Manual: GA Suggestions

The feature "GA Suggestions" of Visual SEO Studio, documented in detail.

GA Suggestions

The feature GA Suggestions is a fully automated test suite that makes you spot with no effort all most common Google Analytics (GA) tracking code setup issues, saving you tons of precious hours of work.
It works by looking in the page HTML source code for typical Analytics setup code, and alternatively for Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup code.

Please notice that there are also other popular web analytics systems, like Yandex.Metrika, Piwik, ShinyStat and many others, though Google Analytics is by large the most widespread.
When your pages use another web analytics system, you should probably ignore errors reported by GA Suggestions since even if you are not using Google Analytics you can be satisfied having the alternative solution installed.

Summary

The Summary tab sheet give you an overall perspective of the reports available in GA Suggestions.
You can quickly select it anytime, even when not it is not visible, by clicking on the Show Summary link.

Reports table columns

Description

The descriptive name of the report. The text is an active link that once clicked will select the tab sheet containing the related report.

Pages

The number of pages affected by the issue detected by the report, i.e. the number of pages listed in the report.

Tot Pages

The total number of pages taken into account when elaborating the reports. This number is the same for all the listed reports.

Percentage

The percentage of pages detected by the specific report, computed as the ratio between the previous two values.

Pie chart icon

A mini pie chart visually reporting two important information:

The percentage shown in the previous column, related to the colored pie slice.
The alert level of the issue investigated by the report. It is reported by the color of the slice:
- Red: the issue investigated has to be considered an Error.
- Yellow: the issue investigated has to be considered a Warning.
  Please notice that a warning is not a "light error", but something that at this stage the program cannot determine if it is a potential error or something wanted.
- Azure: the report is just Informational.

Tracking IDs found table

This table lists all codes detected, for both Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager installations.

Items break-down table

This table gives you an overview of all pages - computed and discarded - in the evaluated crawl session.

Items break-down graph

The 3D pie chart displays visually the content of the table above it. Like all 3D graphs in Visual SEO Studio, the chart can be zoomed, rotated, copied and saved at pleasure.

Export buttons

Reports in URL Suggestions can all be exported.
In the upper-right corner of each report tab sheet you can find easy to spot export buttons:

Permits to open the listed pages in Tabular View as a subset of the whole crawl session (and from there can also export them to Excel/CSV).
Permits to export the content of the shown columns to an Excel document.
This option is available only when the view in the tab sheet is a table (and it is also available from the table context menu).
Permits to export the content of the shown columns to a CSV file.
This option is available only when the view in the tab sheet is a table (and it is also available from the table context menu).

Context menu

Every report in URL Suggestions provides a context menu you can trigger by right clicking with the mouse on a page row:

Copy URL
Copies in the clipboard memory the URL of the selected resource.
Browse URL
Navigates with the default browser the URL of the selected resource.

With GA code

Entry type: Information

This report lists all pages where a Google Analytics setup code was detected.
All pages with any manual Google Analytics setup detected are reported, regardless of it being the latest recommended Global Site Tag (gtag.js) or an older version of the tracking code.

The GA code being present or absent is not necessarily an error, but a condition to be known:

Even if a page is not in this list, it could still load GA code injected by Google Tag Manager (GTM).
On the other side, if a GA setup code is detected in a page, another one could also be injected by Google Tag Manager (GTM), causing a setup error with the GA code loaded twice.

Check the other reports to better diagnose potential issues with the Google Analytics setup.

Without GA code

Entry type: Warning Warning

This report (previously named "Missing GA code") lists all pages where no Google Analytics setup code was detected.

The issue is of type "Warning" and not "Error", because - assuming the web analytics system of reference is Google Analytics - when no Google Analytics (GA) setup code is detected, GA code could still be injected by Google Tag Manager (GTM).
So when the issue is detected you have to see if even Google Tag Manager setup code was not found (with the report "No GA and no GTM code"); if this is installed, manually check on the GTM dashboard whether GA installation is there configured or not.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
If you verified that GA is not installed by GTM, either install the GA setup code in your pages template, or alternatively install GTM code (if not already present) and from its dashboard configure GA installation.

Repeated GA code

Entry type: Error Error

This report lists all pages where Google Analytics setup code was found more than once, with the same tracking ID.

The tracking ID is a string like UA-000000-2. It is included in the tracking code to tell Analytics which account and property to send data to.

The effect of the detected issue is having visits tracked multiple times in Google Analytics, with a Bounce Rate close to zero (some HTTP calls always go missing, so that Bounce Rate could be measured up to 3%, still not a realistic value). Basically Analytics data would be corrupted and you could not take informed decisions based on them.

You can read the tracking ID found repeated in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Remove all duplicate GA setup codes leaving only one. GA setup code could be added to the page via template, or via some plugin of your CMS.

Multiple GA codes

Entry type: Warning Warning

This report lists all pages where Google Analytics setup code was found more than once, with different tracking IDs.

Having different GA tracking IDs configured is not per-se an error, it rather is an advanced option.
Nevertheless in our experience we have seen that most of the times it is:

done wrong, invoking multiple times Google Analytics javascript code instead of configuring it properly;
accidental, with only one tracking ID really used, the others being old abandoned accounts.

You can read all tracking IDs found in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
After having ensured the multiple tracking IDs are all (but one) related to old abandoned Google Analytics accounts, remove them leaving only the one you use. GA setup code could be added to the page via template, or via some plugin of your CMS.

gtag.js code (Global Site Tag)

Entry type: Information

This report lists all pages using the gtag.js Analytics setup code, also known as "Global Site Tag", which since after 14 October 2020 is the new default setup option for Google Analytics.

On October 2020 Google started pushing its users to update from analytics.js manual setup to gtag.js ("Global Site Tag").
Global Site Tag - a system to use all Google tags (e.g. Analytics, Campaign Manager and Ads) available since 2017 - acted as a wrapper that installed analytics.js; for the future we might expect to change its inner working.

You can read the found Analytics tracking ID in the related table.

Check the other reports to better diagnose potential issues with the Google Analytics setup.

Old (2012) analytics.js code

Entry type: Error Error

This report lists all pages using the old analytics.js Analytics code, also known as "Universal Analytics" (introduced by Google in 2012).

You can read the found Analytics tracking ID in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Install the most recent Google Analytics tracking code (manually in the pages template, or via Google Tag Manager), and get rid of the old Universal Analytics manual setup code.
You can find the most recent version of the script in your Google Analytics account Admin options.

Old (2009) ga.js code

Entry type: Error Error

This report lists all pages using the old ga.js Analytics code, also known as "Classic Analytics" or "Legacy Analytics", with asynchronous loading (introduced by Google in December 2009).

Google kept Classic Analytics ga.js for legacy but had not maintained since 2014. Superseded by the "Universal Analytics" analytics.js (now itself also old), ga.js enabled less Analytics features.
It is not rare finding this setup code still used around the Web; we are not even sure it still works.

You can read the found Analytics tracking ID in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Install the most recent Google Analytics tracking code (manually in the pages template, or via Google Tag Manager), and get rid of the old Classic Analytics code.
You can find the most recent version of the script in your Google Analytics account Admin options.

Old (2007) ga.js code (synchronous script)

Entry type: Error Error

This report (previously named "Containing Synch script") lists all pages loading old "Classic Analytics" ga.js script synchronously.
Before December 2009 old GA setups used to load Google Analytics javascript code synchronously, slowing down web page rendering.

You can read the tracking ID found in a synchronous script in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Install the most recent Google Analytics tracking code (manually in the pages template, or via Google Tag Manager), and get rid of the old Classic Analytics code.
You can find the most recent version of the script in your Google Analytics account Admin options.

Old (2005) urchin.js code

Entry type: Error Error

This report (previously named "Containing Urchin code") lists all pages using the old Urchin code.

Urchin used to be an independent product before being acquired in 2005 by Google, which evolved it into Google Analytics. Some very old Google Analytics setup codes still use the old Urchin script (yes, we do still occasionally notice some around the Web; we are not even sure it still works).

You can read the found Urchin tracking ID in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Google Analytics is now a powerful web analytics product and it is free. Install it and get rid of the old Urchin code.

With GTM code

Entry type: Information

This report lists all pages where Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup code was detected.

The GTM code being present or absent is not necessarily an error, but a condition to be known:

Even if a page has no GA code setup, it could still load GA code injected by Google Tag Manager (GTM).
On the other side, if a GA setup code is detected in a page, another one could also be injected by Google Tag Manager (GTM), causing a setup error with the GA code loaded twice.

Notice that having GTM installed does not guarantee it injects GA setup code. Manually check on the GTM dashboard whether GA installation is there configured or not.

Check the other reports to better diagnose potential issues with the Google Analytics setup.

Without GTM code

Entry type: Warning Warning

This report lists all pages where no Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup code was detected.

The issue is of type "Warning" and not "Error", because - assuming the web analytics system of reference is Google Analytics - when no Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup code is detected, GA code could still be installed manually via Google Analytics (GA) setup code.
So when the issue is detected you have to see if even Google Analytics setup code was not found (with the report "No GA and no GTM code").

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
If you verified that a manual GA installation is not detected, either install the GA setup code in your pages template, or alternatively install GTM code and from its dashboard configure GA installation.

No GA and no GTM code

Entry type: Error Error

This report lists all pages where neither Google Analytics nor Google Tag Manager setup codes were found.

The issue is of type "Error", because - assuming the web analytics system of reference is Google Analytics and the tag management system of reference is Google Tag Manager - when none of the two setup codes were detected we can safely assume GA code is not present.

Note: When this issue is detected, it is normal that also the "Without GA code" and "Without GTM code" issues are detected.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
Either install the GA setup code in your pages template, or alternatively install GTM code and from its dashboard configure GA installation.

Both GA and GTM code

Entry type: Warning Warning

This report lists all pages where both Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager setup codes were found.

The issue is of type "Warning", because - assuming the web analytics system of reference is Google Analytics and the tag management system of reference is Google Tag Manager - also GTM could be injecting GA tracking code.
In our experience it is not rare that after a migration from the traditional GA setup code to the adoption of GTM to manage Analytics tracking, the old Google Analytics setup code is left forgotten in the page template. The effect is having visits tracked twice in Google Analytics, with a Bounce Rate close to zero (some HTTP calls always go missing, so that Bounce Rate could be measured up to 3%, still not a realistic value). Basically Analytics data would be corrupted and you could not take informed decisions based on them.

You can read all GA and GTM tracking IDs found in the related table.

How can you fix the issue on the reported pages:
When the issue is detected you should manually check on the GTM dashboard whether GA installation is there configured or not. If it is, remove the forgotten GA setup code from the template.