Presentation delivered at the first London Measurefest, October 2013. Check list to ensure that anaysts and marketers are managing healthy Google Analytics accounts

1. GETTING GOOGLE ANALYTICS
GOING FROM GET GO

2. Nikki Rae
GOOGLE ANALYTICS CONSULTANCY
Google Analytics Specialist
Agencies and Clients
Google Analytics Trainer
@analyticsgirl

3. What you See is Not Always What You Get

4. Common Conundrums

5. When is Organic Search not Organic
Search?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Keywords that you know you don’t rank for appear in
GA Organic report
Cause
Untracked paid search campaigns including Adwords,
Bing and Yahoo
Fix
Check Adwords is auto-tagged/ manual tagged
Check any other paid search source is manual
tagged

6. When is Direct Traffic not Direct Traffic?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Direct traffic landing on varied pages with difficult to
remember URLs
Cause
When campaigns are not tracked
When server redirects strip manual tagging
Fix
Social Media tagged?
Email Campaigns tagged?
Any links in offline docs tracked?
Server set to carry over query parameters in URLs?

7. Example
Obscure Landing Pages

8. When a referrer is not a referrer #1?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Your site is showing as a referrer to itself
Cause
When sub/ cross domains are using incorrect or
inconsistent code
Redirect is stripping away cookie information for
cross domain URLs
Fix
Use Google Tag Assistant
Manually view the source code
Test the code using GA Tracking Code Debugger

9. Example
Sub domain e.g. blog.futureinsightanalytics.com
Cross Domain e.g. analyticstraining.co.uk and
futureinsightanalytics.com
View tracking source to
see if code has been
amended

10. When a referrer is not a referrer #2?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Search engines are showing as referrers
Cause
When Google Analytics recognises a search engine as
a website
Fix
Manually view the referrers report for any potential
new/ obscure search engines
Add the search engine by using code

11. Example
Use _addOrganic() method
_addOrganic(newOrganicEngine, queryParamName, opt_
prepend)

12. When Google shows as a referrer?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Google shows in referrer report
Cause
The acquisition source Google does not mean a visit
has come via organic search or Adwords
Fix
Manually view the referrers report
Ensure that if looking to view organic or paid traffic,
the medium is organic or cpc

13. Example
Actual Links on Google Sites

14. When a Keyword is not your Keyword #1?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
Keywords are showing in GA that you don’t rank for
Cause
Your tracking code is on someone else's site
Fix
Manually view the hostname report
Use filters to ensure only traffic on your domain is
going into the report

15. Example
This should be your
domain name

16. When a Keyword is not your Keyword #2?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
The keyword report and matched query Adwords
report are different
Cause
You are viewing the Adwords Keyword report rather
than the matched queries report
Fix
If looking for keyword inspiration from Adwords, view
the matched search query report

17. Example
Actual Keywords Typed
Broad/ Phrase
Matched Keywords

18. When a Keyword is not your Keyword #3?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Symptom
You have not segmented out brand traffic
Cause
You are viewing brand search traffic in silo
Fix
Brand traffic is direct traffic, or direct traffic is
brand traffic so ensure analyses recognises that and
don’t just compare brand and non brand traffic

19. Technical Check List

20. Are all the Pages Tagged?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Use SEO Screaming Frog or
similar tool to check the pages on
your site to ensure they are all
tagged

21. Set up Internal Site Search?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
If you have a search engine on
your website, then set up the
report in Google Analytics

22. Maximising Output?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Ensure Webmaster Tools and
Google Adwords are linked to the
account

23. How Many Home Pages?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Ensure you only have one home
page. This can be controlled
using a search and replace filter

24. Are you looking at the right traffic?
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Using filters, remove your staff/
agency traffic via IP address and
network ISP

25. Key Takeaways
Check tracking code is on every page of the site
Check the tracking code contains correct methods for sub
/cross domains
Ensure all campaigns are manually tagged
Ensure redirects are passing query parameters
For Adwords, use matched queries report
Check hostname report for rogue domains
Use Internal Search Report
Maximise opportunities by linking GWT and Adwords
accounts with GA
Ensure that pages are only being assessed once in GA
such as home pages with multiple URIs
Remove your own traffic

26. Tools
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Google Analytics Debugger
Google Tag Assistant
Google Analytics URL Builder

27. Further Education
When paid search campaigns are not tracked
Google’s Analytics Academy
Google Analytics Help Center
Google Analytics Blog
Google Analytics Forum
Google Analytics Solutions Gallery

28. Thank You