at least 50% of my clients have major GA problems when we start

[HoosierBuff]

I just had another new client sign on, and when I went to look at their GA data, there was nothing there. I'd say I'm surprised, but, really, it happens so often.

I just took a census of my current clients, and I realized that at least 50% have major issues with Google Analytics at the start of the engagement - such that there really isn't any year over year data.

I think it's kind of amazing, and is just another reminder of how little business owners know about their web business.

I'd say that the most common issues are:

1. GA not implemented at all
2. Moved to new site, have no idea where the old code is/was
3. Mobile version of the site not tagged.

. . . and to be totally honest, if it is a client that later becomes difficult, it is a failing of mine that I can get a bit dismissive of their concerns (like, really? you are so upset about your traffic, the traffic you didn't even know what you had until I fixed it for you?).

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

A lot of biz owners not only don't know about their web stuff, they don't consider it important.

it is a failing of mine that I can get a bit dismissive of their concerns

LOL - gotta laugh. Sometimes it's best they don't know? A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing...

 

[James Watt]

I've found that a lot of business owners tend to have laser vision. It's more like, as soon as they're investing any time and money in it at all, it's on their radar and their standards go way up. Kind of makes sense, I suppose it's a human nature thing, especially for people (like business owners) that have a million plates they're trying to juggle all at once. I imagine an HR consulting firm for small businesses would have equal things to say about client concerns during a transition to new processes in that arena too.

For what it's worth, getting GA set up is one of the first things I have in my prospecting funnel, and that's not the only place I mention it. If someone decides to hire me, it's nice if they have a backlog of data. All the more if it's thanks to an email from me from 6 months ago. It's not as good as year on year data, but better than nothing.