In the last 10 years I have audited dozens, or probably even hundreds of Google Analytics accounts. Most setups are far from collecting meaningful and reliable data.

This post will equip you with tools and tips to improve your setup in the next few days. I will discuss 10 different items that are important to get right from the start.

1. Account structure and raw data view
Google Analytics allows you to set up one account with multiple properties and reporting views. Read this support article if you are not completely familiar with it yet.

There is one golden rule here, always keep one data view without filters and/or other modifications. This is called a raw data view.

Filters and their effect on your historical data cannot be undone. Start out with segments and move to filters once you get more experienced with segmentation in general.

Every company should set up a few data views including raw data view and one view with IP address filters. This reporting view guide will tell you all you need about setting up different views for your business.

2. Bot filtering
In all your reporting views – except your raw data view – you need to turn on the bot filter setting.

I’ll share a quick domain migration checklist that you can download and then I’ll share the Data Studio Dashboard for domain migration analysis.

I’m also thankful to the official Google Analytics account for sharing this post on Twitter:

Google Analytics tweet
Table of Contents
An SEO Checklist for Domain Migration
1. Map up The Old URLs to the New URLs
2. Set up 301 Redirects from the Old URLs to the New URLs
3. All 301 Redirects Should Point to The Canonical URLs on the Domain You’re Migrating to
4. Set up Internal Links on the New Domain to Reflect the Changes
5. Additional Things to Do for a Domain Migration
A Few Words About the Change of Address Tool
An Ultimate Google Data Studio Dashboard to Track Domain Migration
Dashboard Overview
Date Ranges
Old Website Impressions/ New Website Impressions
Both Websites Impressions
Old Website Clicks/ New Website Clicks
Both Websites Clicks
Both Websites Traffic
Old Website Queries/ New Website Queries
Old Website Queries/ New Website Landing Pages
How to use the Domain Migration Analysis Dashboard
Back to You
Wait! Here is more:
An SEO Checklist for Domain Migration
This is going to be a checklist with the main steps that you will need to take during a domain migration. If all of them are done right, your migration will be successful.

You know that accurate tracking is key to proving your worth as a digital marketing professional. You’ve set up Google Analytics to track visitors from their first point of contact with the site to the time they leave. Yet when was the last time you double-checked your analytics configuration to ensure you were actually looking at the most accurate data possible?
While Google Analytics presents itself as a relatively “plug and play” interface, errors can make their way into tracking if you’re not paying careful attention. You may miss data for select pages on your site, or spam referrals may creep in.
In addition, you may not be using Google Analytics to its fullest potential. For instance, can you properly segment traffic from ad platforms? Are you able to determine what pages drive the most leads? You should make sure that you’re fully taking advantage of custom features in order to maximize the proof you have for your work.
In this article, we’ll walk through a checklist of key areas in Google Analytics, ensuring that you are both looking at accurate data and using the platform to track every action relevant to a website’s success. Start by making sure you’re tracking the people who land on your site in the first place.

Healthy Google Analytics Data

Make Sure You’re Tracking Users Properly
This is top priority for measuring any marketing initiative. If you haven’t installed Google Analytics correctly, you won’t be able to accurately measure your website’s results.

Don’t just take someone’s word.

Usually, you’ll find tools that were once tried and later forgotten. This slows down sites and leads to conflicts.

What has BuiltWith found? What has BuiltWith found?
Document any analytics shown in BuiltWith to the right.

What scripts are in the source code?What scripts are in the source code?
Go to your homepage.
Right click > View Source
CTRL+F and search for .js
Itemize the names of script files that you see. Note any libraries that don’t serve a clear purpose as issues to the right. Learning the purpose of each library may require a developer.

It’s best practice to leave a comment beside each script file describing its purpose.

Were there unused scripts/tools?Were there unused scripts/tools?
Remove all unused tools/scripts identified using the methods above.

Is Google Analytics configured?
In the next section, we’ll set Google Analytics’ native features.

Create a free Google Analytics account if none exists.

Free Resource
Understand the fundamentals of Google Analytics tracking and how you can improve your website’s performance.

Do you trust your data? Are you capturing the right basic data? Is your data ‘clean’? Is your account setup to best practice standards?

All these questions can be answered by conducting a quick and easy Google Analytics check.

Is Google Analytics correctly installed?
The first aspect of a Google Analytics implementation is to check that the tracking is correct. If the tracking is incorrect, you may find that you have missing, incorrect or incomplete data in GA.

Result of Tag Analysis
Tracking code can be implemented via code snippet or Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Watch out for duplicate code placements on the one page.
If you’re using GTM, ensure that you’ve created a pageview tag which triggers on all pages. Also check that GTM itself has been correctly placed on the page (which is right after the tag on each page).
Place the <script> code snippet in the <head> element of each page, preferably as close to the opening <head> tag as possible.
Place the <noscript> code snippet immediately after the opening <body> tag in the <body> element of each page. Learn more.
Use Google Tag Assistant, a Free Chrome Browser Extension, that helps with troubleshooting basic tag issues.

Google Analytics is loaded with reports and has many settings that can be customized to enhance reporting. The following checklist is designed for ecommerce merchants. By using Google Analytics’ reporting capabilities, merchants can obtain the data to grow their business.

Google Analytics Setup Checklist
1. Use the latest code. Make sure your Google Analytics’ tracking code is updated by going to Admin > Property > Tracking Info > Tracking Code to view the latest version.

Check that your Google Analytics’ tracking code is updated by going to Admin > Property > Tracking Info > Tracking Code.

2. Confirm time zone in Analytics matches AdWords. Ensure your Analytics and AdWords traffic align by time of day by clicking on the Admin > View > View Settings. The time zone setting is down the page.

Ensure your Analytics and AdWords traffic align by time of day by clicking on the Admin > View > View Settings.

3. Check “View Settings.” Give your Google Analytics View a descriptive name. It defaults to “All Website Data,” which is not very helpful. Set the default page to be your home page URL.

If you want certain query parameters to not appear in your content reports (so that pages are grouped together that contain those query parameters with different values), enter those parameters in the “Exclude URL Query Parameters” section.

Make sure your currency is correct.

Click the box to “Exclude all hits from know bots and spiders” to minimize this traffic from muddying up your reporting. I addressed spam traffic at “Google Analytics: Removing Internal Traffic and Referral Spam.”

If you’re tasked with performing a review of existing cookies on a website for compliance (ePrivacy, GDPR), privacy or cookie policy the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool can help automate the heavy lifting in identifying all cookies that are being automatically set without explicit user consent at scale.

This tutorial guides you through how to configure the Screaming Frog SEO Spider to crawl a website, load each page in its headless Chrome browser, and identify any cookies that are found and report them back to you.

The SEO Spider is free in lite form, but the features discussed below do require a licence. When you have the SEO Spider installed, licenced and open, please follow these steps.

1) Select ‘Cookies’ For Extraction
Open up the SEO Spider, go to ‘Config > Spider > Extraction’ and select ‘Cookies’ under ‘URL Details’.

How to Use Google Analytics: A Complete Guide

Peter Drucker once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

Without data, it is impossible to show what affect your SEO strategies are having.

Tracking performance and progress makes analytics invaluable to marketers.

According to HubSpot, 61 percent of respondents say generating traffic and leads is their most significant marketing challenge.

When the C-suite isn’t getting the leads they expect, they start questioning if your work is valuable. That is where data becomes crucial to digital marketers.

This guide is an overview of Google Analytics, the most robust free analytics platform available, and how SEO pros and marketers can use it to their advantage.

How Can Google Analytics Help My SEO?
Google Analytics provides access to a massive amount of data related to how users find and interact with your site.

For example, you can see how many people visited a specific page, how long they remained there, where your users live, how certain keywords perform, and so forth.

Google Analytics can be integrated on your website through code or through their WordPress plugin, Site Kit.

This information is vital in determining how effective your awesome SEO strategies are – and to uncover areas you can make improvements.

What You’ll Learn About Google Analytics
Now that you know why Google Analytics is essential to SEO, let’s talk about what you will learn in this guide.

This article is broken up into five sections based on the reports in Google Analytics.

Reports:

Real-Time
Audience
Acquisition
Behavior
Conversions

You’ll get daily updates on:
• Marketing Technology
• Advertising Creative
• Social Media
• Video Marketing
• Analytics and Measurement
• Mobile Marketing

Why you need Google Analytics
Do you have a blog? Do you have a static website? If the answer is yes, whether they are for personal or business use, then you need Google Analytics. Here are just a few of the many questions about your website that you can answer using Google Analytics.

How many people visit my website?
Where do my visitors live?
Do I need a mobile-friendly website?
What websites send traffic to my website?
What marketing tactics drive the most traffic to my website?
Which pages on my website are the most popular?
How many visitors have I converted into leads or customers?
Where did my converting visitors come from and go on my website?
How can I improve my website’s speed?
What blog content do my visitors like the most?
There are many, many additional questions that Google Analytics can answer, but these are the ones that are most important for most website owners. Now let’s look at how you can get Google Analytics on your website.