot
• Funnels that don’t look right
– bulge in the middle
– same numbers for each step
Fix
• Use regex to tightly define goals
• Test, Test and Test again

33. 21. Session ID’s
Consequence
• Increase the number of unique page names and running into
Google limits of 50,000 per table
How to spot
• 1000’s of combinations of the same name
Fix
• Exclude specific variables in the admin section

34. 22. Other Tracking ID’s
Consequence
• Increase the number of unique page
names and running into Google limits
of 50,000 per table
How to spot
1000’s of combinations of the same name
Fix
• Exclude specific variables in the admin
section

35. 23. Site Search Not Implemented
Consequence
• Searches recorded as page views
• Can’t use the Site Search tools to
segment traffic
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

36. 24. 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
• Fire an event that contains missing search term
• Use Google Tag Manager to scrape the DOM element

37. 25. Incorrect Time Zones Set
Consequence
• It’s not clear when the peak times are on your site
How to spot
• Traffic appearing at strange times, normally early in the morning
Fix
• Change the timezones within the admin section
– The change isn’t applied retrospectively

38. 26. Incorrect Currency Set
Consequence
• Transactions are recorded in the
wrong currency
– Actual number will be correct if
not specifying currency in
ecommerce data
How to spot
• The wrong currency symbol is
shown
Fix
• Change the currency within the
View Settings

39. 27. Default Page Set Incorrectly
Consequence
• Pages created that don’t actually
exist
• Can break goals
How to spot
• All directories contain the
default page
Fix
• Before removing it, see if has
been used in goals and
segments

40. 28. Not Setting All Pages To Lower Case
Consequence
• End up with duplicate pages
– Happens on Windows IIS servers
which are not case sensitive
How to spot
• Pages will appear as two separate
rows
Fix
• Eyeball pages names to check for
any issues
• Setup a lower case custom filter

41. 29. Agencies creating Properties Not Accounts
Consequence
• Hassles when trying to get admin access to accounts
How to spot
• Agencies refusing access to accounts
Fix
• Shoot a short video explaining how to change the user
accounts

42. 30. Deleting Your Google Analytics Account
Consequence
• Your data has gone!
How to spot
• The account doesn’t appear to be there
Fix
• Select the Trash Can icon to recover the
account
– You have 35 days to recover account

43. 31. Not Correctly Tracking 404 Pages
Consequence
• If you have no clear 404 page or way of identifying it, then data
from the error pages gets mixed up with live pages
How to spot
• Enter a URL that you know doesn’t exist
• Typically, sites will do one of the following
– Show a dedicated 404 error page on it’s own unique URL
– Show the a 404 error message on the URL you entered
Fix
• Fire an event or virtual page view to identify the pages
• Lunametrics has a good article on tracking 404’s using Google Tag
Manager