Google Analytics (GA) is a highly effective tool for influencing company decisions at the highest levels. However, like with PPC and Google Ads, the sheer number of data, alternatives, and even guidance provided may leave many people befuddled.
Unsurprisingly, we find a lot of frequent errors in people’s GA accounts regularly. However, the majority of these issues are readily fixed, and you’ll soon have an accurate and usable GA implementation that supports your business decisions.
And don’t worry if you find yourself making any of these errors; you’re not alone!
#1. Failing To Filter Internal Session Data
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Whether you are a big or small company that has gone online, you will undoubtedly receive traffic from your own employees. This is something that Google Analytics detects, and you must understand how to distinguish internal traffic from the traffic you’re trying to quantify.
If you don’t do this, your statistics will be affected, and you’ll have an incorrect picture of the website’s genuine performance. Set up filters to keep internal data out of the final report to avoid this.
#2. Site Search With Query Parameter Is Disabled
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Visitors use search boxes on websites to navigate through the site. If you don’t enable ‘Site Search’ in Google Analytics, it won’t be able to track searches made on your website. You must additionally define the query parameter in GA in order to enable Site Search.
How can you tell what search query parameter your website is using?
You’ll see the same search term if you put something into your website’s search box and then glance at the URL in your browser.
#3. Using Outdated Tracking Code
When you build a new site design and don’t update your tracking code (particularly if you’ve switched from Google Analytics to Google Tag Manager), you risk it becoming obsolete.
Always make sure you’re employing the latest and up-to-date version of your tracking code as a precaution against these kinds of errors.
The traffic will usually have exaggerated statistics, but you won’t know where the repeated traffic is coming from unless you delve further.
Even after that, identifying it is tough. We’ll need to install a Google Chrome extension for that.
To avoid having duplicate tracking codes, use the Google Chrome extension Google Tag Assistant.
When you have several instances of the same tracking code loaded, this will appear as a red tag within the extension.
#4. Not Setting Correct Goal URL Match Type
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You may have noticed that there is an option to specify match type when defining Goals in Google Analytics. “Equals to,” “Begins with,” and “Regular expression” are the 3 main ways if you want Google to match the target URL exactly.
You must use “Begins with” if the goal completion URL additionally has a session id, transaction id, or any other parameters attached. The “Regular expression” is useful if you want to add various criteria to the Goal completion URL.
#5. Ignoring Signs Of Scraping
One potential cause of inflated statistics in your GA account is scraping. If your site was scraped and the Google Analytics tracking code was not removed, you may see visits from a duplicate site in your GA.
Study and analyze these URLs for scraped data if you detect a lot of traffic in Google Analytics data from one of these sites.
If you notice a considerable amount of your content appearing, you should double-check to make sure that your tracking code was not also copied over to the new site.
Conclusion
These are the five most typical errors that people make while using Google Analytics. Avoid these mistakes to gather the appropriate collection of data to work for you, so you’ll be able to make better marketing choices.
Do you find difficulties in employing the Google Analytics tool following best practices? Contact an experienced specialist who can help you stay on top of all the changes and avoid common pitfalls while using Google Analytics.
