If you’re a digital marketer or a web analyst, you’re probably so immersed in your day-to-day work of campaigns, analysis, and reports that it’s probably hard to stop and take the time to assess the current state of your key web analysis tools. However, here’s the thing: taking some time to implement these actions now can set you up for a smoother start to 2026. Why wait until January to fix what you can address today?
Here’s a friendly but strategic checklist that will walk you through five critical areas—your measurement strategy, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM), privacy compliance, and dashboards—so you can spot gaps, clean up clutter, and focus on the metrics that really matter. Do the work now, and 2026 becomes a year of insights, not surprises.
1. Refocus Measurement Around 2026 Goals
Measurement should never be static. As your marketing evolves, so should your KPIs and tracking strategy. Realigning now and measuring to ensure you can track what matters most in the coming year can transform your key reporting tools from retrospective to forward-looking.
To ensure your measurement strategy reflects everything you’d like to accomplish in 2026, be sure to:
- Align with upcoming initiatives: Are you launching a new product, segmenting audiences differently, or pivoting content strategy in 2026? Make sure events and goals support that.
- Revisit attribution settings: If you’re changing conversion touchpoint weights or testing new campaign channels, update your GA4 attribution settings to reflect those shifts.
- Set up new audiences and segments: Build and test Looker Studio filters or GA4 audience definitions early, whether for personalization, remarketing, or cohort analysis.
- Add forecasting KPIs: Create tracking for leading indicators—like email sign-ups or product interest—that hint at future success. Don’t stop at just collecting these indicators: decide in advance how you’ll act on them. For example, if sign-ups spike for a new resource, will you start up a nurture campaign right away?
This will help set the stage for all the following areas we recommend you review.
2. Audit Your GA4 Property Setup
Your GA4 property is the foundation of your analytics framework, shaping how campaigns are measured, performance is reported, and insights are uncovered. If the setup isn’t right, everything from campaign attribution to reporting dashboards can be misleading. Year-end is the perfect moment to step back, confirm your property settings, and fix any lingering gaps before 2026 begins. Think of this as “preventative maintenance,” because small fixes now can save hours of troubleshooting when those quarterly reports are due.
In auditing your GA4 property setup, we recommend that you:
- Check property & data settings: Confirm that your time zone and currency settings are correct, Google Signals are enabled (where appropriate), and data retention settings align with your compliance needs. And don’t forget to define and filter internal traffic or unwanted referrals (like payment gateways, for example) as well.
- Validate your data streams and deactivate unnecessary “automatic” events: Ensure each website or app data stream is properly configured, and check that site search tracking parameters are capturing queries correctly. And if you already have custom events built for tracking scroll depth, outbound clicks, form submissions, file downloads and video engagement (which you should), then it would be wise to turn off those similar automatic events in the “Enhanced Measurement” section, as keeping them activated has the potential to cause confusion for all who have access to this GA4 property.
- Review integrations: Make sure that other “Product Links” sources like Google Ads, Google Search Console, and (if applicable) BigQuery, etc., are all properly linked to pull additional information directly into GA4. This also ensures consistency across platforms: when your Google Ads and GA4 numbers align, it’s easier to build stakeholder confidence in your data.
- Align reporting identity & attribution: Choose the best reporting identity (Blended, Observed, or Device-based) for your business and confirm your attribution model (Data-Driven is recommended) reflects how you want to measure success.
3. Review Your GTM Container & Governance
Your GTM container is where a lot of “hidden” complexity lives. Without routine clean-up, it becomes a cluttered attic of tags and triggers, leading to slower sites, messy data, and governance risks. A clean GTM container removes confusion and keeps your analytics foundation solid.
When reviewing your GTM container and governance, we recommend the following:
- Review tags and triggers: Are there obsolete marketing tags or stale third-party scripts? Does your GTM container still carry those old Universal Analytics tags? If a tag hasn’t fired over the period of many months, consider deleting it.
- Ensure clear naming conventions and communicate changes for every update: Make sure every tag, variable, and trigger is clearly named and follows GA4’s recommended formats. And providing a quick summary of what updates were made with each published “Version” in your GTM container helps your team—and your future self—understand the “why” behind each published update.
- Test your changes before publishing: Always use GTM’s preview mode to make sure tags, triggers, and variables fire as expected. Skipping this step can result in broken or duplicate tracking, which disrupts reporting accuracy and may even impact site performance.
- Audit user access: Remove inactive GTM container users and ensure permissions align with your team’s evolving roles. Better safe than sorry in case someone leaves or moves to another team.
4. Review Your Compliance with Domestic and International Privacy Regulations
Privacy rules continue to evolve, and waiting until your company is out of compliance can expose you to legal risk and erode user trust. If your business touches global audiences—or even just operates in certain U.S. states—it’s wise to stay ahead of privacy requirements rather than scrambling to catch up. Even if you think regulations won’t impact your industry right away, customer expectations around transparency are rising. Users notice when brands respect their choices—and they also notice when brands don’t.
In reviewing your compliance with privacy regulations, we recommend that you:
- Check international compliance needs: If your company does business in the European Union, ensure your site is compliant with GDPR. That means clear consent management for cookies, accurate privacy disclosures, and respecting user preferences.
- Prepare for U.S. state-by-state variations: Regulations like CCPA/CPRA in California and similar laws in other states vary, but the safest approach is to plan for compliance everywhere you operate. Implementing a cookie consent banner across your site now will put you ahead of the curve.
- Evaluate consent management platforms: Tools like Cookiebot and OneTrust can automate banner deployment, manage user preferences, and generate audit logs, all of which make ongoing compliance more manageable.
- Update policies and documentation: Confirm with your company’s legal team that your website’s privacy policy is up to date and that your GA4/GTM settings (e.g., Google Consent Mode) are aligned with how you collect and process user data.
Proactively addressing privacy compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines—it’s about protecting your brand reputation and building trust with customers who expect transparency.
5. Update Looker Studio Dashboards
A well-designed Looker Studio dashboard can transform raw GA4 data into a visually compelling story that highlights key trends and supports data-informed decisions for stakeholders across your business. But outdated connectors or expired filters can quickly turn a dashboard into one that is providing incorrect data or no data at all. A year-end refresh keeps your dashboards lean, accurate, and ready to answer the questions your business will ask in 2026.
While reviewing your existing Looker Studio dashboards, we recommend the following:
- Refresh your data sources: Check that GA4 and any other connectors (e.g., Google Ads, Search Console) are still valid and pulling recent data.
- Review filter logic and date ranges: As you move into 2026, default filters or date picks (like “last 30 days”) may need updates to stay relevant.
- Simplify and prioritize visuals: Aim for insight—not aesthetics. Highlight top-performing metrics, trends, and narratives that matter to your stakeholders.
- Add trending or predictive visuals: Consider adding year-over-year comparisons or simple pacing charts that show whether performance is on track with monthly or quarterly goals. For example, a pacing chart can plot actual spend or conversions against expected progress for the period, making it easy to spot if you’re ahead or falling behind. Adding this type of context not only helps analysts but also makes it easier for executives to grasp performance immediately.
Don’t have any Looker Studio dashboards set up or think there’s opportunity to add to what’s been created? Now is also a great time to gauge who needs access to what data in 2026—and address any gaps.
Wrapping Up (and Looking Ahead)
Turn this year-end checklist into your 2026 analytics “action plan.” Tackling these steps now ensures accuracy, foresight, and leaner workflows as you move into the new year.
If you’re looking for help with GA4 audits, GTM governance, Looker Studio dashboards, or cookie consent solutions, the Liquid digital marketing team is here to help, so don’t hesitate to contact us.
Happy analytics planning—and here’s to a data-driven, insight-powered 2026!