Trackers ยท guide
Six questions to ask whoever built your practice website
Most practice websites are built and maintained by an agency or a freelancer, and most of the third-party scripts on them were added by that person, usually for a good reason at the time: an ad campaign, a visit counter, a heatmap tool that was free. Of 362 practice sites we have scanned, 68%load Google Analytics and 18% load a Meta Pixel, and in our experience the practice chose almost none of them. These six questions get a straight inventory out of whoever looks after the site, in one email.
1. Which third-party scripts load on the site, and on which pages?
A good answer is a list: the script, the page or pages, and what it is for. "Just Google Analytics" is not a good answer, because Analytics is usually installed through a Tag Manager container, and the container may hold other tags. If the answer is "I'd have to check", that is fine, and thefive-minute check is how they can.
2. Is there a Google Tag Manager container, and who has access to it?
The container is where tags get added without touching the site, which is why agencies like it and why tags outlive the agency. Ask for the container ID (GTM-XXXXXXX) and the list of accounts with publish access. A container that a former agency can still publish to is a door nobody is watching.
3. Which of these run on the booking, contact and new-patient pages?
This is the question that matters. A visit counter on the home page is ordinary. The same script on a page whose address says booking or new-patient forms reports that address, and the address says what the visit was about. The good answer is "none", or "Analytics only, and we can stop it on those pages with a trigger exception". Our scans found an advertising or behavioural script on such a page on 27% of sites, so do not assume the answer.
4. Is there a session recorder, and is field masking on?
Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar replay visits: mouse, scrolling, clicks, and, unless masking is on, what was typed. They are free, which is why they get switched on to "see how people use the site" and then forgotten. The good answer is "no", or "yes, here is the project, masking is on, and it does not run on the forms".
5. Which of these are tied to a campaign that is still running?
A Google Ads conversion tag or a Meta Pixel might be measuring ads the practice pays for this month. Removing it does not stop the ads; it stops the measurement. Ask which tags belong to live spend and which are left over, so a cleanup takes off the leftovers first and the live ones get a trigger exception on the booking pages instead.
6. After a change, how will we confirm it?
The good answer names a method: open the booking page in a private window, view source, search for the script names; or a scan before and after. Caches keep serving the old page for a while, so "I removed it" and "it is gone" are two different statements separated by a cache clear.
The email, if you want to copy it
Hi, Could you send me a list of every third-party script on our website, with the pages each one loads on and what it is for? In particular: whether there is a Google Tag Manager container and who can publish to it; which scripts run on the booking, contact and new-patient pages; whether any session recording tool is on; and which tags are tied to a campaign that is still running. If it is easier, here is a free scan that lists them page by page: https://tagquiet.com/ Thanks
What we are not saying
Nothing on this page says what any script means for a particular practice's obligations, or that an agency did anything wrong by installing one. TagQuiet performs technical assessments and is not a law firm.
If the answer is slow in coming
The free scan produces the same inventory in about ten minutes, page by page, written so you can forward it to whoever looks after the site. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, we remove the scripts, re-scan and send a log of what changed; what that costs is on the pricing page. Nothing on your site changes without your approval in writing.