Google Analytics Checklist for New Projects
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 6:45 am
The first steps are the most important! Whether you're starting a completely new web project or taking over an existing Google Analytics account as a business intelligence employee, in both cases, it's better to do everything right from the start and double-check that everything is set up correctly. Because nothing is more frustrating than discovering misinterpretations and incorrect data months or years later.
Google Analytics is constantly evolving. Years ago, the advent of the real-time tool caused a stir, then the increased proportion of "not-set" traffic prompted online marketers to get creative, and most recently, a design change was rolled out in mid-2017. Combined with numerous innovations in the integration of the Google Analytics tag on your website and other technical innovations, it's understandable that an update can sometimes be overlooked in existing projects. The result can be incorrect traffic figures and a sudden and unexplained loss of traffic.
To prevent such incidents, we've compiled the following checklist for you. It will help you roll out your new project step by step and correct any potential errors right away.
Basic settings in Google Analytics
1) Exclude the internal IP address
Your own employees and partner companies frequently visit your website. This traffic is obviously not relevant, so these visits should be excluded immediately using a command. It may sound tempting if your own traffic is somewhat higher, argentina phone number data but this will only distort the data. For example, the time spent on the page will increase unnaturally, while the conversion rate will be significantly lower. It's better to exclude these IP addresses right from the start.
How do you do that?
To exclude specific IP addresses, go to the admin area and then to the "All Filters" menu item. Clicking "Add Filter" will open a new window where you can enter the relevant IP addresses.
You can add new filters in Google Analytics using the “All Filters” menu item.
2) Integrate Google Analytics code on all pages
The code should be integrated across the board, as otherwise gaps in data transfer may occur and certain conversions may be calculated incorrectly. It's also a good idea to check whether the code has been integrated completely and not inadvertently duplicated.
3) Universal Analytics integrated only once
A Universal Analytics Account is the parent instance and can contain multiple individual Google Analytics accounts. The search engine introduced this innovation to better measure the various devices and user sessions. Google wants to use this to track the second and third device trend. It also allows multiple projects to be managed quickly and efficiently. Important: Although multiple Google Analytics accounts can be listed here, the same code may only be included once. Otherwise, this could result in duplicate and misrepresented traffic, page views, or sessions.
Google Analytics is constantly evolving. Years ago, the advent of the real-time tool caused a stir, then the increased proportion of "not-set" traffic prompted online marketers to get creative, and most recently, a design change was rolled out in mid-2017. Combined with numerous innovations in the integration of the Google Analytics tag on your website and other technical innovations, it's understandable that an update can sometimes be overlooked in existing projects. The result can be incorrect traffic figures and a sudden and unexplained loss of traffic.
To prevent such incidents, we've compiled the following checklist for you. It will help you roll out your new project step by step and correct any potential errors right away.
Basic settings in Google Analytics
1) Exclude the internal IP address
Your own employees and partner companies frequently visit your website. This traffic is obviously not relevant, so these visits should be excluded immediately using a command. It may sound tempting if your own traffic is somewhat higher, argentina phone number data but this will only distort the data. For example, the time spent on the page will increase unnaturally, while the conversion rate will be significantly lower. It's better to exclude these IP addresses right from the start.
How do you do that?
To exclude specific IP addresses, go to the admin area and then to the "All Filters" menu item. Clicking "Add Filter" will open a new window where you can enter the relevant IP addresses.
You can add new filters in Google Analytics using the “All Filters” menu item.
2) Integrate Google Analytics code on all pages
The code should be integrated across the board, as otherwise gaps in data transfer may occur and certain conversions may be calculated incorrectly. It's also a good idea to check whether the code has been integrated completely and not inadvertently duplicated.
3) Universal Analytics integrated only once
A Universal Analytics Account is the parent instance and can contain multiple individual Google Analytics accounts. The search engine introduced this innovation to better measure the various devices and user sessions. Google wants to use this to track the second and third device trend. It also allows multiple projects to be managed quickly and efficiently. Important: Although multiple Google Analytics accounts can be listed here, the same code may only be included once. Otherwise, this could result in duplicate and misrepresented traffic, page views, or sessions.