Google Analytics Audit Test #

85

Meta or JS redirects

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding where your traffic is coming from.

Industries:

All

Checks For:

Accuracy

How accurate is your recent data?

Insight Category:

Attribution

Can you tell which marketing efforts are working?

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Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test checks whether meta refresh tags or JavaScript-based redirects are present and interfering with Google Analytics tracking.

These types of redirects can:

  • Prevent Google Analytics tags from firing before the user is redirected
  • Strip or fail to pass UTM parameters, resulting in traffic showing as (not set) or “direct”
  • Cause bounce rate or session quality issues
  • Break attribution across campaign links, especially for paid traffic
  • Meta and JS redirects are typically used in:
    • Splash pages
    • Location-based redirection
    • Old site structure redirects
    • Poorly implemented mobile or campaign redirects

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How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • Use browser dev tools or site crawlers (e.g., Screaming Frog) to identify:
    • tags in the
    • Inline JavaScript like window.location or location.replace() that triggers redirects on page load
  • Manually test entry from a tagged link (e.g., with UTM parameters) and see if the GA4 page_view event fires before the redirect occurs
  • In GA4 > Explore, look for:
    • High levels of (not set) in source/medium
    • Landing pages with high bounce rates and no scroll/engagement events

Advanced QA

  • Use BigQuery to analyze session attribution for known campaign URLs using this query:
    SELECT session_source, session_medium, COUNT(*) AS sessions
    FROM `your_dataset.events_*`
    WHERE page_location LIKE '%your-campaign-path%'
    GROUP BY session_source, session_medium

Automated, Free Audit

Want to quickly detect redirect-related tracking issues? Run our Instant Audit

Or hire a pro to resolve problematic redirects before they cost you attribution.

How To Fix

  • Avoid meta refresh or JavaScript redirects wherever possible—prefer server-side 301 redirects
  • If client-side redirects are required:
    • Use a short delay (at least 1.5–2 seconds) to allow GA4 tags to fire
    • Trigger GA4 events manually before redirecting
    • Preserve UTM parameters in the redirect URL using query string passthrough logic
  • Validate using Google Analytics DebugView and ensure page_view fires before the redirect triggers
  • If using Google Tag Manager, ensure Google Analytics tags load early and are not blocked by consent or sequencing delays
  • Hire a pro to audit your redirects and make sure they aren’t silently breaking your analytics.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

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An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

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