Huge Analytics discrepancy when I turned off Analytics Module & Turned on GA via GTM
-
Hello,
I was running universal GA via a GA Drupal module. We setup Google Tag Manager and setup a GA tag to run through GTM. When we pushed the GTM container live our Real Time was at around 1900 and when we turned off the Drupal module the Real Time was reporting around 1100.
After 24 hours the sessions for that day were about 100k lower than what they usually are.
Any ideas Why the larger discrepancy? Any places that are obvious to look?
*I didn't setup the original Drupal GA module, nor do I know who did.
Thanks
-
Thanks, Dirk. I had the devs move the data layer above the GTM container snippet. The GA tag is still not firing on pages with a data layer and firing on pages without a data layer.
Obviously, it looks like there is an issue with the data layer -- I can't figure out what it is. I took a screen grab of the data layer in the source code.
-
Can only give you a theoretical answer - don't have that much experience with debugging the tag manager. From the "manual":
Data layer needs to be above the container snippet
Datalayer should be added above the container snippet. Variables pushed to the data layer after the container snippet will not be able to fire tags on page loads with a matching condition.
Variables pushed to the data layer after the container snippet will not be able to fire tags on page loads with a matching condition.
Move the datalayer to above the container snippetCheck also https://www.optimizesmart.com/google-tag-manager-data-layer-explained-like-never/ - it seems that you define your data layer after the position of the tag - so the tag cannot send the info from the data layer to Analytics. Check your source code & check where the data layer is defined. Probably it's ok on your category pages but not on the detail pages (compare both types to see the difference)
Hope this helps.
Dirk
-
Hey Dirk,
I checked the debugger and on the pages where the tag isn't firing the console isn't even acknowledging GTM.
The Tag Assistant is showing this error on pages where the GA tag is not firing: 'data layer needs to be above the container snippet.' Do you think this could be the issue?
I work with a journal site, and I notice that on landing pages the GA tag mostly fires correctly, but on article pages the tag doesn't fire and I get the 'data layer' error from tag assistant. e.x: the tag fires on /news but not on /news/some-random-article-from-today
-
Apart from the Tag manager assistant - you could also check the debugger -https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-debugger/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna?hl=en-US - like Martijn mentioned there should be an error somewhere - did you check the messages in the console?
-
That is possible, the coding is a mess. How could I see if there were or were not JavaScript errors on the page? And if there were, how to pinpoint which are interfering with my GA tag firing?
Thanks, Martijn!
-
Are you sure that there are no JavaScript errors on the page?
-
I found a subdirectory that the GA tag is not firing on though the GTM container is present.
When I use Debug, I get this message:
No tags were evaluated because there was no Event in the selected Message
I have no idea as to why the tag is not firing.
-
Hmm yeah that seems right to me!
-
Thanks, Dirk. I'm going to follow your suggestions.
Martijn, the track type id is 'pageview' and is set to fire on 'all pages'. For my Tag Firing Options I have selected 'once per event.'
Does that seem to be right?
-
What Dirk is suggesting would be the first thing to do in my opinion as well. But the second one is what trigger are you using in Google Tag Manager. Are you targeting all pages in there or something else?
-
Run Screaming Frog - and check if the tag id is present on all pages. Apart from checking - you could also extract the code from the source to double check that the ID is correct; check here how you can do this
In Analytics reporting (Behavior > Site Content > Content Drill down) set the day after migration & compare it to the day before migration - check if there if the drop is generic (=all pages) or linked to a few sections. If the drop is higher in specific sections - go down to next level & do the same. Check the pages with the highest traffic loss using the Tag Assistant plugin for Chrome. It checks if the tag is properly implemented on these pages (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tag-assistant-by-google/kejbdjndbnbjgmefkgdddjlbokphdefk)
You can also use the Tag Assistant plugin on your main pages to see if it is sending data as you would expect.
Hope this helps.
Dirk
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Tracking Pop Up Form Submission Events with GTM
Hello, I'm currently tracking contact form submissions any time a user clicks 'Submit' on a pop-up form. Once the form is submitted, the URL of the page remains the same (there is no /thank-you page or such like), hence needing to fire the Event based on a click. Problem is, even if the form is not actually submitted and a user just clicks the Submit button without filling in the fields, the Event will still fire. I know there is a way to ensure the Event ONLY fires when the form is actually submitted for real, but I don't know how to implement that in GTM. Any help most appreciated 🙂 Cheers, Gill.
Reporting & Analytics | | Cannetastic0 -
Google Analytics Automated Reporting
HI all, I tend to do a big reporting powerpoint deck using screenshots from google analytics and tables I create year end and mid year. It's like an 80 page report for the 10 webisite swe have and then I go ahead and make annotations as I see from the data. That being said this can take a lot of time, up to a 40 hours of time to pull it all together or more which is challenging when you have daily meetings. Anyhow, I've looked into automating and tried a couple things: 1. Tableau- but it keeps crashing and seems tedious 2. Dashlane and supergrabber- seem a bit tedious to set up too. Anyone have ideas on how to better shar ereporting in the organization in this type of format for a website (websites)? Organic, paid, traffic, etc. Laura
Reporting & Analytics | | lauramrobinson322 -
How does switching to HTTPS effect Google Analytics?
We are looking at making our site HTTPS. We have been using the same Google Analytics account for years and I like having the historical data. All of our pages will be the same, we are just going to redirect from the http to https. Does anything need to be done with Google Analytics? What about other addons such as Optimizely, Crazy Egg, or Share this?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
Strange Traffic / Viewed content in Analytics
Hi Im looking at the content viewed in December for a clients site and there's a high number of page views for some non-existent pages which received multiple hits eg. domain.com/dr-capability/ with 241 page views (54 unique page views) How can you have multiple page views (and many unique page views) for pages that don't exist ? Is it possible page is being generated automatically or something ? if so how come ? Any ideas as to whats causing this much appreciated ? All Best Dan ps - also many above average home page views
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Google Analytics shows wrong traffic source
I was reviewing out traffic sources on GA for this past week's traffic history, and noticed a couple of visits & conversions that GA cited as coming from campaigns from emails that were sent out in 2012 and early 2013. it seems odd that we would have traffic & conversions from these older campaigns - on a regular basis. it's not even from one campaign, but from multiple campaigns. is it possible that it is a cookie issue? - i wonder if these visits were really from the email campaigns - or if they were from organic searches or other sources. Thoughts? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | S.S.N0 -
Google Analytics
How can you see the conversion rates for the referral traffic? For example I want to see if any of the facebook visits to my site resulted in a purchase.
Reporting & Analytics | | EcomLkwd0 -
Tracking analytics on several domains
Hello, I am looking for some advice. I am working with a real estate client. They have a main website, and then several separate agent websites. The agent sites share some content with the main site, as well as having some unique content. My question is what is the best way to track visitors? Should I have separate Google Analytics accounts for each site, or should I use one account and separate profiles?
Reporting & Analytics | | ukao0