Slides from my deck at BrightonSEO 2016, discussing analytics horror stories and how to avoid them.

1. Analytics
Horror Stories
Anna Lewis
Polka Dot Data
#BrightonSEO September 2016

2. Dotty About Data
SEO Role - Discovered Google Analytics
PPC and SEO role
Analytics specialist within agency
Lots of blogging, training and speaking gigs
Analytics specialist role in ecommerce company
Maternity Leave
Started my own analytics consultancy business
2008
2016

3. Scary Stuff
Flickr.com/garyknight

4. THE DATA
MAKES ME
CRY!
© Anna Lewis

5. #1

6. “I’m suddenly getting a lot
more sessions”

7. “My banner is really
successful, but I can’t see
which traffic source
generated this”

8. “We launched an app and
it’s so successful we have
almost double the traffic
already”

9. Did you use
campaign
tracking codes
on internal
links?

10. Auto
tagging
Use the correct tracking method for each activity
Event
tracking
Enhanced
Ecommerce
UTM
campaigns
EXTERNAL INTERNAL
Internal
search

11. #2

12. “Can you tell us how to
improve the checkout? …”

13. “…it’s all in this one
fantastic iFrame”

14. “…it’s hosted by a third
party but I’m sure there’s
data”

15. “…it only has a few 302
redirects in the journey, it
should be tracking fine”

16. “…it sends users to a
subdomain that we don’t
have any control over but
the devs say everything
works fine”

17. (>_<)

19. Match
journey to
reports
Get tracking code implementation experts
involved in all new developments on site
Plan
Plan plan Test full
journey
Talk to
experts
Educate key
players in the
process
Get more
involved

20. #3

21. “We have this amazing set
up, it should tell us exactly
what we need to do, but
there’s just too many
numbers, so we don’t
really use it.”

22. “Of course we have
Google Analytics. Geoff
knows how to access it.
He checks it every month”

23. You spent
£££’s installing
a tool but
don’t have
anyone who
uses it well?

24. Tools
Analyst
Remember Avinash Kaushik’s classic rule:
Spend
90% on
people
10% on
tools
Agencies
UsersAnalyst
Analyst
Devs
Devs
Experts
Experts

25. #4

26. “I didn’t need to look at
the data, I know that this
version will perform
better”

27. “I analysed the data and it
told me to do X, but I think
doing the opposite to X
would be better”

28. Did you do all
that set up,
analysis or
testing just for
fun?

29. If you don’t trust the data, test it
Instil trust
across the
business
Test the
data
before
using it
Agree
success
and fail
criteria

30. #5

31. “We set up a new site but
I think it’s performing
worse than the old one”

32. “This account shows a
decline but the other one
shows improvements”

33. “Comparing to last year,
the results are different in
a way we didn’t expect
them to be”

34. Did you forget
to put in a
plan to have
consistent
data?

35. Don’t forget
the data!
Get tracking code implementation experts
involved in all new developments on site
Document
everything
Plan
plan plan
Know the
best
practices
Test all
data

36. #EXTRA

37. Bounce Rate
My new site’s bounce
rate is so good, it’s
less than 10%
You may have added a new
set of tracking code
without removing old code
Two codes = two pageviews
= no bounces!

38. Other pages
I can see (other) in my
Pages report, that’s not
one of my pages!
You probably have too many
unique page URLs and have
run out of rows
Exclude parameters in the admin
settings to remove unique strings and
group URLs together

39. Differences
Why am I getting
different results for the
same thing?
Check the sampling level, is it
different on the two reports?
When adding segments or date
comparisons, GA doesn’t always have
the accurate processed data to hand.

40. #BONUS

41. “I just hit delete.
I wasn’t expecting
everything to disappear.”

42. Not all
mistakes are
created
equal.

43. Restrict admin
access to
trusted
people
DO NOT DELETE
Find out what
the delete
button
deletes before
hitting it

44. If you
don’t
trust it,
test it!
Write and
stick to
guidelines
Top Takeaways
DON’T
delete or
duplicate
Trust
the data
Have a data plan
for every website
change
Talk to
experts
Understand
the error
margins &
limitations

45. Analytics
Training
Insights
from your
website
anna@polkadotdata.com
polkadotdata.com
Anna Lewis
Set up &
Auditing
Get the
most from
your
website!