GuideUpdated September 2026
The GA4 audit checklist
A practical, plain-English checklist for auditing a Google Analytics 4 setup. Seventeen checks across installation, consent, data quality, conversions, whether your data is reportable at all, and Google Tag Manager governance: what each one means, and why it matters. For the full step-by-step process behind each check, see the complete Google Analytics audit guide. Work through it by hand, or run it automatically in two minutes.
1. Tracking installation
GA4 is installed on every page
Confirm the GA4 tag (or the GTM snippet that loads it) is present site-wide. Missing it on key pages (checkout, thank-you, blog) is the most common cause of gaps in your data.
Only one GA4 configuration per property
Two config tags firing for the same measurement ID double-count sessions and events. Check GTM for duplicate Google tags.
The GTM container is published and well-formed
If the container snippet is missing or broken, every tag inside it is offline, including consent controls, even if they look perfectly configured.
2. Consent & privacy
Tags respect the visitor's consent choice
Under GDPR, analytics and ad tags must not fire before consent. Under US state laws they may fire but must honour an opt-out. Check each tag has a consent type or blocking trigger that matches your market.
Consent Mode v2 is configured
Google's own tags rely on Consent Mode v2 signals to gate data collection. Confirm the consent state is being set before tags fire, not after.
No CMP / consent tag is paused
A paused consent tag means no consent signals are sent at all, so every other tag runs blind regardless of what the banner shows the visitor.
3. Data quality
Internal and bot traffic is filtered
Your own team's visits and known bots inflate sessions and skew engagement. Confirm internal traffic filters and bot filtering are on.
No spam / referral pollution
Check the referral and channel reports for fake referrers and self-referrals that misattribute your traffic and conversions.
The reporting currency is correct
A wrong currency corrupts every revenue figure, ROAS calculation and conversion value, plus any conversions you import into Google Ads.
Data retention is set intentionally
GA4 defaults to a short retention window. Confirm it is set to what you actually need for year-on-year analysis.
4. Conversions & key events
Key events map to real business goals
Marking trivial auto-collected events (like page_view) as key events floods your reports with meaningless 'conversions' and corrupts Google Ads bidding.
Purchases are counted once per transaction
Duplicate purchase events inflate revenue and conversion rate. Check transaction IDs are de-duplicated.
Every key event has a matching tag
Cross-check that the events you rely on are actually being sent by a GTM tag. A gap here means the conversion never records and nothing warns you.
Failures are tracked, not just successes
A form that rejects a submission, a declined payment and a checkout that errors should each send an event. Without them, reports show who succeeded and stay silent on why everyone else did not.
5. Reportable data
Every event parameter has a custom dimension
A parameter with no matching dimension is collected and then invisible: it cannot appear in any report, exploration or audience, and nothing warns you. Check each parameter your tags send has an event-scoped dimension, and each user property a user-scoped one. Scope is not interchangeable.
Logins are measured
If the site has accounts, a login event is what connects a returning person to their first visit. Without it you can see sign-ups and not returns.
6. GTM governance
No test tags or dev domains in production
Leftover test pixels, debug tags, or development URLs in the Conversion Linker pollute live data and can leak data to the wrong place.
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Is there a GA4 audit template I can download?
Yes. The checklist on this page is available as a free spreadsheet template that opens in Excel or Google Sheets, with a status dropdown for each check (Pass, Needs attention, Not applicable) and a running count of what's left.
How many checks are in a GA4 audit checklist?
Seventeen, across six areas: tracking installation, consent and privacy, data quality, conversions and key events, whether the data is reportable at all, and GTM governance.
What's the most common GA4 tracking installation problem?
Missing the GA4 tag, or the GTM snippet that loads it, on key pages like checkout or the thank-you page. It's the most common cause of gaps in the data.
Why do duplicate GA4 configuration tags matter?
Two configuration tags firing for the same measurement ID double-count sessions and events, so it's worth checking GTM for duplicate Google tags.
Can this checklist be run automatically instead of by hand?
Yes. Tracking Auditor runs every check on this list against a live GA4 property and GTM container, scores the result A-F, and produces a prioritised fix plan.
Don’t want to do it by hand?
Tracking Auditor runs every check on this list against your live GA4 property and GTM container, scores the result A–F, and gives you a prioritised fix plan plus a client-ready export. See a sample report, or try the free checker first.
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