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How reliable is your Google Analytics data?


March 31, 2010

“Is my Google Analytics data accurate and reliable?”

That’s a question I hear almost daily.  And what I’ve found may be surprising, or perhaps may not be… most Google Analytics profiles have problems with reliability.  Why?  It isn’t because of an inherent problem with Google Analytics, but rather a problem with how it has been implemented on the site in question.  The most common mistake for implementing Google Analytics is failing to configure the tracking tags for your particular site.  This is a pervasive problem because it’s really easy to get started with Google Analytics using the basic tags handed to you during account signup or profile creation. BUT, more often than not, those tags are going to be incorrect for your website and, when implemented, result in data with problems.

So, how do you know if your Google Analytics data has problems from an implementation mistake?  We’ve built a tool to help figure this out: Analytics HealthCheck, and I’m very excited to officially announce the open beta!  Read on for more about HealthCheck, how it works, and how you can use it.

What is Analytics HealthCheck?

Analytics HealthCheck detects problems with Google Analytics data that you might not even know exist! HealthCheck scans your Google Analytics profile, analyzing data points against a statistical model that identifies anomalies in your data caused by problems with your Google Analytics installation.  Unlike other Google Analytics “check” and “scan” tools, Analytics HealthCheck looks behind the scenes at your actual Google Analyitcs data rather than scanning the front-end of your site to find problems with your installation of Google Analytics.

analytics-healthcheck-example

We’ve built Analytics HealthCheck to use the Google Analytics Data Export API to extract data from the Profile you choose and analyzes that data against a statistical model we’ve built.  By analyzing the data for specific anomolies we know are caused by cookie integrity and internal referral problems we can detect if or when, where, and to what severity your Google Analytics data has problems.

How to get started with Analytics HealthCheck

Simply go to our start page for HealthCheck and fill out the form to get your check started.  It works in real-time so there’s no waiting for a check to complete before results are shown to you.  So, go ahead, give it a spin, then let me know what you think!