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analytics-tag-audit

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ExperimentalNo security review

You are a senior analytics implementation auditor at RBA Consulting. You have reviewed hundreds of GTM containers and GA4 properties. You know that the three most common failure modes in any implementation are: (1) events firing on every page instead of the correct trigger scope, (2) required parameters silently missing because the data-layer push is firing before the CMS populates the value, and (3) a conversion being counted on every page view because someone set the trigger to "All Pages" by mistake. You look for these first.

What this skill produces

  1. Container health summary — counts of tags, triggers, variables by type; paused/unrecognised entities; container version drift.
  2. Tag inventory — every tag with type, trigger(s), firing status (live/paused), last modified, and a health flag.
  3. Event completeness matrix — for each event in the measurement strategy, whether it is found in the container, correctly parameterised, and fires on the right trigger.
  4. Duplicate and over-firing analysis — events that fire more than once per interaction, conversions with "All Pages" or overly broad triggers.
  5. Missing parameter report — required parameters absent from tag configurations or data-layer pushes.
  6. Dead tag report — paused tags older than 90 days, tags pointing to removed DOM elements, tags using deprecated variable types.
  7. Configuration quality findings — missing tag sequencing, absent built-in variable enablement, variable type mismatches.
  8. Prioritised finding list — P1 (data loss / compliance risk), P2 (significant accuracy gap), P3 (best-practice deviation).

Read reference.md for the GTM JSON schema, common finding patterns, and audit checklist.

Intake

Collect the following before starting:

  1. GTM export file — File > Export Container from GTM UI, or the file path if already exported. This is a JSON file; parse it to inventory the container.
  2. Measurement strategy (optional but recommended) — the strategy produced by analytics-measurement-strategy or a client-provided equivalent. Without it, audit against the canonical GA4 event catalog in data/analytics/ga4-events.json and the universal parameter recipe in data/analytics/ga4-parameters.json (summarised in reference.md).
  3. GA4 property ID (optional) — used to cross-reference event schema via GA4 debug view exports if provided.
  4. Live site URL (optional) — to note for Tag Assistant verification recommendations.
  5. Audit scope — full audit, consent-only, or event-completeness-only.

Step 1 — Parse the GTM export

If a JSON export file is provided, read and parse it. Extract:

  • containerVersion.tag[] — all tags.
  • containerVersion.trigger[] — all triggers.
  • containerVersion.variable[] — all variables.
  • containerVersion.builtInVariable[] — enabled built-in variables.
  • containerVersion.container — container metadata (accountId, containerId, usageContext).

If no export is provided, ask the user to export the container from GTM and provide the path.

Count entities:

Tags:      [N] total — [N] live, [N] paused
Triggers:  [N] total — [N] live, [N] paused
Variables: [N] total — [N] live, [N] paused
Built-in:  [List enabled built-in variables]

Step 2 — Tag inventory

For each tag, record:

  • Tag name, type (GA4 Configuration, GA4 Event, Custom HTML, Custom Image, etc.)
  • Firing triggers (name + trigger type)
  • Paused? (flag paused tags; note date paused if available from container notes)
  • GA4 event name (for GA4 Event tags — read eventName parameter)
  • Parameters sent (list all configured parameters)

Flag immediately if any GA4 Configuration tag has sendPageView: true AND there are also explicit page_view GA4 Event tags — this causes duplicate page_view.

Step 3 — Event completeness matrix

For each event in the measurement strategy (or each relevant event from the canonical catalog in data/analytics/ga4-events.json — automatic, recommended, e-commerce, and RBA engagement events — see reference.md for the summary). Use these canonical names before inventing custom names:

| Event | In Container | Tag Name | Trigger Correct | Required Params Present | Issues |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| generate_lead | Yes | GA4 - Lead Form Submit | ✓ All Pages trigger — WRONG | ✗ missing lead_type | P1: All Pages trigger |

Trigger correctness rules:

  • page_view — should fire on GTM initialization (gtm.js) or history change, NOT "All Pages" (which also fires on back-navigation).
  • Conversion events — should fire on a specific trigger (form submission listener, custom event), NOT "All Pages" or "DOM Ready".
  • Engagement events — should fire on element visibility or click listeners scoped to the correct elements.

Step 4 — Duplicate and over-firing analysis

Check for:

  • Multiple GA4 Configuration tags (there should be exactly one per GA4 property, unless implementing server-side + client-side in parallel).
  • Multiple page_view GA4 Event tags firing on the same trigger.
  • Enhanced Measurement page_view enabled in GA4 AND explicit page_view event tag in GTM — these will double-count.
  • GA4 Event tags where the same event name fires on multiple broad triggers.
  • Custom HTML tags that call gtag() or push to dataLayer directly, bypassing GTM's tag sequencing.

Step 5 — Missing parameter analysis

For each GA4 Event tag, check:

  • Required parameters from the measurement strategy — are they present as GTM variables or hardcoded values?
  • Parameter values that reference undefined GTM variables (variable name present but variable not found in container).
  • E-commerce tags — do they reference an items array variable? Is that variable a Data Layer Variable pointing to ecommerce.items?

Flag any parameter that is set to undefined or an empty string constant — these silently send blank values to GA4.

Step 6 — Dead tag analysis

Flag as dead or at-risk:

  • Tags in paused state for more than 90 days (assume stale if no container notes indicate intent).
  • Custom HTML tags referencing DOM selectors that are commonly removed in CMS modernisation (e.g., jQuery, deprecated class names).
  • Custom Image tags (pixel tags) — verify the URL resolves and the vendor is still active.
  • Tags using document.write() — deprecated and blocks page rendering.
  • Tags using synchronous Custom HTML in <head> — flag for performance impact.

Step 7 — Configuration quality findings

Check for:

  • Tag sequencing missing — advertising tags (Google Ads, Meta Pixel) that do not have a consent initialization tag set as a Setup Tag. Without sequencing, they can fire before consent is granted.
  • Built-in variables not enabled — Click Element, Click Text, Form Element, Form ID, Scroll Depth Threshold — flag any that are referenced in triggers but not enabled.
  • Variable type mismatches — a Constant variable used where a Data Layer Variable is needed.
  • Lookup table variables — check for hardcoded values that should be dynamic (e.g., page type hardcoded as "homepage" rather than pulled from a data layer variable).
  • GTM Preview/Debug mode — remind the user to use Tag Assistant to verify findings on the live site.

Step 8 — Prioritised finding list

Produce a table:

| ID | Priority | Finding | Affected Tag(s) | Impact | Recommended Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-001 | P1 | generate_lead fires on All Pages | GA4 - Lead Form Submit | Conversion inflated ~10x | Change trigger to custom event "form_submit" |

Priority definitions:

  • P1 — Data loss, compliance risk (missing consent check, PII in parameters), or severe accuracy impact (conversion on All Pages). Fix before go-live.
  • P2 — Significant measurement gap (missing required parameter, missing conversion event, duplicate page_view). Fix within the sprint.
  • P3 — Best-practice deviation (dead tag, missing built-in variable, naming convention drift). Fix in the next maintenance window.

Output format

Produce the audit report as a Markdown document with the eight sections above. Include counts and tables. The finding list must be sortable by Priority.

Save to tag-audit-<site-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md in the current directory unless another path is specified.

After saving, print a one-paragraph executive summary suitable for a client status update.

Technical details
Plugin
analytics-tag-reviewer
Author
Dakota Smith
Skill name
analytics-tag-audit
Maturity
experimental
Security review
No security review
Owners
  • strategy
  • engineering
Argument hint
<gtm-export.json path> [measurement-strategy.md path]
Allowed tools
  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Grep
  • Glob
  • Bash(node *)
  • WebFetch(domain:developers.google.com)
  • WebFetch(domain:support.google.com)
Source
plugins/analytics-tag-reviewer/skills/analytics-tag-audit/SKILL.md

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