To build on the success of our Coremetrics Tag Audit we have recently conducted a Google Analytics Tracking Code Audit.
Like it’s Coremetrics cousin, the Google Analytics Tracking Code Audit is a remote crawler based process designed to capture the current state of the Google tracking code on each page of the client web site.
The audit works in a similar fashion to a Googles own crawlers, however it covers the entire site. It is an outgrowth of Brickfactor’s expertise in the implementation of customized crawlers for content acquisition and web analytics tags.
The audit answers basic questions:
Does analytics code exist on each web page?
Is the code executing and what definitions are being recorded to the designated server for input to reports and the analytics database?
The audit allows for minimum IT involvement and provides a list of URLs with corresponding page tag definitions in the audit report.
For more information please feel free to contact us.
When planning a web analytics system implementation there are a number of potential problem areas that risk the on-time delivery of the project. One such area is enterprise search.
Some potential issues impacting accurate on-site search counts and terms include:
• Off-site search terms are counted as on-site searches
• Embedded email links are counted as on-site searches
• On-site promotional banner links are passed as search terms
• Keyword searches are returning .jsp static pages and not considered successful searches
• Multiple enterprise search applications exist each using different definitions
When validating on-site search accuracy during a web analytics implementation:
• Check on the number and types of enterprise search applications on the site
• Gather and compare the search definitions for each application
• Quality check each application reporting system by taking the top 100 search terms for each one
• Pay special attention to keyword brand and category terms
• Ensure that off-site search terms are not being picked up as on-site terms
• Check email links and promotional banners are not impacting terms and numbers
• Make changes as required
Some best practice advice for defining search results pages in web analytics tags include:
• Uniquely identify search results pages by stating it is a ‘search’ page
• Uniquely identify the search page by type e.g. list or catalog
• Include the search term in the page name
• Include variables such as the results page number
• Create a logic for passing search results refinements into the tags
These changes will allow you to create clickstream and pathing reports from the search results pages.
Web Analytics & Reporting | John M | 
December 2, 2008 10:28 pm | 
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