Article
|
July 26, 2024
How Much Does Website Maintenance Cost?
Thinking of polishing and maintaining your website? Check out our guide to understand the estimated website maintenance recurring costs.
Software migrations are never easy, especially when it comes to something with an extensive database such as an eCommerce store. Now that Google Tag Manager has reached peak popularity in 2022, being the first choice of 99.7% of websites using a tag manager, you might be considering the move as well. Yet many eCommerce business owners know little about this tag management platform and how to use it. That’s why we created an article for those who want enhanced eCommerce for Tag Manager but don’t know where to start. This guide to migrating eCommerce scripts to Tag Manager will tell you everything you need to know to finally start tracking your tags through Google Tag Manager.
First things first, let’s discuss why and when eCommerce businesses should start migrating eCommerce scrips to Tag Manager. The answer is pretty simple: when you expand your tracking tags beyond the ones that come with Google Analytics. If you want to track multiple systems or even just need to begin advance tracking within Google Analytics, a proper tag manager will make your job much easier. Google Tag Manager is a tag management platform that helps you control and oversee all your eCommerce scrips and tracking tags. It provides all the information you need in one well-organized platform. If you truly want to keep track of your eCommerce analytics, migrating to Tag Manager is a fantastic decision.
Creating a Google Tag Manager account shouldn’t take up much of your time as long as you already have a Google account. Just head to the link placed above and you should be able to register your company. Then, create a new container under the name of your organization. Select the type of platform you will be tracking and adjust the name of the container to the one of your eCommerce website.
After you created a new Google Tag Manager account and generate a container for your property, you should receive a Tag Manager code. This code is your Google Tag Manager Container ID and will need to be pasted into a designated field. Where to paste the code will depend on which content management system your eCommerce store is built-in, but it’s usually in a tag field or right after the opening body tag of the site.
It’s better to be safe than sorry, which is why it’s best to test this before migrating eCommerce scripts to Tag Manager that belong in your actual store. Create a new Google Analytics property and use it to test the Tag Manager code before doing any changes to your site. You’ll use this property to test the code for every step to come.
You should import all relevant Google Analytics tags to your new Google tag Manager container to make sure your eCommerce SEO progress is still intact after the move. Though you can also utilize a template container that comes with pre-organized tracking tags for you to test on your property. Whichever option you choose, just make sure you place all necessary tracking tags into the Tag Manager container to run the test.
The next step is to recreate all your current Google Analytics eCommerce scripts on Google Tag Manager. This will allow you to match all relevant data and ensure the new Tag Manager tracking tags are working properly on the test. The process includes migrating eCommerce scripts to Tag Manager so make sure to check with your development team at this stage. A few of the key tracking tags that should be mirrored include page views, events, conversion tracking, custom dimensions, and eCommerce tracking.
Now it’s time to continue with the live test and verify that the process of migrating eCommerce scrips to Tag Manager is taking place as it should. There can be room for a few small errors, but the integrity of the tracking code should remain the same on both versions. If the eCommerce scripts on the Tag Manager container match the ones on the original account, then it’s okay to move forward with the migration.
The goal here is to migrate to Google Tag Manager the entirety of the tracking data from your Google Analytics property. This includes all hard-coded eCommerce scripts embedded into Analytics and managed independently. Take your time when finishing the migration, though, as any mistakes will hijack all of your previous progress with the test.
Once you’re done migrating eCommerce scripts to Tag Manager, it’s time to end the test and make the changes go live on your actual store. Just switch the scripts and tracking tags from the testing container to the new property of your site on Google Tag Manager. You can do this by swapping the property IDs to the one you used on Google Analytics before starting the migration to Tag Manager. Though make sure to keep an eye on the process to ensure all tracking data migrate properly before checking it off your to-do list.
At Resolve Digital, we understand that the technical details of an eCommerce store are complex. There are several different moving parts involved in the process of developing a well-performing online shop and maintaining the back and front ends of the site. That’s why we offer custom eCommerce software development services to help business managers run their online stores in a much more effective way, without having to juggle the technical aspect of things on top of their usual responsibilities. From migrating eCommerce scripts to Tag Manager to SEO optimizing your store, our experienced team of IT professionals is here to help. Contact us to learn more about our services!
