An actionable checklist for GA a.k.a. What I wish I checked before looking into Google Analytics data

Actual screenshot of data from Google Merchandise Store’s Google Analytics account

TLDR: Here’s the link for the checklist.

I hope you’ve never been where I’ve been. After an hour or two digging deep into a Google Analytics (GA) account with 10 screenshots/slides on some key insights I found, I had to ruin it by checking that one goal tracking implementation with GTM or found one metric that seemed a bit “off” and had to revise the entire deck/retract an email; just because.

Unfortunately Google hasn’t released a magic button to check it all yet, so I built my own Google Sheet.

Now of course, it’s not original, just Google “google analytics audit” and go ahead and compare. I just hope it’ll save some poor soul a round of false assumptions; this coming from experience. The template is still a baby so I appreciate some feedback but for now it does several jobs:

• Checklist with a scoring system
• Action list with priorities and status
• Cloud-based so it can be shared and edited by multiple individuals
• Shows From..To after taking action and…