Here is a simple Google Analytics checklist to help you to ensure you are using all features.
Please let me know what features might be missing, or any comments you may have. Thank you
List all URLs / Sub-domains that require tracking.
List who requires access to profiles and their access permission. (Standard/Administrator)
Look at the website – Ask yourself:
What is the purpose of this website?
Identify Micro conversions / goals. (Track as much as possible)
Which metrics are going to be important? Which metrics will help me identify where I can improve my website?
Decide the naming conversion for campaign tagging. (Non Adwords campaigns)
Use standard naming conventions.
Setup:
Ensure an unfiltered raw profile exists.
Setup asynchronous version of Google Analytics code to be included on all pages.
Ensure the correct code is used for sub domains (SetDomainName, SetAllowLinker etc.)
Setup Site Search. [include category parameter, if possible]
Setup Goals.
Give the goals a value.
Setup a Goal funnel.
Setup E-commerce tracking for purchased items.
Do reports need to be scheduled? Setup report schedules.
Do events need to be tracked? Track email links / Video buttons.
Setup events/Virtual Page views if applicable. E.g Ajax sites
Implement filters on profiles. (Except on the raw profile) e.g. exclude company IP.
Link Adwords to Analytics.
Enable Auto tagging.
Setup custom alerts to be notified if abnormal activity occurs. [Intelligence]
Implement Custom variables. (If applicable) e.g. member status.
Advanced Segments: Once you have enough click-stream data, apply Advanced Segments to help understand your data better.
Test:
Purchase more than 1 item to ensure E-commerce code renders correct.
Ensure the transaction appears within Google Analytics. (You may have to wait 24 hours)
Check that the new Asynchronous code is on all pages. (Keep a close eye on the profile ID within the code)
A Thought – If your website is not easy to navigate and visitors cannot do what they want to do, then your site is like a maze. Not good.
I often perform test transactions on websites and sometimes (fortunately not all the time); I need to look where to go/click next, to make a purchase. These websites are basically sending their visitors (potential customers!) through a maze and many will give up. You need to make it very simple for users to perform the actions you want them to perform. Send them along a straight line, clearly marked.
1. Do not hide the checkout button.
2. Do not have abnormal surprises during checkout. [Unless you are a professional testing some serious strategies, usually to existing customers though)]
3. Less fields are better.
4. Validation handling is critical. Do not put error messages where users cannot see them, leaving them to wonder what was wrong. I have come across this.
5. If you have to use a captcha – please do not use one like Google uses. Not a fan of theirs
6. Is your checkout on https? – Or are you announcing over a loud speaker that users need to walk through a river with crocodiles?
Remember, a successful purchase is not over till the payment has been processed. In fact, until the order has been delivered on time. (but that’s another topic)
Anyway, here is a maze Flash game that I sourced, to include in this post. Have fun!
Yesterday, I started reading Web Analytics 2.0 written by Avinash. The content in this book is outstanding. It has already started opening by eyes and is beginning to mould the way I think about web analytics.
One thing that I found quite funny in the early stages of the book (reason for this blog post) was the reference to Hippos and Customers. I thought I had to blog about this! and upload a picture of a hippo
I guess it was funny as I have experienced it often … Hippo – the Highest Paid Persons Opinion…counts the most, but it could be ruining your site/conversion rate completely!
Well, I’m really looking forward to finishing your book, Avinash. Love it!
Too often, I find that bounce rate is incorrectly understood. Comments like, “Look, the bounce rate is so high, it must be a bad website”, or even worse “The traffic you are sending to this website is not targeted”. Yes, both is possible, but I always recommend digging deeper with the information that is available to you. Take a closer look.
One of the reasons for this post is that I came across a lead generation website the other day, which uses AJAX to “thank” the user when a successful lead is submitted. This means that the page does not reload and the URL remains the same. Therefore, visitors that are completing the form (the ultimate goal!) are contributing to a higher bounce rate – this is obviously not ideal and would affect your bounce rate metric. Any interpretations you have made on the bounce rate are therefore wrong? Yes.
To fix this, you can use Google Analytics “fake page views” or event tracking or custom variables to capture the lead submission/conv. All credit to http://www.twitter.com/avinash Credit to Avinash for explaining the solution in one sentence. He is good!
I confess, I have a lot to learn with Bounce Rate and gaining a deeper understanding on this metric. My current rule of thumb, is to always ask “Why / Where” are visitors bouncing and always check your web analytics setup to ensure it’s gathering the correct data.
I work quite a bit with Google Analytics and have recently come across two “keywords” that are generated by Google Analytics, that are not actually keywords.
{ysmkey} is a keyword that is created by Google Analytics for a Yahoo Paid campaign, where it was unable to get the actual keyword that was clicked on that attributed the site visit.
The Other keyword that I came across is “boomuserlist”. keywords that start with boomuserlist are visits that belong to a Remarketing campaign within Google Adwords. As keywords do not need to be specified when creating a Remarketing campaign in Google Adwords, Google Analytics attributes all visits/revenue to “boomuserlist”, which I think has to do with the list/audience to which the visitors belong to, as defined in Google Adwords.
Yesterday, I started reading Web Analytics 2.0 written by 
Too often, I find that bounce rate is incorrectly understood. Comments like, “Look, the bounce rate is so high, it must be a bad website”, or even worse “The traffic you are sending to this website is not targeted”. Yes, both is possible, but I always recommend digging deeper with the information that is available to you. Take a closer look.
