How to Get Analytics Implementation Right
Deciding what to measure, implementing the tracking to measure it, and checking that the numbers mean what everyone assumes they mean.
Marcus Adeyemi
What is at stake
Most analytics disputes are implementation disputes — two reports disagree because they count different things — and that is only discoverable if somebody documented what was supposed to be counted.
The playbook
- Write down the questions the business needs answered before choosing events
- Name events consistently and document the naming scheme
- Validate tracking after every significant site change
- Record the consent model so everyone knows what the numbers exclude
- Reconcile analytics against a source of truth such as order records
Where it goes wrong
Avoid:
- Tracking everything on the theory that it might be useful later
- Comparing periods across an implementation change without noting it
- Treating consented analytics as a complete count of visitors
- Reports nobody has ever acted on
The numbers behind it
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Consent requirement | non-essential analytics cookies need consent in the UK and EU |
| Effect of consent | measured traffic is a sample, not a census |
| Event design | define the events before implementing them |
| Validation | test events in a staging environment before trusting a report |
| Attribution | different models produce different answers from the same data |
Getting outside help
When to hand it over: Bring in help when two trusted reports disagree, when a site change has broken tracking silently, or when a consent platform has to be introduced without losing all historical comparability.
Where this comes from
- Google Analytics Help — Events and data collection
- Information Commissioner's Office — Cookies and consent
- Google Search Central — Search Console data explained
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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Where to go next
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