Thursday, January 22, 2015

3 Free SEO Tools From Google To Track Your Site Accurately

Being in digital marketing can get exhausting and confusing. Creating codes to accurately track conversions, clicks, traffic, referral sources, etc. can become complicated, and code implementation can turn into technical issues.

While the responsibility of accurate tracking and code implementation is shared between the marketers and the developers, it is important to be familiar with Google Analytics to ensure that setup is done correctly.

Here are three Google Tools that can help you with Google Analytics tracking:

1. Google Analytics In-Product Diagnostics

This is the official ‘Notify Me’ report from Google Analytics on any possible issues in tracking. Launched as a Beta in June 2014, this feature has now rolled out to help GA users quickly understand high level issues within their account.

Analytic Diagnostics works by scanning our site for problems specific to your GA account (that you have access to). The diagnostic will inspect tagging, account configuration, data/reporting issues, etc. by reviewing…

  • GA tags that could be missing or not properly coded
  • Filters within the code that cause conflictions
  • Presence of other ‘entries’ within the GA reports

These Analytic notifications should be considered part of the technical audit of your site.

2. Google Tag Assistant

While Google Analytics overall is a simple system, the features within GA can become complicated when using advanced settings. Help simplify the code with the help of Google Chrome’s extension, Tag Assistant.

Tag Assistant is a powerful tool that helps identify errors, warnings, and suggestions in Google’s tags; including: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, AdWords Conversion Tracing, Trusted Stores, Floodlight, and the new Remarketing Tag.

Once Tag Assistant is installed, you will be notified with an alert if tags are found on any page you browse. Tag Assistant will identify any errors in the code, verify that the code is tracking properly, and/or make suggestions to help optimize the installation that was made.

3. Google Analytics Debugger

Yet another Chrome extension available at your fingertips is the Google Analytics ‘Debugger’; a powerful extension that enables the debug version of GA Javascript for all sites that you browse. This allows you to see useful information in the Javascript console while browsing.

Some information that is listed in the Javascript console include: error messages and warnings regarding your Google Analytics code, tracking different campaign parameters, visitor ID, and page names.

Tandem highly recommends conducting quarterly audits for technical errors with code implementation. It is important to audit codes (whether you are running Google Analytics or not) to guarantee the best possible data and metrics. These three free tools from Google contain everything necessary to perform routine audits on GA codes and/or tags.


If you need help checking your GA codes or uploading Tag Manager, please contact Tandem Interactive to speak with one of our team members. 

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