Google Analytics Audit Prepared For: Xxxxx Please Note: We have edited all images and some text to protect the privacy of our client.
1. General Setup 3 1.1 current analytics tracking code 3 1.2 test purchase for correct parameters 4 1.3 IP Address exclusion set up 5 1.4 User management cleansing 6 1.5 page naming conventions 6 1.6 Review internal site search 8 1.7 Review of re-marketing lists 9 1.8 Custom Segments 10 2. Integrations 11 2.1 Link to to Adwords setup 11 2.2 Link to AdSense Setup 11 2.3 Link to Webmaster tools 11 2.4 Social sharing configurations 12 3. Traffic and Tagging 13 3.1 UTM Tag Structure 13 3.2 Review of UTM tag structure 17 4. Conversion Tracking 18 4.1 e-commerce tracking setup 18 4.2 Review of event triggers 18 4.3 Review of goal triggers 18 5. Event Recommendations 20
1. General Setup 1.1 Current Analytics Tracking Code Xxxxx is currently using the asynchronous version of Google analytics 5.4.8 set up across the site. The code has been properly placed in the <head> section on all pages of the website. Google Tag manager has not been set up. Recommended Action We recommend upgrading to the new operating standard for Google Analytics called Universal Analytics. When you upgrade, you can still access all of your historical data in the same reports you currently use but will also gain access to additional features including: Custom Dimensions and Metrics New Tracking Code More Reporting Features At this stage, we would advise against implementing Google Tag Manager. It seems that there are not enough tags and pixels being fired in the site to warrant this body of work. 3
1.2 Test Purchase For Correct Parameters Two test purchases were carried out Order No s: #169193-031911AAB-A #168F00-031811F75-A. One order through PayPal and the other with a credit card. Both paths led to the same confirmation page and URL string. Both purchases tracked the following information accurately: Transaction Details Displayed in the Google Tracking Pixel: Transaction ID: 169193-031911AAB Total - 28.07 Tax - 0.00 Shipping cost - 4.95 Billing City - xxxxx Billing region -xxxx Billing Country -xxx Product Details: SKU / Code - 163713 Product Name - Playstation 4 Player Kit Category or variation - PlayStation 4 Unit price - 19.12 Quantity - 1 4
5 Recommended Actions: We suggest passing the Tax amount into the total product sales information. Right now it s tracking 0 The department title is being passed through properly on each product sale, however we also suggest passing through the category title to allow for deeper analysis at a later stage. We also suggest discussing the idea of creating the revenue amount excluding the GST component. Right now, the GST is being passed through as the total sale value. 1.3 IP Address Exclusion Set Up No IP addresses have been set up for exclusions. Recommended Action: We encourage the use of IP exclusions across your organisation and development houses. We suggest finding out the IP addresses used in your offices and any third party development houses and create these as Filters in the admin panel to provide for more accurate reporting and tracking.
6 1.4 User Management Cleansing We have no proper visibility to the complete user list for these Google Analytics Accounts. Recommended Action: We advise scrolling through the User Management section of the admin panel in GA and reviewing list of users. For security and safety, it is best to cleanse this list on a regular basis and only allow access to necessary parties. It s likely you may find linked accounts to old agencies or people you don t work with anymore. 1.5 Page Naming Conventions We have identified a handful of some page naming issues that are affecting your SEO efforts and your ability to analyse your data properly inside Google Analytics. Here is a breakdown of what we identified: 1.5.1 Default of Any Category The highest amount of collective page views falls under a category called any. Upon further investigation any seems to be a default title for all the game Categories which makes it virtually impossible to perform any analysis around the specific game categories on the site.
7 1.5.2 Default Of Any/Any Category We also detected that the default URL string for all Status pages start with /any/any followed by the status title page. This can also create future issues in the ability to report and analyse data. 1.5.3 Product Page Titles Product page URL strings are also missing category titles in the string. In the example below, the Grand Theft Auto product page has PS3 but missing the category title in the URL. For better SEO and data analysis purposes, this URL and breadcrumb of this page should actually be: /ps3/action/product_title Aside from having major SEO implications, not having this information the URL string hinders certain data analysis abilities when addressing sales patterns and site behaviour based on how users engage with different categories and product titles.
8 Recommended Actions: We highly recommended applying category titles in place of any wherever appropriate in the URL strings. We also recommend adding category titles into the URL string of product pages. The string would look something like this - /ps3/action/grand-theftauto 1.6 Review Internal Site Search Site search has been set up and tracking properly. We detected over 130,000 searches carried out on xxxxx in the past 30 days, however the site search categories feature has not been set up or activated. Recommended Action Turn on the site search category feature in the admin panel and creating specific categories to help provide a more comprehensive understanding of your site search data.
9 1.7 Review Of Re-Marketing Lists No re-marketing lists have been created or activated. Recommended Actions: We recommend the creation of re-marketing lists. This will require an additional line of code to your analytics script on every page. Even if you don t use the lists for advertising straight away, it s better to collect the data now so the cookie pool grows over time. Here is a list of some custom lists to consider setting up Visitors who abandoned items in their shopping cart Visitors who viewed any page or viewed specific pages Visitors who ve never/previously converted Visitors who spent over/under $X Visitors who ve visited at least X times Visitors who first came via x, then y channels Visitors who completed a specific goal Visitors who completed a goal within the last N days Visitors who ve visited at least once in the last N days Visitors who viewed a section of the site more than once in N days For example: Re-marketing doesn t always need to be about converting new sales. You may wish to target all people who bought something over a certain $ value and run a campaign around encouraging them to return back to the site and write a review to help grow review volumes on your site.
1.8 Custom Segments No additional custom segments have been created beyond the standard defaulted segments provided by Google. 10 Recommendations: We recommend setting up some of the following custom segments that will allow for deeper analysis down the line: Converters by count and visit Whale converters Organic image traffic Brand interests Cart abandoners by traffic source Conversion rates: store hours vs closed hours Brand vs Non Brand Keywords Organic traffic / Email traffic with conversions Depth of Visit (page view minimums)
11 2. Integrations 2.1 Link To To Adwords Setup The Adwords account is correctly linked to account No. xxxxxxxx There doesn t appear to be any paid search activity at this point. 2.2 Link To Adsense Setup No Adsense account has been linked to this Google Analytics account. However it also appears that no adsense ad blocks have been placed on the site so there is no need to have the accounts linked at this stage. 2.3 Link To Webmaster Tools When you associate a Google Analytics web property with a Webmaster Tools site, you will be able to see Webmaster Tools data in your Google Analytics reports, and enable Webmaster Tools to link directly to associated reports in Google Analytics. https://www.xxxxx - is not linked to any site in your Webmaster Tools account. Recommended Action: Log into your webmaster tools account and finish off the linking process. There should be a link in that account waiting to be clicked to complete the process.
12 2.4 Social Sharing Configurations No social sharing URL s have been created inside the GA account. Recommended Action: While this feature is optional, it would be helpful to add any social links related to xxxxx into this section of the admin panel. It s also important to note that by entering one or more prefixes (eg. www.youtube.com/user/myuser) you will only get social activities against those domains. So if you wish to continue seeing social activities for your primary domain, you ll need to add that as well (eg. example.com).
13 3. Traffic And Tagging 3.1 Utm Tag Structure We identified two main issues around the UTM tagging structure and one issue around referral traffic. 3.1.1 Using UTM tags on internal website images We have identified the use of UTM tags on some internal page links. This is considered a major problem in the way your account is reporting traffic and sales and is a major contributor to skewed data. Internal site links and buttons should always trigger events as opposed to a UTM tag because the UTM tag will override the last click performance of the originating traffic that lead the user to the site in the first place. This issue will also affect the accuracy of your conversion tracking. Screen shot below. The two Sources we detected inside the GA traffic reports were: xxxxx and website
Recommended Action 14 These links must be treated as Events rather than using UTM tags and creating sources. We suggest creating the following event categories for the following sections: Homepage Sliders Gutter Images Homepage Hero s Additionally, it is well worth investigating the use of Google s DFP for small business platform to act as an internal ad server for your hero banners and site gutters. There are many potential benefits to using such a platform. here is a link to more information - http://www.google.com/doubleclick/publishers/small-business/
15 3.1.2 Using multiple names in error for Source creation While this issue isn t as bad as the previous one, it s clear that some of the tagging for the emails are spelt differently or are not tagged at all. Recommended Action Our recommendation is to always keep all source, medium and campaign titles written in lower case to avoid this particular issue. We also suggest a quick review session with the EDM team to ensure better QA of UTM tags when tagging the emails to ensure more accuracy.
16 3.1.3 Referral Traffic Skewing From Deafult URL Currently, xxxxx.com is appearing as the largest referral traffic source. The URL traffic is coming from is /INTL/choose_site_all.html Considering these users typed xxxxx.com rather than xxxxx, they should really be treated as direct traffic rather than a referral. As a result, a big portion of the referral traffic data is skewed.
17 Recommended Action We suggest adding a addignoredref(newignoredreferrer) to your your script, which would then exclude the.com as a referring site and apply the url as direct traffic. 3.2 Review Of Utm Tag Structure Considering there are very few marketing channels outside of EDM s, The actual UTM tag structure seems to be OK. Recommended Action There may be a case for the EDM Source to be broken out into more detailed source titles to allow for deeper reporting and analysis around the EDM s themselves. For example Daily Email, Weekly Newsletter, Monthly Promo etc. This should be discussed in more detail.
18 4. Conversion Tracking 4.1 E-Commerce Tracking Setup The ecommerce tracking has been set up properly. Following the issues outlined in the Test Purchases, below is a screen shot of the test order placed along with all the accurate tracking information. 4.2 Review Of Event Triggers No event Actions or Labels have been created to date. Recommended Action Refer to recommendations below. 4.3 Review Of Goal Triggers There are currently 14 goals set up. However, they are all currently switched off and not tracking anything. Some of the goals date back to 2012 and seem to use some redundant URL strings which means that all new goals moving forward would need to be created from scratch to ensure the most updated URL strings are being used.
For example: The current URL string for the confirmation page ends with / checkout/receipt/550551 while in the Goal set up it ends with cartcomplete.aspx 19 Recommended Action A full overhaul of the Goals set up. Create 3 new checkout funnel goals: Checkout Complete Member Checkout Complete Register Member Checkout Complete Guest
20 5. Event Recommendations Aside from the recommendations above related to turning some links on the site into events, we have identified a handful of other goal and event opportunities to help pave the way for some deeper data analysis and research. Here are a list of events that we recommend setting up: Homepage sliders Small hero products Gutter Banner Navigation titles Top Black strip navigation titles Top black strip login button Add to cart buttons by page type, product name and category Inside Add to cart pop box X button (close window) Continue Shopping link Add to Cart button Proceed to checkout button Product Page Events Top add to cart button Others also bought - Add to cart Product overview, Video Trailer and Screenshots tab links, Reviews Checkout button Checkout Form errors on shipping and billing and CC pages
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