Fixing broken tracking

Fix broken tracking: diagnosis guides

Tracking breaks quietly, no error message, just numbers that stop making sense. These guides are the symptom-first diagnosis: pick the thing that is wrong, find the cause, and fix it. Most breaks trace back to a recent change or something blocking your tags.

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31 guides in this topic

Every fixing broken tracking guide

Browse all 31. Each one is a single, specific answer, in plain English.

Conversions dropped suddenly? How to find the cause fast

A sudden drop in tracked conversions is usually a tracking break, not a demand collapse. Here's how to diagnose it fast and the most common causes by date.

Fake traffic in GA4: bots, spam and self-inflicted noise

A spike that makes no sense, a referral from a site you have never heard of, hundreds of zero-second sessions.

GA4 DebugView shows nothing (even though the tag is live)

DebugView is the tool for proving an event actually reaches GA4 in real time.

GA4 Realtime works but reports are empty the next day

Your visit shows in GA4 Realtime but the standard reports stay empty the next day. Here's why that happens and how to tell a harmless cause from a real problem.

GA4 shows no conversions? How to find and fix it

GA4 says zero conversions even though you're making sales? Work through these 8 checks, from consent and key events to tags that never fire, to find exactly where your conversions are disappearing.

GTM preview works but not live: why, and how to fix it

Your tag fires perfectly in GTM Preview but nothing happens on the live site. Here are the specific reasons that happens and how to fix each one.

How much revenue is your broken tracking hiding?

Broken tracking is not just a reporting annoyance.

How to fix duplicate and double-counted conversions in GA4

Double-counted conversions make your ROAS look great and your data useless. Here are the common causes of duplicate conversions in GA4 and how to fix each one.

Is your website tracking actually set up right? 10 checks

Most businesses assume their tracking works because it shows no errors. Here are 10 quick checks you can run yourself to tell whether GA4 and your ad pixels are really counting your sales, leads and calls.

Meta pixel not firing? How to diagnose and fix it

A Meta (Facebook) pixel that isn't firing means lost ad data and worse optimisation. Here's how to diagnose it step by step and the common fixes.

Tag not firing in GTM? A step-by-step diagnosis

A GTM tag that won't fire comes down to a short checklist: triggers, exceptions, consent, the dataLayer and publishing. Here's how to work through it in order.

What your agency isn't telling you about your tracking

Most agencies are honest and competent.

Why publishing in GTM broke your tracking

It all worked in Preview, you hit Publish, and now live tracking is down.

Why you have duplicate GA4 tags firing

If your pageviews doubled overnight and engagement collapsed, you probably have GA4 installed twice.

Why your conversion fires on every page instead of once

If your conversion count is wildly higher than your real orders or leads, the usual cause is simple: the tag is firing on every pageview, not just on the success page.

Why your event fires but doesn't count as a conversion

You can see the event arriving in GA4, but the conversions, now called key events, report shows nothing.

Why your form submissions aren't tracking as conversions

The enquiries are landing in your inbox, but GA4 and your ad platforms show zero form conversions.

Why your phone-call conversions aren't being recorded

If the phone is how customers reach you, and those calls are not tracked, a huge share of your real conversions are invisible, and your ads are optimising only toward the ones that happen to fill in a form.

Why your tag is blocked in some browsers but not others

It tracks fine in Chrome, then you test in Safari or Firefox and nothing fires.

Why your thank-you page isn't firing a conversion

The thank-you or order-confirmation page is where most sites count the conversion.

Why your analytics broke after a website redesign

A redesign or replatform is the most common way tracking silently breaks. Here is what gets lost in a rebuild, how to spot it fast, and the checklist to fix it.

Why your tracking broke after moving to a new domain

Changing domain can reset your analytics, strip attribution and trigger self-referrals. Here is what a domain move does to tracking and how to migrate it cleanly.

Why your tracking works on desktop but not mobile

Conversions show on desktop but mobile looks dead? The gap is usually consent, script timing or in-app browsers. Here is how to find why mobile tracking fails.

Why ad blockers ruin your analytics (and what to do)

Ad blockers stop GA4 and pixels from loading for a big slice of visitors, so your data undercounts. Here is how much they cost you and the only real fix.

Why your GTM container isn't loading at all

If Google Tag Manager itself is not loading, none of your tags fire. Here is how to tell the container is the problem, the usual causes, and how to get it back.

Why your conversions suddenly doubled overnight

A conversion count that jumped overnight is almost never a sales miracle. Here is what causes conversions to double, how to confirm it, and how to stop the double-counting.

Why in-app browsers (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) break your tracking

Taps from social apps open an in-app browser that restricts cookies and scripts, so conversions go missing. Here is what happens and how to recover the data.

Why your bounce rate suddenly hit 0% (or 100%)

A bounce rate stuck at 0% or 100% is a tracking bug, not visitor behaviour. Here is what a duplicate tag or broken event does to the number and how to fix it.

GA4 shows zero users today but had data yesterday

Data yesterday, nothing today usually means your tag stopped firing overnight. Here is how to tell a real outage from reporting lag, and how to get tracking back fast.

Why Google Tag Assistant shows errors (and which ones matter)

Tag Assistant flags warnings that range from harmless to serious. Here is how to read the errors, which ones actually break your tracking, and which you can ignore.

Why your tracking broke after a developer or theme change

A developer edit or theme switch can quietly strip your tags and data layer. Here is how a routine change breaks tracking, how to catch it, and how to prevent it next time.

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