The GA4 Tracking Audit Checklist: 15 Things to Check Before You Trust Your Data

Bad data leads to bad decisions. Before spending another dollar based on your GA4 reports, run through this comprehensive checklist to identify issues that could be costing you money.

Why Audit Your GA4 Setup?

Shocking Stat: In our audits, we find that 73% of GA4 implementations have at least one critical tracking issue that affects data accuracy. The most common? Duplicate events and missing conversion tracking.

Common problems we discover:

• Conversion counts inflated by 2-3x due to duplicate tracking
• Missing source/medium data making attribution useless
• Internal traffic polluting reports
• Events that never actually fire

Basic Configuration

✅ 1. Data Stream Setup

• Correct website URL configured (including subdomain)
• Enhanced measurement enabled (or intentionally disabled for custom tracking)
• Cross-domain tracking configured if you have multiple domains

How to check: GA4 → Admin → Data Streams → Select your web stream

Example issue:

Problem: www.example.com is tracked, but blog.example.com is on a different stream
Result: Users visiting both appear as two separate users
Solution: Add cross-domain configuration or combine into one stream

✅ 2. Google Tag Manager Connection

• GTM container is installed on all pages
• GA4 Configuration tag fires on all pages
• No duplicate GA4 tags firing

How to verify:

1. Install Tag Assistant
2. Browse your site
3. Check that GA4 fires exactly once per page

Red flag: If you see GA4 firing 2+ times per page view, you have duplicate tracking.

✅ 3. User Identification

• User-ID configured for logged-in users (if applicable)
• Session timeout settings are appropriate for your business

Default session timeout: 30 minutes
Recommendation for B2B: Consider extending to 60+ minutes for complex research journeys

Event Tracking

✅ 4. Key Conversions Defined

How to check: GA4 → Admin → Events → Toggle "Mark as conversion"

✅ 5. Event Parameters

• UTM parameters are being captured
• Custom parameters are within GA4 limits (25 event-scoped per event)
• Parameter values aren't exceeding 100 characters

Common mistake: Sending product IDs or URLs as parameters that exceed character limits—data gets truncated.

✅ 6. No Duplicate Events

• Check for duplicate conversion events
• Verify event counts match real-world actions
• Test with GA4 DebugView

How to identify duplicates:

// In browser console, check for multiple gtag calls:
window.dataLayer.filter(e => e.event === 'your_event_name')
// Should return 1 result per actual action

Data Quality

✅ 7. Filters Applied

• Internal traffic filtered out
• Developer/staging traffic excluded
• Bot traffic filtering enabled

How to filter internal traffic:

1. GA4 → Admin → Data Streams → Configure tag settings
2. Define internal traffic by IP range
3. Create a data filter to exclude

Example filter:

IP address | matches regex | ^192\.168\..*|^10\..*
Traffic type: Internal

✅ 8. Referral Exclusions

• Payment processors excluded (PayPal, Stripe, Square)
• Auth providers excluded (Auth0, Okta)
• Cross-domain sites configured correctly

Why this matters: Without exclusions, a user returning from PayPal after checkout shows as "new session from PayPal" breaking attribution.

✅ 9. Source/Medium Accuracy

• Direct traffic isn't inflated (should be under 30%)
• Email campaigns using UTM parameters
• Social traffic properly attributed

Warning sign: If direct traffic is over 40%, you likely have:

• Missing UTMs on email campaigns
• Broken referrer passing
• HTTP to HTTPS redirect issues

Reporting

✅ 10. Conversions Match Reality

• GA4 conversions roughly match CRM lead counts (within 15%)
• E-commerce revenue matches actual sales
• Conversion attribution model understood

Healthy variance: GA4 and CRM counts should match within 10-15%. Larger gaps indicate tracking issues.

✅ 11. Landing Pages Accurate

• No "(not set)" landing pages
• Query parameters configured correctly
• Internal search exclusions in place

Troubleshooting "(not set)":

• Often caused by missing page_view events
• Check GTM configuration tag triggers

✅ 12. Audience Definitions

• Key audiences built (converters, engaged users, cart abandoners)
• Audiences exported to Google Ads if running paid campaigns
• Audience membership counts look reasonable

Integration

✅ 13. Google Ads Link

• Google Ads account linked
• Auto-tagging enabled in Google Ads
• Audiences being shared

Verification: GA4 → Admin → Google Ads Links → Should show "Active"

✅ 14. Search Console Link

• Search Console property linked
• Organic search data appearing in reports

To link: GA4 → Admin → Product Links → Search Console

✅ 15. BigQuery Export (Optional)

• BigQuery project linked if you need raw data access
• Export frequency appropriate (daily vs streaming)
• Billing alerts set up

Red Flags to Watch For

Warning signs your tracking needs immediate attention:

Audit Priority Matrix

If you found issues, prioritize based on business impact:

🔴 Fix Immediately (This Week):

• Broken conversion tracking
• Duplicate events
• Missing key events

🟡 Fix Soon (This Month):

• Missing UTM parameters
• Incorrect source attribution
• Internal traffic not filtered

🟢 Fix When Possible:

• Missing advanced audiences
• BigQuery export not configured
• Session timeout optimization

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common GA4 audit questions.

Next Steps

If you found issues during this audit, prioritize fixes based on business impact.

Need a professional audit? Book a 15-minute call to discuss a Tracking & Attribution Fix. We'll identify every issue and implement fixes within 7 days.

What's included in a professional audit:

• Full GTM and GA4 configuration review
• Event and conversion verification
• Data quality assessment
• Prioritized fix recommendations
• Implementation of critical fixes