In 2024 Sam Altman, head of Open AI, said “I kind of think of ads as like a last resort for us for a business model,” But guess what, with stock market flotation ahead, investors have other ideas.

Yes, ChatGPT has started showing sponsored results inside user conversations: this is a significant moment. 

But before we get into what it means for your business, let’s take a quick detour into Internet history. If you’ve been online long enough, this may seem like Ground Hog Day.

The Oldest Story in Tech 

In 2024 Sam Altman, head of Open AI, said “I kind of think of ads as like a last resort for us for a business model,”

Writer and internet critic Cory Doctorow has a word for what happens to every platform that starts life as a free, brilliant, too-good-to-be-true service: “enshittification”. 

Doctorow describes the pattern like this: 

“First, they are good to their users. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers. Finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.“ 

Think about Facebook. Remember when it just… showed you posts from people you followed? Then it started inserting brand content to help businesses reach you. Then it made those businesses pay for the privilege of reaching you. Then it squeezed them on price. Then it added more ads. Then more. Then it made the algorithm so opaque that nobody — user or business — really understood what they were seeing or why. 

The platform went from useful tool to attention slot machine, optimised not for you but for the shareholders. 

Google did the same thing. Search results used to be search results. Now a decent chunk of any results page is ads, AI summaries, and things Google wants you to click rather than what you were actually looking for. 

And now, right on schedule, it’s ChatGPT’s turn. 

OpenAI launched a beta self-serve Ads Manager in May 2026 — meaning businesses can now sign up, set a budget, and buy sponsored placements inside ChatGPT conversations.  

 Is This the Beginning of the End? 

Probably not immediately. But it is the beginning of the beginning of the end, if history is any guide. 

Right now, OpenAI genuinely seems to be trying to do this carefully. Advertisers don’t get access to individual conversations. Campaign data is reported in aggregate. The ads appear in what OpenAI describes as relevant contexts rather than blasted everywhere regardless of intent. 

That’s reassuring, but it also sounds a lot like every platform in the early days of monetisation, when the product team still had more power than the revenue team.  

What’s Actually Happening With ChatGPT Ads? 

Until recently, advertising inside ChatGPT wasn’t something most businesses could access. In May 2026 OpenAI launched a proper self-serve Ads Manager — sign up, add a payment method, set a budget, upload your ad, launch a campaign. The infrastructure now includes cost-per-click bidding and measurement tools so you can actually understand what’s working. 

In simple terms: ChatGPT advertising has moved from a closed experiment to an open (if still developing) ecosystem. It’s not yet Google Ads in terms of maturity, but the direction is clear. 

Why This Is Different From Normal Advertising 

Most digital advertising interrupts you. 

You’re reading an article, and a banner appears. You’re watching a video, and an ad plays first. You’re scrolling social media, and a promoted post slides in. In all of these cases, the ad is targeting you based on who you are or what you’ve previously done — not what you’re thinking about right now. 

ChatGPT is different because people use it when they’re actively trying to work something out. They’re comparing options. Researching services. Trying to understand a financial product, a health question, a software decision. They’ve already formed a question; they want an answer. 

That’s an entirely different mindset from someone passively scrolling Instagram. The intent is already there. The decision-making is already in progress. 

For businesses, that’s potentially very valuable. An ad that appears when someone is mid-research on exactly the problem you solve is far more relevant than an ad that appears because an algorithm thinks you might be vaguely interested. 

The flip side — and this is where Doctorow’s pessimism feels relevant — is that this is also precisely why the commercial pressure to insert more ads, in less relevant contexts, for more money, will be enormous. The more valuable the placement, the harder the platform will squeeze to extract that value. 

What This Means for SEO and Organic Visibility 

It would be a mistake to treat ChatGPT ads as purely a paid media question. 

People are increasingly using AI tools the way they used to use search engines — but more so. They’re asking for recommendations, summaries, comparisons and explanations. They’re making decisions based on what the AI tells them. 

That means your business needs to exist credibly in the broader information ecosystem that AI tools draw from. Not just on your own website. Not just on Google. Across the web —  

• in reviews,  
• in press coverage,  
• in third-party sources,  
• in the kinds of content that gives an AI enough signal to trust and recommend you. 

The question is no longer just “do we rank on page one of Google?” It’s “if someone asks ChatGPT who they should use for X, are we in the conversation?” 

Paid advertising might help you appear inside the platform. But organic authority determines whether you deserve to be there — and whether you’re visible everywhere else too. 

What About Measuring Results? 

OpenAI has introduced measurement tools that track whether users take action after seeing an ad — visits, enquiries, purchases, depending on how your campaign is set up. That moves it away from vague “awareness” metrics and toward performance measurement that finance directors actually care about. 

What About Privacy? 

The privacy piece is also worth noting. Advertisers don’t receive individual conversation data — reporting is aggregated. That’s important, because ChatGPT is a deeply personal tool. People ask it things they wouldn’t type into Google. For ads to work in that context without killing user trust, the platform has to walk a very careful line. 

Whether it continues to walk that line as commercial pressure mounts is, again, a question worth keeping one eye on. 

What Businesses Should Do Now 

Most businesses don’t need to rush into ChatGPT advertising today. The platform is still developing and access is still rolling out. 

But you should be preparing for a world where AI platforms play a bigger role in how people discover, compare and choose. 

The first step isn’t necessarily launching a campaign. It’s understanding how your business currently appears in the broader online ecosystem. 

Ask yourself: Is your brand clearly associated with the services you want to be known for? Do trusted third-party sources mention and validate your expertise? Does your website answer the questions your actual customers are asking? Would an AI platform have enough credible information about you to confidently recommend you? 

These aren’t just AI readiness questions. They’re the fundamentals of modern visibility — and if the answer to any of them is “probably not,” that’s where to start. 

The Bigger Picture 

ChatGPT running ads is not just a new ad format. It’s a signal that AI platforms are becoming part of the customer journey in the same way search engines did — and that the commercial model that funds them will shape the experience, for better or worse. 

Traditional search gave people links. AI gives people answers. That shift changes what you need to optimise for, and it changes what “being visible” actually means. 

• SEO helps ensure your website can be found, understood and trusted. 
• Digital PR builds the external signals that reinforce your authority. 
• Content answers the real questions your audience is asking.  
• Reputation tells the platform — and the person — that you can be trusted. 
• Paid media may create additional presence at the moment of intent. 

The strongest strategies won’t treat these as separate channels. They’ll bring them together. 

This applies to other AI tools, like Perplexity, Gemini, etc 

And they’ll build foundations that survive whatever the next round of platform enshittification brings. 

Because it will bring something. It always does. 

At Datadial, we’re helping business build the credibility, visibility and authority needed to be found, trusted and chosen in an increasingly AI-driven world. Whether that’s through organic search, digital PR, content or paid media, the goal is the same: building something real that lasts beyond the next algorithm change. 

Or the next ad format. Whichever comes first. 

The article is largely AI written but does contain salient information.

For a complex e-commerce operation with 200,000+ SKUs, the decision is less about “which platform is best” and more about where you want complexity to live:

• inside the platform,
• inside your integrations,
• or inside your own engineering team.

At that scale, the key constraints become:

• catalogue performance
• search/indexing
• ERP integration
• inventory synchronisation
• pricing rules
• multi-store/multi-region support
• operational workflows
• scalability under load
• long-term maintainability

Below is a practical comparison.

1. Bespoke / Custom-Built Commerce Platform

This can mean building your own commerce software, though at Datadial we have our a base e-commerce system, so you don’t need to worry about starting from scratch.  The DD Ecomm is highly specified, flexible and extensible.

Pros

Complete flexibility

You own the data model, workflows, checkout logic, integrations and UI.

This matters when you have:

• unusual product structures
• advanced configurators
• marketplace logic
• highly customised B2B pricing
• multiple warehouses
• unusual fulfilment flows
• subscription + wholesale + retail combined

Off-the-shelf platforms eventually force compromises.

Better architecture for huge catalogues

200k+ products is no longer “normal ecommerce”.

A bespoke platform can be designed around:

• microservices
• event-driven architecture
• distributed indexing
• queue systems
• dedicated search infrastructure
• CDN-heavy delivery
• highly optimised product storage

You avoid the “plugin ecosystem bottleneck”.

No platform constraints

You are not constrained by:

• Shopify API limits
• WooCommerce WordPress overhead
• Magento architectural legacy
• SaaS checkout restrictions

You control:

• deployments
• infrastructure
• performance tuning
• caching strategy
• indexing strategy

Lower long-term licensing costs

At enterprise scale:

• Shopify Plus fees
• Adobe Commerce licensing
• transaction fees
• app ecosystem costs
  can become substantial.

A bespoke platform may eventually become cheaper if:

• revenue is very large
• engineering team already exists
• complexity is high enough

Easier deep ERP integration

Large commerce businesses are often really:

• ERP-led businesses
  with a storefront attached.

Custom platforms can integrate deeply with:

• SAP
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Oracle NetSuite
• warehouse systems
• PIMs
• procurement systems
• pricing engines

without fighting platform limitations.

Cons

Extremely expensive

True enterprise bespoke commerce builds commonly cost:

• £150k–£2m+
• sometimes far more

Especially if:

• search
• OMS
• PIM
• promotions
• customer accounts
• reporting
  must all be custom.

Longer time to market

You are rebuilding:

• admin tooling
• order management
• promotions
• customer service tools
• CMS capability
• analytics hooks
• integrations

Platforms like Shopify already solved these.

You own everything forever

This is the biggest hidden issue.

You now maintain:

• security
• PCI compliance
• infrastructure
• bugs
• upgrades
• technical debt
• scaling
• developer onboarding

There is no vendor absorbing complexity for you.

Key-person risk

Many bespoke systems become dependent on:

• one agency
• one architect
• one internal engineering lead

That can become dangerous commercially.

2. Shopify / Shopify Plus

Shopify

Pros

Fastest operational path

Shopify removes:

• hosting
• infrastructure
• scaling concerns
• security patching
• PCI headaches

Teams can focus on:

• merchandising
• marketing
• conversion optimisation

Excellent operational stability

For standard commerce:

• uptime
• scaling
• CDN delivery
• checkout reliability
  are world-class.

Lower operational burden

Smaller engineering teams can run large businesses.

That is why many brands choose Shopify Plus even when they could go bespoke.

Good ecosystem

Apps and integrations exist for almost everything.

Cons

500k+ products is pushing Shopify hard

It can be done, but:

• catalogue management becomes difficult
• complex filtering/search needs external systems
• indexing becomes complicated
• API rate limits become painful
• bulk operations become engineering-heavy

Very large catalogues typically require:

• headless architecture
• external PIM
• external search
• middleware layers

At that point Shopify becomes “checkout infrastructure”.

Limited backend flexibility

Shopify is excellent until:

• your business process differs from Shopify’s assumptions.

Then you start building workarounds.

App dependency

Large Shopify stores often become:

• dozens of paid apps
• middleware layers
• custom connectors

This creates hidden operational fragility.

Vendor lock-in

You do not truly control the platform.

3. Magento / Adobe Commerce

Adobe

Magento (Adobe Commerce) sits between:

• bespoke
  and
• SaaS simplicity.

It is often the “enterprise flexibility” choice.

Pros

Designed for complex commerce

Magento is very strong at:

• huge catalogues
• multi-store
• B2B
• pricing rules
• internationalisation
• complex attributes
• advanced promotions

It was built for complexity.

Better suited to 500k+ SKUs than WooCommerce or standard Shopify

With proper infrastructure:

• Magento can support massive catalogues
• sophisticated indexing
• complex search layers

Strong API/headless capability

Magento increasingly works best as:

• headless commerce backend
  with a custom frontend.

Large ecosystem

Lots of:

• extensions
• developers
• agencies
• enterprise integrations

Cons

Operationally heavy

Magento is notorious for:

• complexity
• maintenance overhead
• upgrade pain
• performance tuning requirements

You generally need:

• dedicated developers
• DevOps
• infrastructure expertise

High total cost of ownership

Licensing, hosting and engineering costs become substantial.

Technical debt risk

Poor Magento implementations become:

• slow
• fragile
• difficult to upgrade

This is extremely common.

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce

Pros

Excellent for content-led commerce

Strong if:

• SEO/content marketing is central
• WordPress already exists
• catalogue complexity is moderate

Cheap to start

Very low initial barriers.

Flexible ecosystem

Huge WordPress plugin ecosystem.

Cons

200k products is generally beyond WooCommerce’s comfort zone

Possible? Yes.

Advisable? Usually no.

WordPress/WooCommerce was not architected primarily for:

• enterprise catalogue management
• large-scale indexing
• extremely high concurrency

You will spend significant time:

• tuning databases
• fixing plugin conflicts
• managing cache layers
• optimising search

Plugin fragility

Large WooCommerce estates often become operationally messy.

Security and maintenance burden

You inherit:

• WordPress patching
• plugin updates
• hosting optimisation

Depending on your mileage, that is either a very benevolent service, or an extremely invasive overreach of common decency / privacy.

In any case, we’re pretty far into it now. And the big secret is: serving you information is easy. Turning that into a business is complicated. Google’s services have always been free for users, and they’ve always been funded by the world’s biggest advertising network.

Their success is all achieved through data: they own gmail, google maps, google home, google pay, android, etc. – so they can say with 100% accuracy where you are / who you’re with / what you like to do / when you like to do it etc.

That could be as simple as ‘Google knows you are in Sheffield, so it will provide you local restaurants in Sheffield when you search ‘restaurants near me’.

Or as sinister as: Google knows you received an email saying your car loan repayment is overdue, so it will serve you ads for payday loans.

But however you cut this up, Google’s most significant money maker has always been search.

Google Search, at its core, is an index of websites.

The job of SEO has been to try to improve a websites’ rankings in that index.

Over the years, Google has constantly refined how it calculates two things: relevance and reputation.

If a site is deemed more relevant to a search term (and the user), it will rank higher.

If a site is deemed to have a better reputation than other sites, it will rank higher.

There’s an added tweak where certain features have been added to search to fulfil that goal of ‘getting the user the information before they know they need it’ – featured snippets, reviews, etc. But really those could be considered sub-sections of relevance and reputation anyway.

LLMs are different

They do not have an index in the same way Google does. They process information in an entirely different way, which is more about giving ‘the most probable correct answer’.

You’ve probably heard about ‘knowledge bases’ and ‘training data’ for LLMs. That basically means the resources that have been used by the LLM developer to create the LLM and ensure it has up-to-date knowledge.

The method of acquiring this knowledge is very similar to Google’s: they crawl the internet looking for information and encode that information. The Chatbots we use (like ChatGPT) can then answer questions about that information – and as we’ve said, they want to give the most probable correct answer.

But there’s a limitation. LLMs have nowhere near as much stored information as Google, or at least the information is stored in a way that makes it harder for a user to navigate. And that question of ‘most probable’ is really important.

There are lots of different LLMs, and they likely have different settings for how confident they need to be in an answer (to avoid hallucinations); when they should ask clarifying questions; and how much they should trust different sources.

If I ask an LLM to explain Pythagoras’ Theorem, it will be able to answer confidently and talk me through trigonometry to quite an advanced level. That’s because there is so much information about Pythagoras’ Theorem online. The model would have encoded the information over and over again, and will have a high level of confidence about the facts.

Pythagoras lived around 570 BCE, so his ideas have been part of the written record for the better part of 3 millenia. That’s quite a lot of training data.

But trouble emerges for the LLM when you ask about things that are less-widely written about.

Let’s take our earlier example: ‘What’s the best restaurant near me?’.

Google knew enough about me already to give me some recommendations.

But ChatGPT will almost certainly ask where I am. It might even ask for my budget and if I have any cuisine preferences.

And then it will provide me with the ‘most probable correct answer’ based on what it knows.

BUT it doesn’t know that much about the best restaurants in every city of the world – and that’s where it begins searching the web to find an answer.

I don’t know exactly how it works, but it seems very very very very similar to something like:

• Search Google
• Click all the links on the first page
• Analyse the pages
• Write a summary

(I don’t think ChatGPT actually just ‘searches Google’ (more likely Bing* due to their partnership); but when you look at the ‘Sources’ ChatGPT uses it’s hard to disprove my theory).

*And EVEN IF IT IS USING BING, the similarity in search between Bing and Google is very high. They use more or less the same ranking factors, and SEOs have always basically believed that focusing on Google (with its 95%+ market share) means Bing will be taken care of automatically.

—

So there’s our key differences:

1 – Google is trying to give users information before they know they need it. Despite that intention, organic search has always been working out how to rank a list of websites based on relevance and reputation.

2 – LLMs are trying to give users the most probable correct answer. This can seem like magic when you’re looking into a new topic (or using deep research to gather information

at scale) – but a cursory glance at its research / sources suggests something very close to Googling the answer.

Therefore there’s a temptation to say ‘ah, well if LLMs are just using Google results, I’m probably covered already’.

But that’s missing quite a few important details:

Ranking well in Google (i.e. having a website with lots of visibility) is a massive benefit for appearing frequently in LLM outputs.

But if you look at the kinds of sources being used by LLMs, they tend to prefer third-party sites; aggregators; marketplaces; directories; round-ups as their sources (i.e. not your website). And they make recommendations based on third-party suggestions in the sources.

So ranking your own website isn’t enough. You need to do that (Google is still the biggest search platform for now) – but you also need to improve your visibility off-site too. (In some quite specific places).

Optimising Your Website

Among hundreds of other factors, traditional SEO rankings are based on keywords, topical clusters & inclusion of NLP terms. Since 1997, Google has set the rules (ranking criteria) and success comes from being the best website among similar websites.

By contrast, LLMs are trained on huge amounts of publicly available data, and can make more specific judgements about what will be important to the user.

SEO = trying to be the most relevant / most useful based on specific ranking factors.

GEO = trying to be the ‘best’ based on factors valued by real people.

There is a huge amount of crossover (reviews, testimonials, links are all still important).

But the key to appearing in LLMs is to uncover what LLMs think users value, and ensure we’re signalling our strengths in those areas.

A simple experiment:

1. Go to Google 2. Search site:reddit.com “[your service]”

3. The results will tell you everything the public currently cares about when they talk about your service.

4. These are the things you should talk about on your site, in your FAQs, in your blog posts, on social etc – because they are the things that people care about (and therefore LLMs care about)*

*Also, Google has a $60m deal with Reddit to use its data to train Google’s AI models… so people’s opinions on Reddit are literally one of the biggest things Google’s AI values.

Optimising Off-Site Signals (reputation)

In traditional SEO, reputation was based (necessarily) on measurable network factors.

In short: if a node (web page) has lots of links from other nodes, it must be an important node.

Over time, those nodes took on ‘quality’ and ‘relevance’ factors, but the idea remained largely unchanged.

GEO still uses links to measure reputation, but links are less important. Citations and mentions carry greater weight. (Put differently, a link from the New York Times is great. But getting the New York Times to refer to you as ‘The most affordable coffee machine’ will increase your chances of LLMs producing your company when users ask ‘What is the most affordable coffee machine?’ (and no link from NYT required).

In short: LLMs aren’t trying to rank items in an index, they are trying to answer a user’s question with the most probable correct answer – and as we’ve seen, if they don’t know an answer instantly, they will look one up.

The sources they use in their research are hugely important.

Around 20% of sources are brand websites (i.e. you can appear as a source for ‘Most Affordable Coffee Machine’ by talking about how your product is ‘The Most Affordable Coffee Machine’.

But the rest come from aggregators, marketplaces, directories and round-ups.

An advisable off-site strategy is to create a long-list of all ‘sources’, and ensure your brand appears in all of them.

This is simple enough:

1. List all the questions (prompts) for which you’d like LLMs to include you in the output.

2. Run those prompts in as many LLMs as possible, creating a list of all sources.

3. Work out the most frequent sources.

4. Find a way to appear in those sources (that might be listing your site in a directory; applying for an award; joining a marketplace, or even asking a journalist to review your product for inclusion in a round-up).

(I said it was simple. I didn’t say it was quick and easy!)

So to summarise: There’s a huge crossover in best practices for SEO and AIO/GEO; and they complement each other nicely.

For SEO, focus on your relevance (keyword optimisation) and reputation (link building).

For GEO, focus on your relevance (how you meet customers’ specific needs), and reputation (how you appear in third party listings).

Caveat 1:

Google is already using an LLM type service as part of its search results, and has one of the top-performing AI Services in Gemini.

Google was using machine learning and AI as part of its search ranking algorithm (and much more) for a very long time. So don’t be fooled into thinking ChatGPT has caught Google napping, or that Google can’t respond with a similar (or better) search product.

Caveat 2:

We’re probably observing something like a generational shift, rather than an instantaneous reaction. Let’s assume I’m middle aged. Anyone in my parents generation is pretty likely to use whatever search engine comes programmed into their laptop or tablet. (Google still

has the biggest market share with Android, but Windows is the biggest personal computer company).

Also many organisations may force users to use default Windows software for security reasons.

(Anecdotally, we’ve seen decent performance in Bing Ads when targeting wealthy, older demographics – probably for this exact reason).

Whereas my children’s generation are entering a world where search engines already represent a waning power. Home Assistants, Siri, Alexa – and even ChatGPT’s voice mode have turned all of our primary technology interactions into conversations.

Some day soon we’ll be explaining search engines to them in the same way we currently explain landlines: ‘No you really had to read every single page until you found your answer’.

Caveat 3:

You’re probably familiar with the AI Overview box at the top of SERPs, which is becoming more and more ubiquitous (but still sits above a traditional search page)

Google is currently rolling out ‘Google AI’, which is a version of Google search that bypasses the traditional results page in favour of a GPT-style round-up.

Google is even already offering a ‘quote finder’ service where an AI will call potential suppliers in the search results and get a quote for you.

My prediction is within 18 months the version without the results page will be the norm for most types of search. This will be easy for informational searches (like how tall is Brad Pitt), but it can easily apply to commercial searches too. Just ask ChatGPT.

6 months ago that would have seemed impossible, but it’s in the post. Websites of all kinds are already seeing far fewer clicks from search, and Google doesn’t seem to care. People are voting with their actions – ChatGPT is a huge traffic referrer, and that’s only going to grow – and the good news for you is there’s still a first-mover advantage.

Want to be a first-mover? Send me a message and let’s talk.

With less than a year (a bit longer for 360 properties) left before it gets replaced, digital marketers need to get used to the new Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible to not be taken aback by this change.

Google Analytics 4 is Google’s newest tracking tool. It’s a completely new and separate system, rather than an upgrade to Universal Analytics.

Whether you’re experienced or new to using Google’s analytics service, you should start with learning the basics to implement your tracking goals properly.

In this Google Analytics 4 tutorial, you’ll learn what GA4 is all about and how you can use it to measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps.

Here’s an overview of what we’ll cover:

• Understanding GA4’s functions and features
• Setting up Google Analytics 4
• Creating custom events in GA4
• Exploring the pre-built reports in GA4
• Uncovering deeper insights with GA4 explorations

Let’s jump right in!

What is GA4 and Why Should You Use It?

Google Analytics 4 is the newest analytics service provided by Google. The presumption of it being an upgrade to Universal Analytics is inaccurate because GA4 is a completely different tool with its new data model.

Device support for both websites and mobile apps has also been added along with new views for reporting data. Read more on the biggest changes in Google Analytics 4 to know how GA4 changes the way we think about analytics.

With the sunset of UA approaching fast, it’s no longer a matter of deciding if GA4 is worthwhile switching to or using it in tandem with UA because eventually, it will replace UA. It will become the default property when making a Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics 4 is unlike anything you may know from your previous Google Analytics experience, but its improvements, added flexibility, and perspective on analytics will help you better understand the new digital world.

What is the Goal of GA4?

Whether your business is doing well or in a precarious situation, increasing revenue will always be one of its goals.

Aside from ensuring the quality of your service or product, one of the most effective and important ways of growing your business is to know and understand your users.

Data on your users is like gold for marketers, and the GA4 tool is the shovel that will help you get that gold. If you know what users are doing on your website, you can optimize its content to attract more of them and ultimately increase your profits.

How Google Analytics 4 Works

Working with Google Analytics 4 can be divided into three aspects: measuring, reporting, and analyzing.

Let’s dive into the first aspect, measuring, by looking at an example.

After creating an account, there are two options for implementing a snippet of code to your website. You can either use the Global site tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager.

This JavaScript code will be responsible for connecting your website to Google Analytics behind the scenes. Once you have it installed, data will flow into your GA4 account.

Google Analytics 4 even allows you to check what is happening on your website in real-time.

For this step, information about your users, like where they come from, what page they are currently on, and what are they clicking on becomes data points that GA4 measures.

After measuring data about your users, the next step is reporting.

Google Analytics 4 provides multiple pre-built reports that you can use to view the data from your website and apps. Let’s look at a few of these reports!

The acquisition reports allow you to check how your users are arriving at your web page.

Data on how users interact with your web page can be seen in the engagement reports.

You can also see information about your users like their location, age, and interests by looking at the demographics report.

These are only some of the reports you can check out. For each category, you can still go deeper and see more specific data that might be helpful to you.

Aside from what Google provides, you can also build custom reports to view the information you care about.

While the data itself is important, the most valuable thing is to dive deeper – what can you do with this data? Well, the last aspect of the GA4 workflow, analyzing, uses the gathered data to help answer questions you may have about your users.

When you want to analyze data further, Google’s BigQuery may come to mind, especially if you’re working with a large dataset. Another way to look further is to utilize the helpful feature that comes with your GA4 property called explorations.

Explorations are a set of powerful audience discovery and comparison tools that go beyond standard reports to help you uncover deeper insights into your customers’ behavior.

There are multiple templates to choose from, each one providing you with different ways to find the answers to very specific questions about your users.

Looking at a funnel exploration example, you can see the different steps users take in making a conversion.

The user journey is broken down into steps and you can analyze each in detail. In the example, the user views a product, adds it to the cart, provides details, and then buys it. You can also see how many users leave at each step.

After obtaining additional information like this, the last step would be to turn those insights into actions. Maybe, you’ll start with some A/B testing or completely change the way you present your website/app content.

Whatever action you may take, GA4 is still there to let you know if those changes had a positive, negative, or inconsequential impact on your business. You can keep using this tool to optimize your content, and ultimately increase your revenue.

What we’ve covered only touches the surface of the capabilities of Google Analytics 4. It is a powerful tool that gives you valuable insights about your users simply and easily.

Now, let’s start with learning how to set up Google Analytics 4 so that you can dive deeper into its implementation.

How to Set Up Google Analytics 4

Setting up Google Analytics 4 seems deceptively easy. Simply follow the instructions Google provides, and you’re ready to start tracking different user interactions across your websites and apps.

There may be some who can handle setting up GA4 that way, but there are surely some others who can get lost with the provided instructions.

Several nuances need to be taken into consideration, and some of these steps are not as intuitive as one may think, especially for those implementing GA4 for the first time.

No need to worry as we’ll guide you through the first steps so that you can start your Google Analytics 4 journey.

Creating a GA4 Account

This section will explain the steps for creating a Google Analytics 4 account for first-time users.

Note: If you use Universal Analytics and are migrating to GA4, we have a handy GA4 migration guide that you should first check out. We have listed out all the steps you need to take, from preparation and planning to implementation and handling of data.

Since you cannot transfer historical data, the best way forward is to link the GA4 account to your existing UA property. You may not be able to access previous data in your UA property, but you will be able to import your UA tracking configuration into your GA4 property.

Check out our guide on upgrading to Google Analytics 4 to link your UA property using the GA4 Setup Assistant. Here, you’ll simultaneously create and link a GA4 account from your UA property.

Now, let’s create a new Google Analytics 4 account.

For this demo, we already have an existing account, but you can create another one from the Admin settings. If you’re using Google’s analytics services for the first time, the starting steps may be different, but you will eventually arrive at the same place.

Go to Google Analytics. Click on Admin → Create Account.

The first set of settings you need to configure is the account setup. Type in an Account name.

Next, you can configure the account data sharing settings.

Select the ones you choose to share. After this, click on Next to finish the account setup.

The next step is the property setup. By default, a Google Analytics 4 property will be created.

Provide a Property name, then specify the Reporting time zone and equivalent Currency. Finally, click on Next.

The last step in creating an account is to provide information about your business.

Tick the options that apply or skip this part if you want to. Then, click on Create.

Lastly, check the box to agree to the terms of service agreement, then click on I Accept.

On your Google Analytics admin settings, there are two columns on the Account and Property settings.

The first column contains the settings related to your account. You can also switch to other accounts from here. For a single email address, you can create up to 100 accounts.

An instance where this could make sense is when you have unrelated businesses. You can create an account for each business without logging in to a different email address.

On the other hand, the second column has the settings related to your web page or application. Similarly, you are allowed to own multiple properties in a single account, up to 50 properties for each account.

Setting up a Data Stream

Now that you have a Google Analytics account and a GA4 property, let’s set up a data stream to specify where you want to obtain data from.

There are 3 types of data streams: Web (for websites), iOS (for iOS apps), and Android (for Android apps). We’ll be working with a web page for this demonstration, so we will use the Web data stream.

From the property settings, click on Data Streams → Web.

Enter your website URL, then provide a Stream name. Finally, click on Create stream.

By default, enhanced measurement is activated. It allows GA4 to track some events automatically. These include pageviews, scrolls, clicks to external web pages, searches within your site, videos your users watch on your web pages, and downloads from your site.

Now that you have an account and data stream, the next step is to connect Google Analytics 4 to your website and dictate what data should be sent.

Connecting GA4 to your Web Page with GTM

As mentioned in the GA4 overview earlier, there are two ways of implementing GA4 on your website – using the Global site tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager.

We’ll use GTM as it gives more flexibility when it comes to tracking.

Before proceeding, ensure that GTM is set up and properly connected to your web page. If you don’t have a GTM account yet, check out our Google Tag Manager tutorial to install GTM on your website.

First, copy the Measurement ID from the web stream details.

The measurement ID will help Google Analytics know that data should flow to this specific property and stream.

In Google Tag Manager, go to Tags → New.

Click on Tag Configuration → Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.

Paste the measurement ID in the space provided, then click on Triggering.

Select the All Pages trigger.

Provide a name for the tag, then click on Save.

Click on Submit to make the changes live.

Click on Publish.

Now go to your website and refresh the page.

Using the Tag Assistant Chrome extension, you can see the global site tag on the tag analysis. This means that you have successfully implemented Google Analytics 4 on your website.

The Tag Assistant extension gives you a quick and easy way to gain insights from Google Tag Manager. Check out our list of the essential analytics Chrome extensions to know about other helpful extensions you should use to work smarter with Google Analytics.

While the GA4 global site tag showing in the Tag Assistant extension is already a good sign, checking Google Analytics is the definitive way to check if GA4 has been implemented correctly.

Go to Reports → Real-time. Here, you can see that our session has been recorded and we have been considered the first user on the web page.

Google Analytics 4 is running properly and data is flowing into your account.

To ensure that your setup is efficient, check out our guide on GA4 audit: questions to ensure correct account setup.

How to Create GA4 Events with GTM

When Google Analytics 4 was introduced, it was announced as an event-based analytics tool where everything can be considered an event.

This provided more versatility as you could now decide if a pageview, purchase, or any other action taken by a visitor on your website was something you are interested in tracking.

Creating and tracking GA4 events has been made simple with the help of Google Tag Manager. Before making your custom event, let’s first determine the differences between GA4 event types.

GA4 Event Types

There are four event types in Google Analytics 4. Two types are collected automatically and the other two require some implementation to see them in Analytics.

Automatically collected events are the basic events that come together with your snippet. Google Analytics collects them by default when you set up Google Analytics 4 on your website or app.

Next, we have the enhanced measurement events, which were briefly covered while setting up a data stream.

You can toggle the entire enhanced measurement events collection on or off by accessing the stream details on your GA4 property.

To select which specific events you wish to track, click on the gear icon at the bottom right.

Here, you are given a full description of each event under this event type and the ability to specify which events you wish to track.

Next, we have the recommended events. These are the events that you implement but have predetermined names and parameters.

If you have an event you wish to track, it is recommended to first check the recommended events article provided in the Analytics Help to unlock reporting capabilities. Here, you will find the predetermined names and links describing the prescribed parameters for each event.

For example, if we want to track an add-to-cart event, click on the add_to_cart link in the For online sales section of the article.

This link leads you to a Google Analytics developers page where the prescribed parameters are listed and explained in great detail. These parameters are additional data points that help describe the event.

The last event type is the custom events. These are the events that you define. If you’re trying to track an event that is not on the list of recommended events, you can implement a custom one with your own corresponding set of parameters.

Note that these custom events will not appear in most standard reports, so you will need to set up custom reports or explorations for a meaningful analysis.

Implementing a Custom Event in GA4 with GTM

Let’s create a custom event in Google Analytics 4 with the help of Google Tag Manager.

First, determine what event you want to track.

For this example, let’s track a specific link that redirects the user to a web page with reviews for the product.

Before any implementation, go to Variables and ensure that all click variables are activated.

If your click variables are not yet activated, click on Configure and select all click variables.

Now, let’s click on Preview.

Click on Connect.

On the tab connected to the Tag Assistant, click on the link you want to track.

Go to the Tag Assistant and select Link Click. Since this example is aimed at tracking link clicks for all reviews, the click classes variable is the most appropriate for the tag. Copy this value.

Going back to Tag Manager, click on Triggers → New.

Click on Trigger Configuration → Just Links.

We only want to track a specific link, so select Some Link Clicks. Specify the condition as Click Classes contains as the click classes value.

Provide a name for the trigger, then click on Save.

Now, you can create a tag for your custom event.

Go to Tags → New.

Click on Tag Configuration → Google Analytics: GA4 Event.

Select the GA4 configuration tag you have previously set up, then provide an event name.

Next, click on Event Parameters → Add Row.

Provide a parameter name, then click on the lego piece icon under the value.

Select the Click URL variable.

Next, click on Triggering.

Select the custom trigger you created for the custom link clicks.

Finally, select a tag name and click on Save.

Selecting the right trigger and parameters for your custom events depends on the action you want to track. Our guide on button click tracking with GTM may be helpful for some of your custom events.

Now, let’s test our tag.

Click on Preview again.

On the website connected to Tag Assistant, click on the review link again.

In Tag Assistant, you can see under the Link Click event that your custom event tag has been fired.

Let’s check if it has been recorded in Google Analytics.

Go to Configure → DebugView. Here, you can see your review_link event. This means that your tracking has been set up correctly.

Clicking on your custom event allows you to see the parameters you are sending along with this event. Here, you can see your reviewed_product parameter.

If you want to see this parameter in your reports, it is important to register it as a custom dimension. Otherwise, it will not be available.

Creating a Custom Dimension

Click on Custom definitions → Create custom dimensions.

Provide a Dimension name and Description. The scope of this dimension should remain as an event.

Next, you need to specify the event parameter. This should be the same as what was set up in GTM.

Let’s go back to GTM and copy the value directly to be sure that there is no mistake.

Paste this name back to Analytics and click on Save.

It might take up to 24 hours to appear, but you can view this custom dimension in your reports by going to Reports → Engagement → Events.

Don’t forget to publish your container by going to GTM and clicking Submit.

Provide a version name and click on Publish.

Next, let’s discuss the ways of viewing data in Google Analytics 4 and the different reports Analytics provides by default.

Standard Reports in Google Analytics 4

Your Google Analytics property comes with multiple predetermined reports to help you analyze data from your website and apps.

Understanding the reporting interface of Google Analytics 4 will allow you to analyze this data properly and obtain valuable insights to better understand user activity.

For this section, you will be working with the Google Demo account so that you can view a property already populated with a large dataset.

GA4 Home Overview

Opening your GA4 property directs you to a home section. This section gives you a summary of what is happening on your web page.

The first thing you see is a graph containing information about the total number of users, the number of new users, their average engagement time, and the total revenue generated.

Trend lines showing data for the last seven days and the preceding period can also be seen, along with the positive or negative change between the two.

Clicking on other metrics on this graph will show their corresponding trend lines.

The second card is related to activity in real-time. You can see information about your users in the last 30 minutes and the top countries where these users are.

Scrolling down, you can see the recently viewed section that provides shortcuts to the most recent reports you have opened.

Further down is the most exciting feature of GA4, the Insights.

Insights are automatically provided through the use of machine learning to help you understand and act on your data. This feature detects unusual changes or emerging trends in your data and presents them in this section.

You can also create custom insights for the data that is important to you. Just provide conditions that will detect changes to see these insights. Luckily, you can create up to 50 custom insights per property.

Let’s now discuss the different reports in your GA4 property.

GA4 Reports

Click on the Reports tab present below the home tab.

Each Analytics property includes a Reports snapshot report, a Real-time report, the Life cycle collection, User collection, and App developer collection (for those who have connected a mobile app to their property).

You will notice that there is another collection of reports on this property. This is an example of a custom report. You can create a new collection where you can include the reports you would like to have or even customize the predefined reports.

Let’s start by discussing the Reports snapshot.

The Reports snapshot helps you in navigating your analysis. It is the overview report displayed when you click on the Reports tab. Any overview report can be set as the Reports snapshot.

By default, you can see a summary of user activity on your web page, the number of users, total event count, number of conversions, and total revenue. Below, a real-time count of users on your page and an insights card can be seen.

There are also cards with questions that should help you get some additional insights.

For example, cards for where your new users are coming from and what your top campaigns are can be viewed.

Something that you can see at the top of any report is a data sampling indicator. The green check mark indicates that this report is unsampled.

What is data sampling? In data analysis, sampling is the practice of analyzing a subset of data to uncover meaningful information in the larger dataset.

Standard reports are always unsampled. Sampling might happen in the explorations section that we will discuss later, or when your analysis exceeds 10 million events.

Going to any of the cards and clicking on it will direct you to that specific report.

Click on View real-time.

This takes you to the Real-time report.

Here, you can see what is happening on your web page. You can see information about your users, the devices they are using, the pages they are on at the moment, and so on.

An interesting feature in this report can be accessed by clicking on View user snapshot at the top of the report.

This allows you to view a snapshot of a random user’s journey on your website or app. You will not be able to see specific information about the user, but you can see the events they fired.

The view is similar to the one in the DebugView where there is a timeline of the events the user triggered, their top events over the last 30 minutes, and the location of the user.

Next, let’s look at the different collections that appear in the report navigation.

A collection is a set of reports. By default, the Life cycle and User collections are present in all GA4 properties. A collection can be further divided into topics which is a subset of reports within a collection. Each topic contains an overview report and one or more detailed reports.

Life Cycle Collection

The Life cycle collection helps you break down user activity at each stage in the customer user journey. Under this collection are the Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization, and Retention topics.

Acquisition Reports

Reports under the acquisition topic give you information on how users arrive at your web page.

Looking at the Acquisition overview report, you are greeted by a summary card.

Like other overview reports, there is a real-time card and summaries of each report within the topic under the summary card.

Another thing you can do with reports is to change the timeframe of the analysis.

Click on the date range at the top right portion of the report.

You can select from a list of predefined periods or create a custom one. There is also a feature to compare data from the preceding period. Click on Apply to save the timeframe changes.

If you had enabled the comparison feature, the increase or decrease in your data can be seen in the cards. This allows you to identify some helpful trends or changes.

Let’s remove the date comparison and explore other features you can see on a reports page.

Let’s say you want to compare all users against users from the United States.

You can add a comparison point by clicking on the Edit comparisons button → Add new comparison.

Select the Country dimension. Search for the United States in the dimension values. Then, confirm this condition by checking the Summary section. Finally, click on Apply.

A legend of the different comparisons you have enabled can be seen at the top of the report.

You can also see that the reports either have additional trend lines or columns indicating the data for the specified comparison points.

Another feature is the ability to share this report with your colleagues.

You can share this report by clicking on the Share button → Share link.

The last feature is Insights which we had a preview of in the home overview section. If you don’t know where to start with your analysis, looking at the insights section can help you see meaningful information about your data.

You can access this feature by clicking on the Insights button beside the share button. A panel will open on the right side of your page.

The insights panel has a bunch of categories that group the questions you may have regarding your data. These questions can help you find some valuable insights into your data.

To illustrate, let’s open the Basic Performance category and select the “On what days do I get the most users?” question.

You are presented with a table showing the number of users you get for each day of the week, sorted in descending order.

Whether you’re a beginner or a Google Analytics expert, using the insights feature provides quick interpretations of your data.

Before moving on to the detailed reports from the acquisition topic, let’s clear the comparison by clicking on the button.

Now, let’s go to the User acquisition report.

The user acquisition report gives you information on how your users are getting to your web page for the first time.

Scrolling down, you can see a detailed table containing different metrics related to how you first acquired a user.

You can change the table’s primary dimension by clicking on the dimension picker below the search bar.

Using the search bar can help filter the table to only show the data you need.

Lastly, you can also add a secondary dimension if you want by clicking on the + button.

The last report under the acquisition topic is the Traffic acquisition report.

This report shows information about new and returning users. It also has a detailed table where you can tweak the data being presented. It’s similar to how we tweaked the user acquisition table, but the metrics present are more session-related.

Engagement Reports

Moving on to the next topic under the life cycle collection, we have the engagement reports. These reports let you measure user engagement by the events, conversion events that users trigger, and the web pages and app screens that users visit.

Let’s look at the Engagement Overview report.

This shows how users are interacting with the content on your web page. Here, you can see details such as the average engagement time, engaged sessions per user, and average engagement time per session.

By this point, you may have noticed that Google Analytics 4 collects a lot of data from your website or app. Although we’re about halfway through the different report types, it may feel like we have encountered countless dimensions and metrics.

Remembering what each is about can be difficult, especially if you are a new user. Therefore, it is highly recommended to check out the Google documentation every time you’re uncertain about the exact definition of the dimension or metric you are looking at.

The first detailed report for this engagement topic is the Events report.

This report shows the user activity on your web page. You have a graph of the event count over time, a list of events, total users that triggered the event, etc.

The next detailed report is for Conversions.

Conversions are events that are valuable for your business. This report also has a table that shows the number of conversions for a specific event, and the revenue generated if you have assigned a monetary value to a specific conversion.

Lastly, we have the Pages and screens report.

Here, you can see the pages (or screens if you have an application) your visitors are going to. The detailed table will show the number of views for each page, the total number of users that visited, as well as the number of new users.

Monetization Reports

The next topic from the life cycle collection is the Monetization reports which present information about the revenue you’re generating.

Looking at the Overview report, the first graph shows the total revenue, eCommerce value, and total ad revenue.

The eCommerce revenue is the revenue you are generating if you have eCommerce tracking implemented. Meanwhile, the total ad revenue will only be displayed if you have Google Ads Manager integration.

The E-commerce purchases report lets you check the items you are selling and their performance.

You can see what products your users are buying, how many views an item gets, how many items get added to the basket, the basket-to-view rate, etc.

Another quick and easy way to determine what a specific metric or dimension means is by hovering the mouse over it. This gives you a pop-up that gives the description.

Looking at the In-app purchases report will show you that no data is available.

The publisher ads report will also tell you that no data is available. These two reports are related to applications and the revenue you generate with your app and publisher ads. They are empty because the Google demo account only gathers data from a web page.

Retention Report

The last report you can view from the life cycle collection is the Retention report.

This report tells you how frequently and how long users engage with your web page. You can see data about new and returning users.

Cards about user retention, user engagement, and lifetime value are also available. The grouping of data by cohorts is a helpful feature if you have divisions for your users, or have a user ID implemented.

User Collection

The next collection is the User collection which has the demographics and tech topics.

The User collection helps you understand the people who use your websites and apps, by providing information such as their age, interests, devices, and app versions.

Let’s first look at the Demographics overview report.

Here, you can see data about your users, the country, town/city they are from, their gender, interests, and age. Currently, data on gender, interests, and age is not available in the Google demo account.

To see this data in your report, you need to activate the Google signals feature.

Go to Admin → Data Settings → Data Collection.

Here, activate the Google signals data collection.

Going to your Tech overview report, you will see the technologies your users are using while browsing your web page or application.

You can also see the operating system your users use, their device category, and the browsers they used.

Lastly, the Tech details report also provides a detailed table showing the traffic by the technology your audience uses.

This and other tables under the detailed reports for each collection are similar in the sense that you can change the information shown, provide a secondary criterion, filter results, etc.

That is an overview of the standard reports in Google Analytics 4.

Now that you can view your data, let’s analyze this data further by using the GA4 explorations.

How to Use GA4 Explorations

Google Analytics 4 exploration reports let you go beyond standard reports to help you gain deeper insights into your customers’ behavior.

Using exploration reports allows you to carry out an in-depth analysis, uncovering useful details about your website and/or mobile app performance. With exploration reports, you can apply different visualization techniques to dive into your data in detail.

If you have a specific question that you would like to answer using your data, the Explorations section is the place to look for answers.

You can access it by clicking on the Explorations tab below the Reports tab.

Here, you can create a new exploration report from scratch or utilize the templates for various exploration techniques. These pre-configured techniques allow you to analyze your data from different angles using a set of common dimensions and metrics.

Let’s discuss each one in detail!

Exploration Techniques

Free-form exploration allows you to explore your data in a familiar crosstab layout. This exploration technique can apply several visualization styles, including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, scatter plots, and geo maps.

The Funnel exploration allows you to visualize the steps users take to complete tasks on your site or map. Next, Path exploration lets you visualize the path users take as they navigate your website or app, and how they interact with your content.

Segment overlap can help you see how different user groups/segments relate to each other. This technique allows you to identify new segments of users who meet complex criteria.

Next, the Cohort exploration allows you to gain insights into the behavior and performance of a group of users related by common characteristics. Lastly, the User lifetime allows you to explore user behavior and determine user value over their lifetime as a customer.

Due to some privacy regulations in the Google demo account, you only got to see 6 exploration techniques where there are usually 7.

The technique that you did not see is User exploration. This allows you to examine the users that make up the segments you create or import. You can also drill down into individual user activities.

Free-form Exploration Technique

Let’s go ahead and explore the free-form exploration technique.

Click on Free-form in the explorations section.

This opens the explorations editor layout, where there are two columns on the left and the breakdown area on the right side.

The Variables and Tab Settings columns are where you configure your report. For the free-form exploration technique, the default visualization in the breakdown area is a table where the results of your configuration can be seen.

Let’s first look at the Variables column.

The first thing you can configure is the Exploration Name. Then, you can choose a time frame of data you wish to see in your report. You also have a list of Segments which are the different subsets of users you can use to configure your report.

Further down are the Dimensions and Metrics.

The dimensions and metrics are the components or building blocks of your report. Dimensions are colored green and are the aspects of your business you want to analyze. On the other hand, metrics help you measure and are colored blue.

Let’s move on to the Tab settings column.

Here, you can change the exploration Technique if you want to. You can also select a Visualization method by choosing from a table, different chart types, and a geo map. The Segment Comparisons section is where you add the segments for your analysis.

Next, you have the Rows and Columns section where you add the dimensions for analysis.

Next, the Values section is where you place the metrics you have measured. Lastly, there’s a Filters section where you can drop or select specific dimensions or metrics to filter out your data if you want to include or exclude something.

Let’s say you want to work with a specific segment, dimension, or metric. If it is not present in the list from the variables column, what do you do?

Luckily, you are not limited to only the ones listed here. To illustrate how you can add other segments, dimensions, or metrics, let’s add the first user source dimension.

Click on the plus sign beside the dimensions header.

Search for the first user source and select it from the list of dimensions. Finally, click on Import.

Building a Report

Now, let’s build our first simple report.

First, let’s delete all the pre-configured settings by clicking on the button beside the dimension/metric in the rows, columns, and values section.

For your first configuration, let’s say you want to see all the events taking place on the website, as well as the event count.

You have two options on how you can add the configurations to your report. You can either drag and drop the dimension or metric to the corresponding section or simply double-click on it.

Since it is more convenient, double-click on the Event name dimension and the Event count metric.

You will notice that it automatically puts the event name dimension in the rows section and the event count metric in the values section.

You can easily sort the results by clicking on the arrow beside the event count header.

Let’s say you want to add a second dimension to your report. You can simply drag the dimension to the columns section of the tab settings portion or by double-clicking on it.

To illustrate, let’s drag the Country dimension to the columns section.

Let’s create another report by first clearing the dimensions and metrics in our current report.

For this new report, double-click the First user source, Event count, and Transactions.

Let’s try adding a filter to this report. For the first filter, let’s say you only want to work with data from Baidu.

Click on the Drop or select dimension or metric → First user source.

Set the filter as “contains Baidu”, then click Apply.

This leaves only the first user sources that contain Baidu to be left in the table.

You can also create a filter that excludes certain keywords.

For example, if you want to exclude first user sources from Bing, the filter should be set as “does not contain Bing”.

Moreover, you can also create multiple conditions in your filters which must be fulfilled at the same time.

The last feature we will discuss in the explorations section is the Tabs section.

You can have different tabs to display your visualization and explorations can contain up to 10 visualizations.

To add a new tab, click on the + button in the tabs section.

Summary

So, that’s all you need to know about Google Analytics 4.

We’ve covered the steps of setting up GA4 on your website, the different GA4 event types, and how to set up custom events.

Moreover, we have also gone through the standard reports that come pre-configured with your Google Analytics 4 property, and how to analyze your data further using the free-form exploration technique.

Continue your Google Analytics 4 journey by learning the GA4 metrics to better understand your user behavior.

What kinds of data do you wish to pull from your website/app? Which GA4 feature is the most appealing or useful to you as a data analyst? Let us know in the comments below!

Article first posted on MeasureSchool website on 9th September  2022, written by Sofija Bychkovksa

One area where we see some of the biggest advancements is in the browser extension scene. Web browsers like Chrome are constantly improving their general functionality, allowing 3rd party applications to take advantage of the DOM environment and give even more functionality to users. 

What are SEO Browser Extensions

Search engine optimisation (SEO) browser extensions allow you to see specific types of data about the web pages you visit.

This can be very useful information as it allows you to spot technical errors, read page content, and find out how your competitors are doing. 

You can also use SEO browser extensions to check how a particular keyword ranks in Google search results, find backlinks for any site or web page, find broken links on a web page, or even see if there is a mobile version of the webpage.

Top SEO extensions that we use every day

Conductor for Chrome – Excellent new all-rounder!

One of the newer SEO extensions is Conductor for Chrome – a companion to the Conductor Platform, an SEO marketing solution that helps businesses grow their organic channel. This feature-packed tool is free to use and has quickly become one of the best SEO extensions we have found. It delivers top-level SEO metrics in a neat package, making it easy for anyone to start uncovering SEO opportunities by just clicking on the icon. 

The tool is great for auditing web pages and competitor analysis. Quickly see how other sites are structuring their content, which keywords are being focused on and run a general health check to see how good their SEO is compared to yours. 

FAT RANK – famous for checking ranks quickly!

Do you ever need to quickly check how well a site is ranking for a specific keyword? I often find myself in a situation where I want to know how well a website is ranking for a particular keyword – this is where Fat Rank comes into play. After clicking on its icon, you can enter your keyword, and the extension will see how well the current website you are on is ranking in Google. You can also select which GEO the tool should target, giving you accurate results every time!

Keywords Everywhere – renowned keyword research tool!

Keyword research is an essential part of SEO, but it can time consuming, and sometimes it’s hard to find keywords to focus on that don’t have much competition. KE allows you to research in Google search, offering many suggestions related to the keyword you just typed in. It also shows you what other people have searched for while using that same keyword. 

The tool goes a step beyond once you purchase credits – it allows you to analyse any domain to see what keywords it is currently ranking for. Credits are cheap: $10 will last a few months with moderate use!

Keyword Surfer – fantastic free keyword research tool!

A great alternative to Keywords Everywhere – I use both often at the same time. This tool also provides related keywords based on what you are typing into Google, displaying the keyword info in a panel on the right. 

Meta SEO Inspector – great for quick HTML and markup checks!

For quick onpage SEO analysis, Meta SEO Inspector is often the tool of choice. A single click on its icon will display all HTML markup on the webpage you are on, highlighting important SEO factors. It will show you all meta-data and structured data so that you can quickly see how the webpage is optimised, along with any occurring errors.

MozBar – perfect for measuring DA/PA!

When trying to identify the DA or PA of a webpage for backlink placements or competitor analysis, you need the MozBar. Moz created these metrics, so it makes sense to use their extension – DA/PA are still the most common domain and page strength measurements.

SEOQuake – comprehensive all-rounder!

One of the first extensions to offer a complete SEO overview of webpages is SEOQuake. There are two ways to use the tool; the first is by analysing the search results – it provides key SEO stats on the domains that are currently ranking to judge the competitive nature of the keyword typed into Google. The second is page analysis; by clicking on the SEOQuake icon, you can audit the current webpage you are on and see how well it is optimised. You can see things like keyword density, page audit for common SEO factors, internal and external link info – you can also compare domains which is useful to see how your content stacks up.

Web Vitals  – great for monitoring core web vitals on the go!

With Core Web Vitals becoming a ranking factor as of June 2021, it’s important to know how to measure your site and see how well it performs and competitors. The Web Vitals extension allows you to see these important metrics live as you browse around a site. The extension does not provide in-depth analysis like Lighthouse or The CRuX Report, but it is useful to see actual field data. Tools like Lighthouse provide lab data which means the metrics are derived from a throttled down user experience scenario and not necessarily a true reflection of your website.

Check My Links – great for finding broken links!

Finding broken links on a webpage is not always as straightforward as we would like! Check My Links is an easy to use extension that scans the webpage you are on, checking that all links are working and highlighting them as it goes along. Green links are resolving as they should, but red links are broken and should be addressed. You can use this extension to find broken links on other people’s websites, too – opening up opportunities to contact these websites and provide an alternative URL to the broken one you just saw.

I hope you found something new on this list and that it helps you with your SEO efforts. These are the browser extensions that I use almost every day, and for a good reason – they all do what they are meant to do very well. 

Most of these are free to use – Keywords Everywhere has a freemium model, but I recommend purchasing some credits; as mentioned, $10 goes a long way. You will be able to carry out much more extensive keyword research, so it’s a great choice for finding a boatload of keywords!

If you found this post useful, please feel free to share it across your social networks!

All the best,

Jeremy

You’ve probably heard some of this information before, but now you can see what the future holds! In this article, we will discuss:

1. Understanding how webpages are ranked

2. Keyword research tips

3. How to use keywords in an article

4. What is user intent and entity search, and how does it affect your content strategy

5. Why understanding the importance of keyword research will help you rank higher on Google’s SERPs in 2021

To do keyword research, you need to be willing to experiment and think outside of the box. The importance of keyword research is clear in today’s world, where search engines are increasingly more intelligent, and users are more adept at searching online. Search engines know what their users want and filter out content that is not relevant for them, while users are asking more questions online than ever before. This means that keywords can create a huge impact on how your content ranks and is found online. It’s also important to write about semantically relevant topics in clusters so that each paragraph contains its own group of keywords, which, when combined, support the main keyword of your article.

In 2021 and beyond, keyword research will be even more important than ever before, with sites like Google releasing more advanced algorithms every day!

Understanding how webpages are ranked

Googles BERT algorithm uses a natural language processing model to understand search queries better and understand the context of words in a query – you can now search for more conversational things.

Google’s search algorithm goes beyond understanding synonyms and the basic meaning of a query; it also tries to categorise the type of information you are looking for. It looks to see if the query is specific in nature or more broad and if the query has any local attributes and the type of language used. The freshness of the information being searched for is also considered, especially for topics that have new information released regularly, like news or sports information.

Next, the search algorithm will analyse the content on webpages to try and find the most relevant content for a query. It scans through the text looking for mentions of the search query, taking into account the use of certain markup on a webpage (titles, H tags, alt text etc..).

The algorithm then has to rank all the pages found to potentially hold relevant information and work out which pages match the search query best. Analysing hundreds of different factors, the algorithm will deliver the top 10 results on the first page of Google and rank the rest of the webpages it found accordingly.

It also analyses the usability of webpages, looking for certain disruptions to users experience while they browse a page. These signals are sent back to the algorithm, which can then use this information as part of the ranking process.

Keyword research tips

The best way to find keywords that your audience is using is to do a little research on Google. You can type in specific questions or keywords and see what comes up. If you have a lot of traffic on your page already, likely, visitors are already using these keywords to find the information they need – you can get this information from Google Search Console. But if you don’t have a huge amount of traffic (or any at all), then you’ll want to use other methods.

As with most things in life, there are many different ways to do keyword research. The most popular way is through Google Keyword Planner, free keyword tools like KeywordTool.io or Ubersuggest and premium tools like SEMrush, LongTail Pro and SpyFu.

Here are some unique ways to carry out topically relevant keyword research:

Google search

Run a search in Google and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Here, you will find Related Searches – suggestions from Google on search queries that are highly related to what you just typed in, often what other people are also searching for.

Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension

The Keyword Everywhere Chrome Extension is a must-have for any content marketer who needs to find the right keywords for their content. This extension makes it easy to generate keywords from your competitors’ sites and domains they might be targeting and trending topics around the web. You can also get suggestions based on the keyword you are typing into Google.

Keyword Surfer Chrome Extension

This is another great tool to help you uncover related keywords as you research in Google. Once you search for a keyword, a panel will appear on the right of the search results, showing you a list of related search terms with volume – Keyword Surfer will also shows the trend of the keyword.

Answer The Public

If you ever find yourself stuck while looking for keyword ideas, then Answer The Public is going to be your best friend. This tool uses a few different tactics to discover highly relevant keywords for any given topic. Just type in your main keyword or topic, and it will return a wide range of different keyword types, from questions that people are actually asking online to alphabetical suggestions.

How to use keywords in an article

Keywords can be added to your article in many places, but do not overdo it. You should focus on keywords that best describe the type of content you create and use semantically relevant terms to support your main keyword.

The best way to use keywords is through your headings (H1, H2, etc.) as these are used as signifiers for what your content is actually about.

Heading tags (H1-H6) and alt tags on images explain the context of your content by providing an extra signal for search engines, which is why keywords must be used in context when using these tags.

Heading tags add more information on what topics are being discussed throughout the page to find the information they are looking for quickly. The paragraph of text that follows should contain all the information suggested from the title of that paragraph; if a new subject is discussed, then a new title in an H tag should be used.

Headings also show search engines when an article is about a particular keyword or phrase. Keep in mind that Google and other search engines rank articles based on how many relevant keywords are used within them. So oftentimes, you’ll want to use the most specific keywords throughout your article – this will help get you noticed by the search engines much more effectively than using broad, non-descriptive terms.

How do I incorporate keywords into my content?

Try looking for opportunities within your writing: These can be places where the topic could naturally and easily flow from one point to another. There are “gaps” in the article where a keyword could fit or natural breaks within your content.

For every paragraph where you have a keyword in the H2 or H3, find the related keywords for this section using one of the methods above and try to use a few of these terms when it makes sense to do so.

Grouping your keywords at paragraph level before had will save a lot of time and allow you to plan your content brief efficiently.

What is user intent?

User intent is the purpose behind a user’s search query and is an extremely important part of the keyword research and content creation process.

Knowing your audience and its needs and knowing how to research them will help you find the right keywords that your customers are typing into search engines when seeking out products or services just like yours.

By understanding the intent behind keywords, you can create content that aligns with the needs of your audience and drive strong engagement.

What is entity search?

With thousands of search queries being run by people every day, there are many that Google doesn’t understand. Entity Search is the name given to those searches where Google returns results for a topic rather than returning results that match the actual search query itself. For example, if someone searches for “Champion by Jojo Moyes”, Google returns results on the book and not just links to sites that have the words “Champion” or “Jojo Moyes”.

Google knows that people are generally trying to find out more about a topic when searching for something like this instead of information about a specific site or page result. Trying to figure out exactly what people are searching for is tricky. Still, it has been an area of focus at Google for many years now, with their continuous efforts in refining it further so that users get the best possible results every time.

Although this is a hugely important part of optimisation for those who use entity search to help their SEO, it does not mean that Google has discounted the importance of exact match keywords. Many top-ranking sites still use exact match keywords within their content as part of well-structured SEO campaigns. There are many reasons why this could be, but ultimately, it is because it works. And for businesses that rely heavily on targeted traffic from Google, focusing efforts in this way will continue to make sense for a long time to come.

What are entities?

When people search for things, they generally use the name of a company, person or product. Google previously understood this to some extent, but it has now evolved to something known as “entities”, which is essentially just a broader term encompassing anything such as a brand name or trademark. This also includes proper nouns and other words that have been made into brands over time – such as ‘Facebook’ or ‘Honda’.

Google describes an entity as “A thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable.”

Entities are tricky for computers to understand because even if two people search for the same thing using slightly different terms, they could still be asking completely different questions. It’s like playing the game 20 Questions, where you have to guess what someone is thinking of by narrowing down possible answers based on their responses rather than directly asking them.

Google uses Wikipedia to identify entities in many scenarios, like providing information for Knowledge Panel. So anything that has a Wiki page is technically an entity, but entities can exist without a Wiki page!

Keywords should sit at the heart of all content strategies.

Without getting too technical, Google’s algorithm has changed over time to incorporate what they know about user intent when searching on the platform. This means that users looking for products or services tend to be given results based more on those topics rather than links that contain one of the words from their search query. It makes sense that you would need to structure your site more logically to try and maximise the chances of being featured within these results, especially when you consider that many people are now using Google as their main source of search.

If you have any online business, it is an excellent time to sit down and think about what your brand means. What makes your business different from others? Think about how you can tie this back into the keywords you will be targeting with content and link building initiatives over the next few months. You must identify what makes your website unique instead of just focusing solely on those exact match terms. Remember that millions of other businesses aim for almost the same keywords, so if your site has no true identity, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself in the long run. If you can figure out how your brand can stand out, you are well on your way to ensuring that Google keeps featuring your website for relevant searches over time.

Can keyword research get any better?

Although there is still a place for many of the techniques used in previous years, things have definitely changed since Google began integrating entity search into their algorithm. Now social media and recent news events must be factored into content creation alongside keywords and a natural structure if you want to ensure that people continue to find value in your site – which means being able to write for humans first! This is why creating interesting, engaging content with quality backlinks continues to be one of the most effective ways of achieving search engine success.

Why understanding the importance of keyword research will help you rank higher on Google’s SERPs in 2021

It is an undeniable fact that keyword research has changed a lot over time. In the past, you might have been able to get away with just doing some basic keyword research and then publishing some content based on the highest-ranking pages for your target search query. However, if you want to be successful in the future and rank higher within Google’s results pages, you will need more than this. The days when it was enough to write content targeted at search engines rather than people are long gone. Google continues their efforts towards improving user experience across the platform while cracking down harder on SEOs trying to manipulate their algorithm – but that doesn’t mean ignoring how the algorithm works.

Understanding the existing changes to Google’s algorithm because of entity search can put you at an advantage within the SERPs. It all comes down to focusing your efforts on creating valuable content for users rather than just for Google. Of course, it is still important that you try to target their results as effectively as possible with relevant keywords, but including relevant entities must now happen alongside keyword research.

Identifying entities within your content and optimising for these alongside keywords is where the magic lies. Google will be looking at entities within your content to understand better what the article is mainly focusing on, so a good way to help Google with this process is to add relevant entities to support main entities, the same way you would use LSI or secondary keywords to help support your main keyword.

Even more so, with a paradigm change on the horizon – driven by Google’s mobile-first index and core web vitals updates – search engine optimisation and web development are playing a central role in positioning your sites in the first search engines listings.

However you choose to look at it, web development, design and SEO are the foundation of any business website, e-commerce, and non-e-commerce altogether. Here are the key points we’ll be addressing in this article, promoting a good collaboration between the SEO and dev teams for rank-boosting beyond 2021:

• What is the relation between search engine optimisation and development
• How they work together towards improving site rankings
• Why you need website development or SEO services to ensure your online success

Today’s digital marketing landscape

With half the world’s population using mobile search, and mobile shopping becoming second nature, Google is paying increased attention to mobile-friendliness, site speed and usability in their efforts of delivering the best UX for their users. In turn, SEOs are advising website owners to revise their web design process and focus their resources on providing a better experience for their visitors. From improving their website structure, to optimising page speed, and writing content with keywords intent in mind – from the home page down to category pages and product pages – all their marketing efforts will eventually pay off: appearing higher in search engines, improving site traffic, obtaining a lower bounce rate, and achieving a high ROI for any online company, regardless of the industry.

Why is web development important for SEO?

Web development and web design activities support SEO efforts in many ways, more or less noticeable, offering the basis for a well-optimised website, even assisting or making possible the implementation of most technical SEO tasks. Site architecture and internal linking add even more to the scheme. Having a good site structure in place counts for navigation, usability, findability, passing link equity from one page to another, and last but not least, ranking. The dev team are assisting the SEO team in ensuring these processes are top-notch.

Basically, everything that you see in a browser is thanks to web developers’ work, without it, striving for visibility in Google search is pointless. A website that has a high ranking has also a solid foundation behind it, which means that web developers doing a great job is a necessary condition for showing up on the first page on Google.

But is it sufficient? Indeed a lot more work needs to be done for a website to rank in Google’s results. On top of having a solid site architecture comes the technical on-page optimisation processes that are meant to instruct Google to crawl and index pages, making sure that every page is serving the correct status code, that it has the right directives in place, optimal response time, etc.

Next comes the content optimisation, from meta tags, alt tags, page titles, descriptions, headings targeting for the right keywords, and so on, which are fully SEOs responsibility. Keep in mind that we’ve not even mentioned off-page strategies that add a lot of weight when it comes to high rankings – this will be addressed in a separate blog entry. However, for our present purposes, the development part and technical optimisation tasks are in the spotlight now.

When it comes to the structural changes that websites need to accommodate this year in order to get higher Google rankings, SEOs and dev team’s workflows are crossing paths more than they did before.

Do SEOs know web development? Do web developers need to know SEO?

Web development and SEO – Img Source: pexels.com

While SEOs and developers need to work together in achieving the standards imposed by Google for the three core web vitals metrics – troubleshooting, and resolving issues – it isn’t a requirement for any of the teams to have a thorough knowledge of the other team’s work. But it sure does help a lot if they do!

SEO experts have technical and programming skills, and conversely, both developers and designers have technical SEO knowledge, since they often assist SEOs in fixing errors. However, disengagement between the two teams could arise, especially if an outsourced SEO company has to work closely with client-side developers, in which case things can unnecessarily get more complicated.

This is why you might want to hire a digital marketing and web development company, shooting two rabbits with one bullet. It makes the job easier if the two teams work well together, ensuring better time and resource management in achieving your end goals: higher rankings, more business. In the end, this is all that matters.

What is the connection between SEO, development, and Google’s search engine results?

In case it is not obvious thus far, it takes more than optimising your page content for websites to rank first in the search engines. In this sense, solid site development and optimisation are the two sides of a coin.

From mobile-friendliness to optimising server response times, organising URL structures, optimising web pages loading time, fixing problematic URL status codes, and improving core web vitals, SEOs and devs are working together to ensure that best practices are met to offer an improved user experience, better search visibility, more traffic, with long lasting organic results.

Only by focusing on a solid site foundation, and work towards providing a good UX, by improving your website’s core web vitals, your web development and SEO would be in synch, and their combined efforts would help your site get better ranking positions in Google search.

Learn more on how to audit your website for web core vitals, and give us a shout if you want a professional job done! Find out how we design website experiences to create simple and efficient websites!

Why do you need to hire a web developer or a marketing agency, and when should you do so?

Gone are the days when people were building websites to exercise their skills, challenge themselves, or to run an experiment. Today, having a web presence is synonym to having an identity in the online world. It adds credibility, and builds your authority in your industry. It shouldn’t take too much thinking about whether or not you want to risk your business future on experimental attempts.

Realising that you need expert web developers and SEOs goes without saying, if you want your online business to succeed. It also depends on the situation, and your end goals, too. But it’s hard to believe that one can do everything DIY nowadays, from development to optimisation and promotion, and even if they attempt to do so, chances are that they are going to struggle to rank organically in the first results in Google.

If you want to build an e-commerce website, a content management system, or bespoke software, or if you want to add advanced functionality to your website, build a contact form, fix server or hosting issues, and so on, you might want to hire a web development company to help you work towards achieving your goal.

If your website is not performing well, then you might want an SEO specialist to run an audit and devise a personalised strategy for you to boost your rankings.

On top of ensuring your website is running smoothly and your on-page optimisation is consistent with Google’s guidelines, SEOs could also suggest other digital marketing strategies that are necessary for obtaining high rankings and improving your E-A-T score, such as:

• link building
• devising a content marketing strategy
• social media advertising
• or other marketing services that might suit your business better.

On top of this, if getting as much real-estate as possible in Google’s SERP is your goal, then PPC advertising – especially Google Ads campaigns and Google Shopping, depending on the industry – are great strategies to use for improving search visibility on competitive keywords, that would otherwise be harder to rank for in the organic results.

It’s all up to you and your business goals.

But first things first: without proper development, web design and a tailored SEO strategy in place in 2021, businesses would struggle for success, and people would be searching for your website on Google like a needle in a haystack.

Did you know that 97% of consumers search on Google to discover a local business? Google is the homepage for all local businesses, and only by taking over as much real estate on Google SERP as you can, you would manage to establish your authority in your industry, build brand awareness and expand your customer base in today’s demanding marketing climate.

Whether or not your business was immune to the lockdown regulations, focusing on improving your local SEO strategy is what makes the difference between business gain and business loss. In this article, we are discussing key aspects of search engine optimisation on local markets:

• How local search works on Google
• Why is local SEO important for local businesses
• What is the difference between national, regional, and local SEO
• How to adapt your marketing strategy to boost visibility in local search

Why does local search visibility matter for businesses with a fixed location?

Img source: Google Maps

Ever wondered what your competition is doing that seems to be working out so well, while your phone is not ringing and your shop’s doorbell is silent throughout the day? Why your store is empty, and your website is not performing? Well, let’s ask a different kind of question: how do you rank in local search on Google?

Now let’s ask your target audience’s questions: Are there any emergency plumbing services available now?, Are there any 24h pharmacies open near me?, Are there any local hairdressers?, Where can I order food delivery tonight?, I wonder if the market is open on Sunday, What time does my favourite restaurant close on Friday?, Are there any home depot stores nearby?, etc.

Local search visibility is vital for service-area businesses, boutiques, local shops, and brick-and-mortar stores across all industries. It plays a crucial role in creating brand awareness and driving more business, and it is what makes the difference between an empty and a busy store, a striving and a prosperous business.

What are the benefits of local SEO?

You want your potential customers to know of your existence, to easily find out what your opening hours are, to contact you with a simple click of a button, to get directions to your store, to order online and pop into your shop when they need your services, instead of reaching out to your competitors.

The higher the visibility in local search, the greater the benefits: from driving more footsteps to your location and acquiring new customers, or getting more enquires and building authority in the industry, to improving website traffic and boosting sales.

Regardless of how you choose to look at it, creating an online presence and working towards improving your shop’s visibility in local search is what you should be focusing on if you want your local business to thrive in 2021 and beyond.

Understanding the local intent of a search query. How local search works?

Google adapts the search engine results pages depending on the location of the searcher. So a Google search on the exact same query performed from two different locations will generate different results – the greater the distance between search locations, the bigger the difference between the SERPs.

Based on the query that users type in the search bar, Google aims to display the content that is the most relevant to the search to meet the user’s intent – and the location where the search is performed from is part of that intent.

When searching for service providers, most often then not, people are looking to discover businesses within their proximity. Let’s take an example. If you are searching for SEO services, the location may or may not be as important or relevant for you as it is if you were to search for plumbing services.

So if you type in Google “plumbing services” without adding a location-related keyword to your query, but you are located in London, the SERP will list the websites of plumbing service providers that are top ranking for the phrase and that are London-based, within your proximity.

By comparison, if you are performing a search and you add a geo-modifier that is different from where you are located, (e.g. if you are located in London, but look for “SEO specialist in NY”), then Google will prioritise the location mentioned within the query above the location of the searcher and shape the SERP accordingly, so it displays the webpages that best rank for the exact phrase.

This shows that Google is taking location as a signal that shapes how the search results would look like, which is why optimising for local search and targeting location-related keywords make a huge difference for businesses with a fixed location, improving their visibility in local search.

Global, national, regional, local SEO. What’s the difference?

Img Source: MozCon 2019

The main difference between global, national, regional and local SEO boils down to the keywords that are being used when performing a search. For example, “plumbing services”, “plumbing services UK”, “plumbing services London”, “plumbing services Hammersmith”.

While it is intuitive that big multinational companies will rank higher on broader, more competitive phrases, it is not as intuitive for local businesses to rank on more granular keyword phrases without the added effort of optimising for local search.

A study pointed out that there is no such thing as a national search engines results pages for many of the searches performed nowadays on Google, with 73% of the 1.2 million search engine results pages analysed having localised features on them.

This shows that most of the time we are performing a local search, even if we don’t realise we are doing so. We rarely are aware of the fact that the SERP displayed after a performed search looks the way it does because of our location, even if we use broad terms or queries without a geo-modifier.

How should you adapt your SEO strategy to rank in local search?

Which markets should you prioritise, which queries should you use to optimise your website’s content, what impact will you local SEO have on your business’ performance, how does it differ from your national strategy? Should you focus your resources on optimising Google My Business page, your website, or both? How should you build brand awareness in your area? These are all valid questions that every business owner should address to plan a suitable marketing strategy.

Here are a few pointers to get you started:

1.     Adopt a comprehensive marketing approach

Focusing on one side of the story you risk missing out on some opportunities. Some businesses are only doing Google My Business management, while others are working on their website optimisation, run geo-targeting campaigns or local link building.

If you want to boost your visibility in local search, rank on featured snippets, appear in Google Local 3 pack and get as much real-estate in Google’s SERP as possible, then you have to work on all fronts at the same time.

2.     Optimise Google My Business

Regularly update your Google My Business profile and make sure you provide the necessary information for your customers to make it easier for them to get in contact with you. Make sure you choose the categories that best describe your business, and add specific attributes to help your business stand out. Have you claimed your business on Google my Business? Read this GMB guide to get started.

If you are a service area business and your GMB is not showing up in any organic search results, you have to start optimising your website to rank in the organic search. Working on on-page optimisation is going to help you GMB ranking, too.

3.     Optimise your website for long-tail keywords and queries containing geo-modifiers

Run a keyword research to discover what queries your target audience uses to find businesses like yours. Use keyword variations based on location from country, city, and borough, depending on the area your business operates.

Not only that the same search query performed from two different markets would get different SERPs, but the differences can be significant across the same market on a search performed from a different postal code. So how can you know what keywords you should be using to rank in local search?

In some cases it might make sense to consider keywords that are bound to your location down to the postal codes, while in other cases it might be redundant. For example, it makes sense to optimise for “plumbing services in W6”, but not for “SEO services in W6”. In this case it would make more sense to optimise for “SEO services in West London”.

The more rivals you have in your area, the more granular you have to get in optimising for local intent to make sure you are competitive in local search. Last but not least, aim to post content on your website that answers the questions people usually ask in Google, either on your blog section, or service pages.

Need an expert opinion? Contact our digital marketing team to get help in boosting your website’s traffic.

4.     Build brand awareness through local citations and link-building

Build your brand awareness in your area by signing up for local business directories and resources, such as Yell. Make sure your NAP details are correct, and that you are using the best website directories for your area.

Create a content marketing calendar and pitch your articles to the local press to gain more references and drive more website traffic. To earn quality links, you need to write high quality content and have an outreach strategy in place. You might want to outsource this to a link-building agency if you want to get quality coverage in press to build your reputation, improve your local search visibility, and boost your site traffic.

5.     Run Google ads geo-targeting and local PPC campaigns

Run local PPC campaigns to target your potential customers in your local area. It is a fantastic way to get brand recognition and drive more footsteps to your physical store. Your potential customers will see your ad when they are in your proximity, exactly when they need your services the most. Plus, a local PPC campaign is resource-friendly, as you get to control as much as you want to spend.

Ask a Google Ads management agency to assist you in planning your strategy, setting up your goals, and running your campaign to make sure you attain your business objectives.

6.     Get reviews and feedback from your customers

Last but not least, try to get as much feedback as can from your customers. This will help you build trust and establish credibility in your industry, increasing the visibility of your business in local search.

As people are more inclined to buy from a website that has customer reviews, you can see it as a great way to attract more customers and help them make an informed decision when considering your services, which will help you increase your conversion rates.

Need a hand to boost your local search visibility? Our SEO specialists can help with your local search engine optimisation. Contact us today and open your doors to new business opportunities in your local area.

Managed hosting is a term applied to VPS and dedicated servers where the host takes care of the day-to-day running of your server.

So they keep its software updated, optimize its performance, and generally make sure there are few problems and fix those that come up.

The best managed web hosting plans provide 100% uptime, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced security. You will also want a secure and state-of-the-art datacenter for your server.

Here are the 5 best hosts for managed hosting, according to expert analysis:

1. SiteGround – Overall top choice by our users and 99.99% uptime

2. A2 Hosting

3. InMotion Hosting

4. WP Engine

5. HostPapa

How Did We Choose the Best Hosts for Managed Hosting?

We evaluated managed hosting plans from hundreds of hosts. We picked the ones that offered world-class datacenters, strong uptime guarantees, advanced security features, and highly-rated technical support.

Then, we chose hosts with the best ratings from our database of thousands of customer reviews.

Managed Hosting

Managed hosting often includes 24/7/365 server monitoring, routine maintenance, upgrades, patches and software installations, as well as traffic and content monitoring to help reduce malicious activity and vulnerability to outside attacks.

Why Choose Managed Hosting?

If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably used to wearing a lot of hats: CEO, marketing manager, even janitor.

You know you need a website for your business. But when you’re juggling all those duties, it’s hard to find the time to become webmaster and technical support, too.

As your business grows, you’ll want to shed a few of those hats to free up time for managing your business as a whole.

While you might have the skills to do it all, it doesn’t make sense to spend hours on technical maintenance when you have a business to run.

Outsourcing the routine or technical aspects of your business is an investment in growing your business. By hiring others to take care of the details for you, you have more time to spend on the bigger picture.

And there’s a lot more to running a website than just buying a hosting plan and throwing a few words up on a page.

Maintaining a website and hosting takes time: There are software upgrades, technical troubleshooting, security monitoring, and plenty more to do if you want a modern, secure, fully-functioning website.

One way to free yourself from the time-consuming tedium those tasks is to purchase what’s known as managed hosting from your hosting provider.

Article first posted on WhoIsHostingThis? website on 6th November 2019, written by KeriLynn Engel

Teamwork Is Involved

Our web creations come from the collaboration of many different teams within our departments. We have the Digital Experience team which focuses on the analytics of the site. There’s the Creative team which works on user interface. Our Development teams piece everything together for the final product.

Our teams work hard to design web content that is simple to use by potential customers. This allows people to quickly and easily perform whatever action is desirable. We also work diligently to manage content that may be outdated. This allows for branding to stay up-to-date with the times. This is all discussed in the initial briefing of the project.

First Step: Research

Our Digital Experience team figures out the current behavior of users on the site. Site analytics are studied carefully in order to develop a clear picture of what users are looking for whenever visiting the site. We then give the site map a refreshment and reduce the components that are being used. Components are modules used to create pages in drag/drop form.

Second Step: User Experience

This step in the creation process is used to help potential customers navigate the site in a fashion that will lead them straight to the desired destination. This involves forming wireframes within the site. Wireframes are used to represent the visual aspects of a site. This includes the layout of the page, and the different components that are used in the creation.

Third Step: User Interface

Our Creative team gets introduced within this step. They focus on the many visual elements involved in a website. This includes fonts, colors, images, and overall design involved with the page. We work on a single component before moving onto another. We also use Sketch which allows us to work collaboratively within our teams and share progress with the client.

Fourth Step: Final Development

Once we’ve developed our overall designs, it’s time to send our work over to the Development teams. They use HTML to develop the components needed for site creation. The client uses Adobe Experience Manager to piece the final creation of the web pages together. We keep tabs on our progress in this step through the use of applications such as JIRA and Confluence.

Outcome: A Simple & Efficient Site

We’re able to update current sites. We reduce the total amount of components used which creates an easier, more efficient journey for potential customers. We make sure that the new components are consistent with other aspects of the site. Rest assured that the site will comply with AA standards for clear readability of the content.

That’s why an integrated approach is better than choosing one over the other. Sharing key insights, PPC and SEO practitioners can help optimise the overall marketing budget, support both paid and organic search strategies, and win top SERP real estate on main keywords. Their tactics can be used together to power up search visibility and search engine traffic by successfully targeting the audience at every stage of the buying funnel.

In this article, we will outline key constraints between search engine optimisation and search advertising, as leading marketing channels, and present the top benefits of integrating them both into your overall marketing strategy:

• What PPC and SEO stand for
• What is the relation between SEO and PPC
• SEO vs PPC – how they affect each other
• 7 benefits of using SEO and PPC in synergy

What is SEO and PPC in digital marketing?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. PPC stands for Pay Per Click Advertising. Both of these are used for SEM (Search Engine Marketing). But there are some key differences between the two. Traffic generated from SEO is free. Traffic generated from PPC, as the name implies, isn’t free.

SEO vs PPC

A common mindset has led to the belief that SEO and PPC work against each other or that you should choose one over the other. But here’s the truth: organic search and paid search actually function off of many of the same principles. This means that both PPC and SEO can be at the same time part of your search strategy. By working together, both PPC and SEO would boost your landing pages visibility, traffic, and conversion rate. However, if PPC and SEO teams fail to communicate properly, some confusing problems can arise.

How does PPC affect your SEO strategy?

Within the search results pages the PPC listings (e.g. Google ads, Google shopping) have preferential real estate, which means that they get more visibility because they appear on top of the organic search results. While they don’t directly affect the SEO strategy, since ad copy and organic metadata run independently, they complement each other in improving search visibility. The more real estate you get on your keywords, the more traffic you drive to your website.

SEO and PPC integration for best return of your search marketing efforts

Aligning your PPC campaigns to your SEO performance can have a significant impact on your audience, working together to build your online reputation. Here are the top seven instances when you can use SEO and PPC data together to your advantage.

Benefit #1: SEO and PPC Drive Success For Marketing

If you want a successful online campaign, then you’ll need collaboration between the two sides. Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are spaces where both PPC and SEO operate. It only makes sense that the two teams work together to share knowledge and information within this space. With a joint effort, the two different channels will be able to operate together to bring overall success above and beyond.

For budget efficiency purposes, the SEOs and PPC marketers can exchange reports to spot the search terms that are not performing well and discover keyword opportunities from one side to the other. Similarly, you can approach the PPC strategy as a way to measure how specific search terms are performing so you can then adjust your organic and paid search marketing strategies accordingly.

If there are cases where the SEO campaign is sufficient for your search engine rankings purposes, then you can adjust the PPC campaign to exclude specific terms. There can also be cases where the PPC campaign can complement the SEO campaign and join efforts for improved organic and paid search visibility.

While it is ideal to rank well in search marketing on both channels, you can still get traffic from the search engines by knowing when to adjust your marketing strategy to attract more search traffic from either channel to your site, while balancing out the SEO efforts and the PPC budget.

Benefit #2: Avoiding Content Disappearance

SEO and PPC teams will both benefit from sharing inventory issues with each other. There are certain content management systems (CMS) out there which can cause issues with inventory. They’re used for managing stock. But they’re not always compliant with the efforts of digital marketing. With a lack of communication between SEO and PPC teams, you may find pages disappearing or land pages missing. This would negatively impact campaigns.

Benefit #3: Stay Up-To-Date With Changes

There may be some sort of change in the structure of the page. There could be recruiting efforts going towards a new shot-caller. Whatever the case, the SEO and PPC teams should be exchanging this information with each other. This will help both teams stay on top of any changes made to the brand, allowing full control of optimisation and management.

Benefit #4: Avoid Panic From The Other Team

The PPC team should be reporting any increases in bids to the SEO team. Otherwise, the organic team could start panicking due to the drops in visitors. By sending this information over to the SEO team, they will be better able to explain their visitation drops to clients. On the other side of the equation, the SEO team should report ranking increases to the PPC team as well.

Benefit #5: Avoid Duplication Issues

Let’s suppose that the PPC team decides on the creation of a new landing page. If this information isn’t passed on to the SEO team, this could cause duplicate pages. The end result could be a decrease in organic ranking for both teams. Every duplication issue should be handled individually between the teams.

Let’s say there wasn’t a duplicate page issue. Even so, different pages could still be ranking for the same keyword. This is called keyword cannibalisation, and should be avoided at all costs. It can be avoided by efficient collaboration between the SEO and PPC teams.

Benefit #6: Avoid Decreasing The Effectiveness Of The Other Team

There are some strategies within SEO that will have negative effects on PPC. For example, Quick Answer techniques may decrease the clickthrough rate of the PPC campaign. If this strategy is going to be implemented, then it’s important that the PPC team knows what’s going on. Otherwise, there could be panic as the PPC scrambles to search for the problem. Panic will lead to a waste of valuable time and resources. The teams should constantly stay in contact.

Benefit #7: Keyword Data From The PPC Team Will Be Utilised

The SEO team can reap benefits from the keyword data that has been obtained by the PPC team. The PPC team doesn’t use guessing tools. They use real-life keyword data which is constantly changing. This is where the SEO team can really take advantage of the information that the PPC team has to offer. This shared information will benefit both sides.

This collaboration can also lead to lower costs per click. It’s because the content on the page can be made more relevant to an ad, which will affect the Quality Score. There are nothing but positive outcomes that will come from effective communication between PPC and SEO teams.

SEO Teams & PPC Teams Will Complement Each Other

It’s commonly thought that SEO and PPC work against each other. But this just isn’t the case. Proper communication between the SEO and PPC departments can lead to great benefits on both sides of the equation improving website visibility in search results pages and increasing the CTR. Growth can be achieved on both sides if collaboration is properly organised. This teamwork will also help avoid common complications that can occur from both sides. For example, duplicate pages and keyword cannibalisation can be avoided. Communication is key.

It’s referenced in plenty of articles. It’s talked about on social media. It’s mentioned during conference calls. We’re talking about dwell time. But what is dwell time?

Dwell time is a metric worth considering. It’s the amount of time that a user spends on a webpage before returning to the search engine results pages. Among members of the SEO community, there seems to be a lot of mystery centered around dwell time. This metric is an important one. It’s beneficial to learn the ins-and-outs of dwell time.

Is dwell time really used by search engines? How does dwell time affect the rankings of a webpage? What can you do to improve this metric? If you’re having an issue answering these questions, then you should be well on your way to success by the end of this article.

Dwell Time: The Detailed Explanation

This is it. You’ve poured plenty of blood, sweat, and tears into the making of your webpage. In your eyes, this is as good as it gets. But here’s the thing: the quality of your webpage is in the eyes of the visitors. Dwell times give information to search engines about the engagement of your visitors. You want the full-attention of your visitors. You don’t want insignificant dwell times. This is why you’ll need to put some focus into learning this metric. Increases in dwell times could mean that you’re increasing the satisfaction of the visitors.

You’ve probably been in this situation yourself. You decided to do a quick search on the web. The SERP results are offered, you click on a link, and you immediately realize that this page isn’t ideal. You immediately click the “back” button. In contrast, maybe you immediately found the answer to your question on that webpage, and then hit “back” immediately. Regardless, this is an example of a short dwell time.

The above example shows how complex this metric can be. A short dwell time could mean that a visitor was unsatisfied, or it could mean that a visitor quickly found the answer that he/she was looking for. The latter would be a satisfying result. The significance of dwell time is relative, so you’ll need to consider other factors before jumping to the conclusion that a short dwell time is a negative result. However, in a typical situation, longer dwell times mean higher satisfaction.

Dwell time is an important metric that shouldn’t be overlooked by the SEO community. At the same time, you shouldn’t go overboard by focusing all of your time on this metric. For example, you can always look towards improving your website in other ways in order to improve the engagement of your visitors. Dwell times will naturally improve on this path.

End The Confusion: Dwell Time Differs From Other Metrics

Do you have a fairly solid understanding of dwell time now? While it should be straightforward, there is still a lot of misinformation about dwell time. Many people have confused dwell time with other metrics. We’re here to set the story straight. As a basic definition, dwell time is the amount of time a user spends on a webpage before clicking back to the search engine results pages. Dwell time isn’t a metric that you can determine by using tools from third-parties. Dwell time is determined by search engines only. Let’s cover some examples of what dwell time is NOT. Here are the common misconceptions.

Bounce Rate

Don’t confuse dwell time with bounce rate. What happens when a bounce occurs? Basically, this means that a visitor viewed one page of your site, and then left. How is your bounce rate determined? It’s a percentage found by dividing sessions of single-page views by the total amount of sessions on your site. Here’s the thing about bounce rate: it takes into account the users who didn’t come from search engine results pages. Also, a user may close the browser after visiting your page, instead of returning to search engine results. Dwell times are based on users who visit a page, and then return back to the SERP results.

Average Time On Page

It’s common to see dwell times and average times on a page used interchangeably. But this is not good practice. There’s a difference between the two. Just like bounce rate, average time on a page takes into account the users who come from sources other than SERP results. The user could have visited your page from social media. It could’ve been accessed by a link from a different page. Average time on a page is as the name implies. It’s the average amount of time that a user spends on your page. Dwell time always involves someone visiting your page from the SERP results, and then returning back to the SERP results.

Session Duration

Like the previous examples, some have confused dwell times with session duration. We know what dwell time is. But what’s session duration? Simply put, it’s the amount of time that someone spends on your page. Session duration is a metric which includes visitors who find your page from somewhere other than the SERP results. Just like the other examples, a user can find your page through other means. We know you’ve seen this a lot, but it’s pivotal to remember that dwell time involves clicking on your page from the SERP results, and then returning back to the SERP results.

Click-Through Rate

CTR is another metric which often gets confused with dwell time. What is the click-through rate? It’s the ratio of visitors to your page compared to the overall users who saw those SERP results. There’s a key difference between CTR and dwell time. CTR ends with someone clicking on your page. But dwell time involves what happens after someone clicks on your page (clicking “back” to the SERP results). Dwell time doesn’t focus on the percentage of visitors who click on your page. It only focuses on how long someone’s on your page before going back to the original SERP results.

RankBrain

Once you learn what RankBrain is, it’s easy to see just how different it is from dwell time. However, many people still confuse the two. RankBrain is an algorithm used by Google in order to make predictions about never-before-seen searches. It uses artificial intelligence to pull this off. RankBrain only gathers data from how people use search results. RankBrain has nothing to do with how a user interacts with specific content. Do you see just how different dwell time and RankBrain is? Dwell time is completely based on how a user interacts with your content.

Dwell Times & Visits

What exactly is a page visit? This is when someone clicks on your page. Page visits are important, but not all visits are the same. In general, a visit that lasts less than one second is bad news. Dwell times always indicate that a visitor has been on your page. But what is a good amount of time for someone to dwell on your page during a visit? This is going to be in relation to your own business model. But in general, you’ll want more engagement with your visitors.

Your webpages will require constant changes and updates. It’s a good idea to have an analytics package that will show you how many visitors you’re having while also showing you the amount of time they’re staying on your page. This is how you can find out what changes are needed. Do you have many visitors who don’t stick around for long? This means that you need to find some way to capture the attention of your audience. Do you have a small amount of visitors who stay on your page for a while? This means that you need to find a way of reaching more users.

How To Positively Affect Dwell Times

There’s not only one single solution for positively affecting your dwell times. But one thing is for certain. If you want to increase the success of your website, then you will need to make general improvements that will capture the attention of your audience and keep them from being dissatisfied with your content. There are many ways to improve your website.

For example, let’s say that you have a video which auto-plays whenever someone clicks on your page. This is a sure-fire way to decrease your dwell times. You may want to think about removing this. Also, if your page is aimed at answering a pivotal question, don’t put the answer at the very bottom of your page. Make sure that a user can quickly and efficiently find an answer to the question at hand. Think along these lines for webpage improvement.

Remember this: search engines keep track of dwell times. If an engine sees that your page has short dwell times, then it’s possible that your page will lose its rankings. The engine will try its best to keep users from landing on a page which will just be “back-buttoned” almost immediately. Does your page load slowly? Try to fix this if it’s a problem. Do what you can to improve your website without focusing solely on dwell times.

Dwell Time: Just Focus On Overall Page Improvement

Dwell time is the amount of time that a user spends on your page before clicking back to the SERP results. It’s an important metric which search engines keep track of. Many members of the SEO community are misinformed about dwell time. Don’t confuse it with other metrics, such as session duration and bounce rate.

Dwell time is important, but it’s not worth the focus of all your attention. Instead, it’s best to find ways to engage your audience. Improve your webpage. Positive dwell times will follow.