How far back should you go to pull reports for a client?

When taking over an already existing Google analytics account for a client should you give reports the day you start managing their account or before that?

Automated Transcript:

So she answer a really good question. about client management the asks. Client gave me full access to Google Analytics. Awesome. you have a client that has had Google analytics set up for a while. How far back should you go to poll reports, to get an activity on the website. should be six months. I think that’s a super question. It is. how ideal like that might be different than what the client expects But. The first step I always do when I get a new client. I always ask for Google analytics access. in lot employees had it Great. The first thing I do is make sure Google analytics is installed correctly. So I make sure and check in every page and the site has the code. I checked to make sure no Ip address is are excluded there’s no funny business as far as modifying The code in the view because someone could have in a more advanced google analytics set you said, few changes and you exclude Ip address or you said I ip addresses So I wanna make sure all that’s done correctly because. I would like to make sure the old data is right. Yeah. And as a rule, when I get a new client I offer no warranty data before when I start, So. You say that again, you you offer no warranty data before you started is that. Okay. You only refer to data. confidently, from when I get control of the account. because I can’t ensure In the past, it was set up accurately. Now have more confidence if I can look and confirm, it is at the point I received it, it’s on every page of the site. At the point I receive it, there’s no weird with Ip addresses or use or modifications like that. then a more confident mental data But as a rule, I tell clients, I can make no guarantees of the accuracy data before I received it. Yeah. I always report to clients start from day one That’s when I report because they’re hiring me to grow there business, from that point from that. I don’t know a year ago six months ago, I don’t know what going on. don’t know was the Analytics broken. I don’t know. Was there a major problem with i? I I don’t know this stuff. So I can’t stand behind the data at that point. what I when I inherited it at that point of control, how analytics is working and then I could be very confident in that data. So just as a rule when I get a new clone I say, hey, I’m happy to look at your old data. but I. it. You know confirm it the data is accuracy my as I can. But I just want you to know i I offer no guarantees for that data. Yeah. And so sometimes clients still like that. they want me to compare myself against your last year. I I will try to accommodate there was best I can, but I always put little asterisk and say, can’t promise your old. That is correct. once I in her inherited, it’s accurate at that point Yeah. But Can’t. And especially if while you’re after even best received new account, Pardon me. and investigated and if you discover error. Let’s say find out the analytics code is only on the homepage. which I’ve seen before, in alert, there some loop or redirect problem in the view. not processing all the data. Then I would tell the client all your data be prior to this point is wrong. It’s not good. Yeah. I look make a notation like we talked about last time in Google Analytics Yeah. Fully. fixed analytics product is accurate from this point forward right? Yeah. But nope. That’s just what I prefer. yeah. insist on more and I just make sure they understand that There are things that could go wrong that I would have no idea because I can’t go I can’t. Yeah. I wasn’t managing his there. Yeah. So a question on that when you say that you take a look at it, make sure there are no Ip address to it’s done all pages and all of that is there, like a. where do you go to check on all of that? Is it like, in your views? Well for which I get for now hour we’re talking google analytics. Of course, I don’t know how because James four, I haven’t even listed how can that. Yeah. So I’m talking You analytics. Yeah. Then only at this point. universal analytics. The first thing I would do is go to the curious it’s being plan, in there process to confirm that Google analytics has kind your site follow that process. Okay. Okay okay. and confirm. Second thing is that the monthly or season the weekly google analytics report you set up will show you if you are getting referrals from your own website. That’s right. Yeah. If you do ever get a referral off from your website, you might have a tracking problem. So at that point, you know you need to investigate if you ever see anything greater than Zero. It should always be zero. other circumstances that if there’s greater zero, second. as I go into The account property view, you there an advanced section in there. you can go in and set up rules such as excluding the Ip address, or modify the Url U. or things like that. Go into that and look and understand. I think filters Okay. Yeah. And see if there are filters set up and if they are, make sure they’re correct, make sure they’re in order because it processes an order. And just rule out errors. because someone, could have set up something well needing a little time ago. true. For instance, There’s one point the Google class said hey. If you want your To always show lower case in Google Analytics, Use this rule to make sure it only shows out at lower cakes. sometimes your server will show it up case or lower case. Mh Well that’s. problem if if you’re google analytics data is only showing everything is lower case. It does consolidate your data. lowercase case zero. But you could have an Seo problem on your site because Google could see an upper uppercase lower case version of seeing Url therefore duplicating it. So you’d wanna know that. And the only way you know that is by going into the view and looking at filters that are installed. Okay. it. While it was in there, I would go ahead and shut up this the three views we like to set up main view, the backup, the testing But of course, once you set those up, the data is only from that point going. Yeah. One. can’t go backwards or so from math forward you to a back, adult traded. Bye. question is a really good one. Yeah. Because sometimes clearly is compare against you know, yourself, their data I would be have a conversation with the client say, Okay. I’ve investigated and hopefully you found no problems. But I like put a big asterisk and saying, I can’t guarantee the accuracy of your old done. Can’t stand behind it now. But all of my reports all my clients are always A month is the first month I start. What? Okay. If from Matt point four, so I’m basically saying, if I started in September of twenty twenty one, The first report will compare october, Twenty two one was September, October twenty one, Yeah. And I we’ll do year year until i’m to September twenty twenty two. Yeah. But I won’t compare my data with August. Okay. Yeah. But that’s me. And I’ve seen some problems in Google analytics before And if your clients pretty adamant and I just have a on a conversation about the limitations. let’s say, Okay. You know, I looked. It it looks accurate. But. I don’t know what I don’t know. Yeah. Right. Okay. And that’s that’s kind of what I would do. So but that’s a really good question. I’m that yeah. even though you’re not here to join us, Alright.