Google rolls out similar audiences for Search and Shopping
Now out of beta, similar audiences for Search enables advertisers to target users searching for the same kinds of things as recent site visitors. Read more
Tag Archive for: Google Analytics Consulting
Google Says it Has Now Tracked 4 Billion Store Visits From Ads
Onimod Global shares how the company says thousands more advertisers will gain access to store visits data as a result of improved measurement techniques and machine learning-powered modeling. Read more
Google rolls out AdWords account-level call extensions, among other call updates
Business names in call-only ads, more detailed reporting and an expansion of automated call extensions are on the way. Read more
Google Releases New Video on How to Hire an SEO Consultant
This 11-plus-minute video by Google’s Maile Ohye explains what questions to ask and what to look for during that hiring process of an SEO consulting firm, including useful insights, red flags and more. Read more
Google Search Algorithm Update February 7th
We just had some Google algorithm update a week ago potentially targeting spammy links I believe. And now a week later, around February 7th, yesterday, it seems there was another algorithm update. This update doesn’t seem specific to links or spam but rather just a normal unconfirmed Google update where ranking changes shift based on something changing at Google.
I do not believe it is related to the mobile bug because most of the automated tracking tools only track desktop search.
There is some chatter, the chatter in the SEO community is not YET that hot but it might heat up throughout the day as people check their analytics and tools.
An ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has these posts:
SERPs movements again in our vertical. We’re seeing some recoveries from previous penguin casualties and some domain crowding. Spam STILL having a huge positive impact.
Yesterday (Tue 7th) I saw a huge spike in organic traffic, ~30% over avg, and 18% increase from previous record day in November. It’s a Canadian financial-related site. Increases from both Google.ca as well as other search engines/
Here is a post on Twitter that even caught Gary Illyes attention:
And here are the tracking tools showing changes on the 7th, note Mozcast is well behind in terms of tracking so this might be related to the link spam update we covered last week?
Have you noticed any changes over the past 24 hours?
HT SE Roundtable
Introducing the Mobile-Friendly Test API from Google
Google has finally released Mobile-Friendly Test API for webmasters so developers can now build their own tools around the mobile-friendly testing tool to see if pages are mobile-friendly.
Google’s John Mueller said, “The API method runs all tests, and returns the same information — including a list of the blocked URLs — as the manual test.” He added, “The documentation includes simple samples to help get you started quickly.”
With so many users on mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly web is important to us all. The Mobile-Friendly Test is a great way to check individual pages manually. They’re happy to announce that this test is now available via API as well.
The Mobile-Friendly Test API lets you test URLs using automated tools. For example, you could use it to monitor important pages in your website in order to prevent accidental regressions in templates that you use. The API method runs all tests, and returns the same information – including a list of the blocked URLs – as the manual test. The documentation includes simple samples to help get you started quickly.
Google hopes this API makes it easier to check your pages for mobile-friendliness and to get any such issues resolved faster.
We know the importance of mobile friendliness. It is one of the most important SEO trends in 2017. Google has given enough signs that mobile friendliness is critical for your website. For example, Mobilegeddon, mobile-first index, mobile friendliness warning, and so on.
So, If you still don’t have a mobile friendly website, Mobile-Friendly Test API is another reason to make one now. This proves Google is serious about mobile friendliness of your website.
For more information on how we can improve your website to become more mobile-friendly, contact a Digital Marketing expert at Onimod Global today.
Google Launches Smart Goals For Advertisers That Don’t Have Conversion Tracking
If you’re not already using AdWords conversion tracking or importing goals from Google Analytics into your AdWords account, the new Smart Goals might be the next best thing.
Smart Goals are powered by Google Analytics and designed to help businesses that don’t currently have a way to measure conversions and optimize their campaigns. There are thousands of advertisers in this position.
The key distinction is that Smart Goals don’t measure actions taken on an advertiser’s website, like conversion tracking and Analytics goals do. Instead, Smart Goals use the anonymized conversion data of other websites using Google Analytics to identify visits that are “most likely” to convert based on Google’s model. From the announcement:
To generate Smart Goals, we apply machine learning across thousands of websites that use Google Analytics and have opted in to share anonymized conversion data. From this information, we can distill dozens of key factors that correlate with likelihood to convert: things like session duration, pages per session, location, device and browser. We can then apply these key factors to any website. The easiest way to think about Smart Goals is that they reflect your website visits that our model indicates are most likely to lead to conversions.
To set up Smart Goals, you’ll need to link your Analytics and AdWords accounts. In Analytics, select Smart Goals under Goals in the Admin tab.
A nice feature is that Smart Goals don’t get activated automatically. You can see how well the Smart Goals model is working for your site before activating it by looking at a new “Smart Goals” page under Conversions in Analytics. Here you’ll be able to analyze the behavior of Smart Goals visits and compare it to those visits not deemed likely to convert. In the (somewhat extreme) example from Google below, the Smart Goals visits didn’t bounce, visited significantly more pages and stayed on-site longer than visits the model did not deem likely to convert.
If you’re satisfied with the results, you can then import Smart Goals into AdWords.
With Smart Goals imported, advertisers can set a target cost per acquisition (CPA) with the Smart Goal being the acquisition: “In this way, you’re able to optimize your AdWords spend based on the likelihood of conversion as determined by our model.”
Google says Smart Goals will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Also note that to be eligible, the Google Analytics view has to receive at least 1,000 clicks from AdWords over a 30-day period “to ensure the validity of your data.”
H/T: Search Engine Land.
More precise data in the new Search Analytics report
If you manage a website, you need a deep understanding of how users find your site and how your content appears on Google’s search results. Until now, this data was shown in the Search Queries report, probably the most used feature in Webmaster Tools. Over the years, we’ve been listening to your feedback and features requests. How many of you wished they could compare traffic on desktop and mobile? How many of you needed to compare metrics in different countries? or in two different time frames?
We’ve heard you! Today, we’re very happy to announce Search Analytics, the new report in Google Webmaster Tools that will allow you to make the most out of your traffic analysis.
The new Search Analytics report enables you to break down your site’s search data and filter it in many different ways in order to analyze it more precisely. For instance, you can now compare your mobile traffic before and after the April 21st Mobile update, to see how it affected your traffic.
Or, if you have an international website, you can now find the countries where people search most for your brand: choose “impressions” as your metric, filter by your brand name, and group results by country to show a sorted list of impressions by country.
These use cases are just two examples out of many more. Search Analytics allows you to really dig deeper into your traffic analysis and helps you make the best decisions for your website’s performance.
There are some differences between Search Analytics and Search Queries. Data in the Search Analytics report is much more accurate than data in the older Search Queries report, and it is calculated differently. To learn more read out Search Analytics Help Center article’s section about data. Because we understand that some of you will still need to use the old report, we’ve decided to leave it available in Google Webmaster Tools for three additional months. To learn more about the new report, please read the Google Search Analytics Help Center article.
R/T Google
Google Partner
