At some point during your career using Google Analytics you’ve probably encountered your shares of issues. There could be an entire plethora of issues that I could pull examples from, but in this case, we are going to talk about when bugs found within Google Analytics, and simple misunderstandings can lean to bad data. If you end up with bad data, and you don’t even know it, that could lead to some obviously bad repercussions for your site, or for a client’s site. Either way, it isn’t good at all.
If you end up getting bad data, you can draw the wrong conclusions. This may not seem like much of a consolation, but keep in mind that some of the bad data you come across may not even be your fault. Chances are, it could be due to Google Analytics’s current settings, or even bugs and configuration found within the Analytics system. Lastly, the data that you end up with could all be based off of your misunderstanding of what’s in front of you. Don’t think it’s something that new Analytics users experience. There are experienced consultants that have had problems and have been tripped up just as badly as the newcomers.
So what is it that you are supposed to look for when making sure the data you end up with isn’t from a bad misunderstanding, or simply bugs or setting problems. Craig Bradford, an SEO consultant for Distilled, can show you the things to look for in his post he’s written for Moz.com. You can check it out by following the link below!
Moz Blog: Avoid Common Google Analytics Bugs and Misunderstandings that Lead to Bad Data