Getting the implementation of Google Analytics right is step one in determining the ROI of your marketing and PR efforts. Google Analytics is a significant tool for businesses to track their website data. It’s considerably easy to implement, simple to use and above all it’s free! Whilst the implementation of Google Analytics should be an easy process, there are still lots of instances where mistakes can occur. So let’s have a look at some of them now:
Keeping tracking code in the wrong place on the page
It’s been now over four years since Google Analytics updated the synchronous tracking code to asynchronous. But still some companies are there that haven’t made the switch yet. The synchronous code was placed at the bottom of a page as the code would prevent other web page content from loading. On the other hand, Google’s asynchronous code allows the tracking code to work its magic in the background while the rest of your site loads uninterrupted. Update the tracking code to fix this issue.
Missing out on UTM parameters
UTM tagging has nothing to do with the implementation of your Google Analytics technically, but it has enough to do with the amount of value you can get out of your Google Analytics. UTM parameters gives close insight on what your placed links like ad links and press releases, are helping in increasing traffic to your site. But if you’re not tagging links regularly, you won’t have access to this data. This is big missed opportunity to gain valuable insight on what marketing efforts are paying off. You can use Google’s URL builder to fix the UTM tagging and parameters.
Neglecting pop-up modals
Modals are nice way to collect sign-ups. You should be tracking the conversion rate on these modals using event tracking. This is something that needs an extra effort to set up, but without it, you’ll have no perception on how the pop-up is affecting customer behavior.
Considering external link clicks as bounces
The bounce rate is a key metric in spotting where the site is losing the delight of readers. The problem is that if the implementation gone wrong, Google Analytics will be tracking clicks on external links as bounces. Google Analytics allows you to choose whether outbound links are treated ass interaction events or not. To hold your bounce rates a clean metric on site insights, prohibit external clicks from being counted.
Inadequacy to implement cross-domain tracking
There are many scenarios where you might want to track multiple domains. One such scenario is if you utilize multiple subdomains of your primary domain like blog and support, then your product will likely live at a domain like app. When this happens, you want to be sure that you’re correctly tracking how visitors going across those subdomains. Google gives you two options. Set up a single property and use views to filter out separate subdomains is the first option. The second option is to set up separate properties for each sub domain. It doesn’t really matter which route you choose, but if you go with the latter one, you need to set up cross-domain tracking. Cross-domain tracking will guarantee that traffic moving between your different domains is not viewed as new traffic.
Enumerating logged in users the same as non-logged in users
If you have a website that visitors can log into, then this might be a mistake that you’re making. Users with login information will act very differently than other users. Failing to treat them will unbalance your insights on bounce rates and page views. Through event tracking, this problem can be taken care of. Once these events are tracked, you can build up a custom segment in your reports to filter out visits that include a login.
These common mistakes can adversely affect your attempts to improve your overall web presence and integrity of your Google Analytics profile. Once you’ve scooped out a healthy Analytics setup and a regular routine for using it, you’ll be much better positioned to increase your web traffic effectively.
