{"id":1461,"date":"2015-07-02T15:33:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T15:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcogs.com\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2023-12-01T14:55:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T14:55:42","slug":"google-analytics-checklist-for-new-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/google-analytics-checklist-for-new-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Analytics Checklist for New Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

When undertaking new projects or engaging with new clients, it is useful to review the analytics account set-up to save a lot of time and to enhance productivity. A robust analytics account set-up can avoid discrepancies in actual and observed results.<\/p>\n

Below is a comprehensive check-list for google analytics account for new projects. Always backup your profile settings and data to avoid errors and losing data.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

STAGE 1: BASIC SETUP<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Analyze Your Website\u2019s Structure<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Your website may need an easy Google Analytics implementation or a lot of customized scripts for correct measurement. Look for these potential hurdles in your website:<\/p>\n

Multi-domain \/ subdomain structure<\/strong> \u2013 You need to customize the Google Analytics tracking code because it does not pass the visitor formation between sites automatically.<\/p>\n

Frames<\/strong> \u2013 For full indexing in search engines, it is recommended to remove frames from the website.<\/p>\n

Ajax<\/strong> \u2013 Additional skill needed to make use of virtual page views.<\/p>\n

Dynamically created URLs<\/strong> \u2013 You need to exclude technical query string variables via the \u201cExclude URL Query Parameters\u201d section of the involved profile.<\/p>\n

Flash<\/strong> \u2013 It is not measured automatically.<\/p>\n

Interactions<\/strong> \u2013 Event tracking needs to be setup for interactions like downloads, mail to links, social links etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Set Up Profiles in your Google Analytics Account<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

You can collect the whole or a subset of your data within a profile. Some useful profiles are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • All data profile:\u00a0<\/strong>this is a backup profile and contains all data.<\/li>\n
  • All data (IP filters) profile:\u00a0<\/strong>this profile contains all data with a filter on known IP addresses (your company, partners, etc.)<\/li>\n
  • Include your IP profile:<\/strong> for testing, it collects your only your website behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    3. Set Up Filters – Exclude internal and partner IP addresses <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
      \n
    • To avoid reducing conversion rate and also over-reporting traffic<\/li>\n
    • To implement, go to Admin > Filters (in the appropriate view) > New Filter. You can also use the free tool Xenu for this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

       <\/p>\n

      4. Apply Google Analytics code on all pages<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Missing google analytics code can create misleading site engagement metrics conversion data. A quick look at referral reports can highlight this problem.<\/li>\n
      • All conversions will be shown as “referral” or “direct” if pages do not include Google Analytics code in the checkout process.<\/li>\n
      • To implement, use the \u2018screaming frog\u2019 tool or com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

         <\/p>\n

        5. UA account is listed only once<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
          \n
        • Running two GA codes simultaneously is fine, but it is not OK to run instances of the same code twice.<\/li>\n
        • To find this, search for “UA-” in the source code.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

           <\/p>\n

          6. LINKING RELATED ACCOUNTS<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
            \n
          • Link Google Analytics account with AdWords and Google Webmaster Tools accounts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

             <\/p>\n

            STAGE 2: Ensure proper campaign tracking implementation<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

             <\/p>\n

            7. Enable Auto-Tagging for Google Analytics<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
              \n
            • Without this, your paid search traffic, your paid search traffic will show as organic traffic in Google Analytics.<\/li>\n
            • To check the status of auto-tagging, go to Account Settings > Preferences, in your AdWords Account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

               <\/p>\n

              8. UTM tags for non-Google paid search campaign URLs<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                \n
              • Without this, the traffic will be counted as organic search visits.<\/li>\n
              • Google Analytics interprets utm_medium=cpc and utm_medium=ppc as paid search traffic, so one of these should be used for the medium.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                9. UTM parameters for vanity domains redirect <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                  \n
                • This will allow you to easily attribute visits and conversions from the vanity domain to the campaign associated with the vanity domain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  10. UTM parameters in e-mail campaign links <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                    \n
                  • Allows you to properly attribute visits and conversions to the right email marketing effort<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                     <\/p>\n

                    STAGE 3: CONVERSIONS AND INTERACTIONS<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

                    11. Goal setting<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                      \n
                    • Set desired goals for activities such as purchases, contact form completions, creating an account, time on site, signing up for a newsletter, etc.<\/li>\n
                    • Quantify your goals and their monetary value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                       <\/p>\n

                      12. Set up e-commerce tracking <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                        \n
                      • It will allow you to understand how much revenue you’re making and also, what channels are responsible for driving revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        13. Set up event tracking<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                          \n
                        • Event tracking is a simple way to track how users are interacting with your site. It includes user activities such as the videos played, submitted forms, scrolling through your content, or downloads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                           <\/p>\n

                          STAGE 4: Content grouping<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

                          14. Create content groupings <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
                            \n
                          • Create groups of similar pages like blog posts, landing pages, e-commerce category etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                            Leave a comment, if you have any questions or you want to see more posts like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                            When undertaking new projects or engaging with new clients, it is useful to review the analytics account set-up to save a lot of time and to enhance productivity. A robust analytics account set-up can avoid discrepancies in actual and observed results. Below is a comprehensive check-list for google analytics account for new projects. Always backup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[69,68],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8788,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/8788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netcogs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}