How to audit and improve any web analytics setup in 3 steps

Web analytics data helps you report on your site’s success and spot ways to improve website performance and experience—but you need to be able to trust it. 

Luckily, you can verify your existing setup's relevance, accuracy, and compliance (and identify areas for improvement) with a web analytics audit.

A web analytics audit is a comprehensive review of your web analytics strategy and the data collected on a website. You can audit a single tool, multiple tools together to ensure data flows between them, or your whole analytics stack at once. Ultimately, these audits help you improve data quality to build a better website experience and attract and retain more customers. 

This guide takes you through the steps you need to take to run a web analytics audit. We’ll help you make sure you’re tracking what you need, collecting data accurately, and complying with relevant privacy regulations. Plus, we’ll throw in a handy checklist to keep you on track.

Web analytics audit checklist

Running a web analytics audit helps you

• Make sure the right data is being collected 

• Identify and fix tracking and reporting errors

• Collect data securely and in compliance with current privacy regulations

• Make stronger data-driven business decisions

• Improve product experience (PX), user experience (UX), and conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Download this checklist as a framework for your next web analytics audit, and keep reading for more detailed instructions and tips.

How to run an analytics audit on your website

Whether you’re auditing an existing website or launching something new, this 3-step guide will help you clarify what analytics data to collect, verify data is being tracked accurately, and comply with security and privacy regulations.

Step 1: identify analytics data needs

You can track almost anything on your website—but it’s what you do with the data that matters. If you capture everything but have no way to analyze your data or quantify the impact of specific experiences, you won’t be able to make real UX improvements for your customers.

On the other hand, not collecting enough data (or collecting none at all) results in missing out on important insights that could help you enhance UX, increase conversions, and make business-critical decisions. 

The Goldilocks answer is to collect all the data you need (or might need in the future) while simultaneously optimizing how you use it. Here are some ways to achieve that. 

Clarify the type(s) of data you need 

Most teams and companies have key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics they influence. For example, a marketing team might want to increase social media referrals by a specific percentage, a support team might try to cut its first-response time in half, and a product team might actively work toward reducing customer churn. 

Whatever your KPIs, make sure your analytics tools help you collect the right mix of data to diagnose the situation, inform experiments and improvements, and measure progress over time. To do this, you need two types of data:

• Quantitative or numerical data that helps you track and compare website performance over time (such as conversion rate, CTA clicks, and pageviews) 

• Qualitative data that helps you understand why customers behave in a specific way (such as session replays and customer feedback responses)

A customizable dashboard in Contentsquare set up to track key metrics

Back to the churn example: to influence this KPI, you obviously need to measure churn rate in the first place and compare its evolution over time. But you won’t know why users churn unless you ask them, which is where qualitative data from a user survey can help.

Use Contentsquare’s Surveys to capture in-the-moment feedback from customers, including their reasons for churning

Similarly, a bounce rate shows the percentage of visitors who aren’t engaging with your site (in Contentsquare, a bounce is defined as a visitor who left after viewing only 1 page). But you can only guess why people bounce—unless you investigate the situation qualitatively. You could do this by triggering an exit-intent survey, looking at heatmap patterns, or watching session replays to see what visitors did before leaving.

💡 Pro tip: combine quantitative and qualitative data with Contentsquare. Create customizable dashboards to track key metrics like bounce rate, sessions, and conversions. Then jump straight from your dashboard to relevant session replays that show you exactly what happened so you can understand the user behavior behind the numbers.

Get relevant insights by jumping from your Contentsquare dashboard to Session Replay in just 1 click

Pick relevant analytics tools

There are thousands of web analytics tools you could use, but think about what you really need. For example, look for a tool (or tools) that cover

• Traditional web analytics, to track cross-domain performance such as landing page traffic, conversions, traffic attribution, and demographic data

• Behavior analytics, to measure user behavior and feedback with tools like Heatmaps, Session Replay, and Voice of Customer tools like Surveys, User Tests, and Interviews

• Subscription analytics, to track product metrics such as annual run rate (ARR) and user churn

• Ecommerce tracking, to monitor online sales, top digital marketing channels, and checkout conversions

You can use a combination of multiple tools, such as Google Analytics plus a separate behavior analytics platform, or opt for a comprehensive experience intelligence insights platform like Contentsquare that offers both quantitative and qualitative data or leave it all to Contentsquare.

Step 2: verify data accuracy

Now that you know what data you need and you’ve picked the analytics tool(s) to collect it, it’s time to check if everything’s working as intended.

Validate tracking code setup

All digital analytics tools have tracking code (usually JavaScript) that must load on every page you want to track. If your code isn’t added or triggered where you need it, your data will have holes that could skew reports. 

“Poor implementation and incorrect use of tracking codes can create all sorts of bugs that skew your data. Being aware of this and regularly testing your setup is really important.”

Sean Potter

Organic Search and SEO Lead, Contentsquare Group

Most analytics tools will help you verify that your domain is being tracked. For example, Contentsquare provides a Tracking Setup Assistant so you can test your implementation and ensure you’re collecting the right information.

Use the Contentsquare Tracking Setup Assistant to check the configuration of the main tag and monitor pageviews

💡 Pro tip: sometimes, people working on your website will accidentally remove code (we’ve all been there!), and tool updates may change how data is reported. It’s important to double-check your tracking setup as soon as you notice any anomalies in your reports.

“Think deeply about whether any big jumps or drops in performance are genuine. If something seems too good—or bad—to be true, the cause can often be found in the tracking setup for the analytics tools you’re using.”

Sean Potter

Organic Search and SEO Lead, Contentsquare Group

Check real-time data

A quick way to check if an analytics tool is working is to load your website in a private window (without blocking cookies or scripts) and see if your visit gets recorded. 

In Contentsquare, data gets populated as soon as people visit your website, generating heatmaps and session replays. If you have lots of traffic and things are working correctly, you’ll start seeing clicks within a few minutes.

Check for data sampling

Many web analytics tools have a sampling limit. This means that after a certain threshold, your reports will not include all traffic you received, potentially misrepresenting site performance. 

For example, in Google Analytics 4, the quota limit for event-level queries is 10 million events. Every report you generate is tagged with a data quality icon—a green check mark means you’re viewing an unsampled report.

Contentsquare, on the other hand, collects 100% of available engagement data, all of the time, to give you the most complete picture of user experience on your site.

💡 Pro tip: no analytics tool can track 100% of visitors because some opt out of tracking entirely or block cookies and JavaScript, so their behavior can’t be recorded. That’s why it’s important to collect qualitative insights (such as survey responses) that can rebalance the missing numerical data.

Step 3: review security and privacy

Reviewing security and privacy during a web analytics audit helps you protect user data and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Here are some things to keep in mind. 

Monitor account permissions

Check the account permissions in all your analytics accounts and ensure only necessary users have access to the data they need—look out for former teammates, agencies, or freelancers that need to be removed. 

In Contentsquare, you can assign different user roles and permission levels based on your plan type:

• For Free and Growth plans, permission levels are Read Only, Read & Write, Admin, and Account Owner

• For Pro and Enterprise plans, user roles are CS Live Only, Viewer, Analyst, Expert, and Administrator

Check data privacy compliance

Many analytics tools collect and store some form of personally identifiable information (PII) such as IP addresses, email addresses, and customer names or use tracking technologies like third-party cookies. Check you’re managing data in compliance with applicable regulations, including

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which regulates how you manage personal data from all EU (European Union) users

• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), which regulates how the personal information of residents of California, USA, is collected, stored, and used

• PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act), which regulates how you process the personal data of residents of Singapore

Check your analytics tools for their privacy commitments and compliance controls. For example, Contentsquare has compliance features such as a Data Subject Request Portal and the ability to automask personal data.

Amend your privacy policy

Whenever you make changes to your analytics setup, review the language and content of your privacy policy to ensure it accurately reflects how user data is collected, stored, and used. Take a look at Contentsquare’s Privacy Policy as an example. 

When to run a web analytics audit

As a general rule, run an analytics audit every time you or your team

• Launch a new website or subdomain

• Roll out major changes or a redesign

• Change your business objectives

• Add or remove analytics tools

Since website technologies and server software are updated frequently, it’s a good idea to make analytics audits a regular activity to ensure your data remains accurate.

“One common mistake I’ve seen during my career is companies don’t look regularly enough at their existing web analytics setup. When you’re trying to identify ways to add your existing setup, you should also be checking the accuracy of what you already have.”

Sean Potter

Organic Search and SEO Lead, Contentsquare Group

Put your analytics data to work

Regularly auditing your web analytics setup using the above steps will give you reliable data about what’s happening on your website and (if you’re using an all-in-one platform like Contentsquare), why.

But data alone won’t help your business grow—you need to put it into action. Use your reliable, audited data to identify what users love and what improvements they might need, and you’ll have a clear roadmap for growth that pleases both your customers and your business. 

FAQs about running a web analytics audit