Philip Walford over at the Google Analytics has published part 1 from a series of posts from a practitioner's perspective detailing case studies from Google Analytics clients. This first post talks about the importance of proper configuration and strategic planning. Below is a snippet from each section of his post's sections. Read the entire post at the Google Analytics Blog.

A Planned Approach

There can be few scarier moments in the humble Google Analytics practitioner's life than realising that a simple error or omission in the past has amplified over time, to play havoc with your data in the present day.

1) What data do I actually need?

Here we have a question so blinding in its obviousness, that it actually prevents people from asking it. But it is critical to define what it is you actually need to know, and do it rigorously.

2) Is the data I need available by default?

This is where the hard work really starts! Once you've been alone with your thoughts (and hopefully the thoughts of a few other interested parties) and decided what it is you want to know, you'll need to figure out whether this information is available by default or if you'll need to apply custom filters, user-defined segments, or goals.

3) Do I know where I am going?

A degree of honest self-appraisal is required here. At first, it may be hard to imagine that you'd need more than what is offered by default without any custom filters or segments. Alternatively you may already know that you'll want to explore as much as you can.

In closing…

It's easy, when setting up web analytics on a site, to regard the numbers themselves as the ultimate goal. You may rush to simply get the code on your site and see reports populated with data. It's easy to perceive the challenge as a technical one, a question of how to apply a tag to a page, rather than a theoretical and organizational one. This is an understandable, but sometimes misguided focus.

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