[UA] Common tag setup mistakes [Legacy]

You are viewing a legacy article about Universal Analytics. Learn more about Google Analytics 4 replacing Universal Analytics.

If you have installed the Google Analytics tag and don't see data in your reports after 24 hours, you may have one or more of the following issues.

In this article:

Google Tag Manager related issues

If you tagged your site using Google Tag Manager, the following issues may prevent you from seeing data.

  • Incorrect filter settings
    Incorrect filter settings can affect the data you see, and can inadvertently filter all of your data from your reports. In most cases, this occurs when users apply multiple "Include" filters. For details, see the article on Include and exclude filters.
  • Unpublished container
    Check that you published your container after adding the Analytics tag. Changes made to a container do not take effect on a site until you publish the container. So, once you've added or edited tags, you'll need to publish the container in order to make your additions and changes live on the site.
  • Tag not firing
    Read "Troubleshoot issues" in the Google Tag Manager help center.

Analytics tag issues

  • Did you paste your tag in the right place?
    Paste the tag right after the opening <head> tag. For more information, including how to find your tag, read Set up the Analytics tag.
  • Using incorrect tag and/or viewing the wrong account, property, or view
    If you work with multiple websites and/or have access to multiple Analytics accounts, you might be using the tag from another property, or you may be looking at reports in the wrong account, or for the wrong property and view. Make sure you are using the correct tag for your property, and that you are looking at the correct account, property, and view. See Find your Google Analytics ID for additional information.
  • Extra whitespace or characters
    Be sure to copy the tag and paste it directly onto your website using either a text editor or an editor that preserves code formatting. Don't use a word processor to copy the tag from your account.  Doing so can add an extra space or change the quotation marks in the tag, which requires precise formatting in order to work.
  • Customization Errors
    If you are making customizations to the tag, make note of the following:
    • function names are case sensitive and should have correct casing
    • boolean values (e.g. true or false) should not be enclosed in quotes
  • Incorrect filter settings
    Incorrect filter settings can affect the data you see, and can inadvertently filter all of your data from your reports. In most cases, this occurs when users apply multiple "Include" filters. For details, see the article on Include and exclude filters.
  • Other scripts on your page
    If you’re running other scripts on your page, make sure you’re not using any variables that Analytics uses. For more information on variables that the Analytics tag uses, visit the developer documentation for the Universal Analytics (gtag.js) JavaScript library.

Verify that the tag is working

To verify that the tag is working, visit your website and check to see that your visit is being registered in the Real-Time reports.

You can also use Google Tag Assistant and the browser extension, Tag Assistant Companion, to determine whether your tag is implemented correctly. Tag Assistant is the main debugging tool and the optional, but recommended, extension provides additional debugging information when you are using Tag Assistant.

Open Tag Assistant | Install Tag Assistant Companion | Learn more about using Tag Assistant

Troubleshoot your code setup

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