A major Google update starting Sept 14 aims to reduce unhelpful content. Sites across niches like recipes dropped. Real-world experience is now key. To recover, remove unhelpful content or improve it. Passionately create helpful, engaging content if you have true expertise. This update is terribly disappointing for many, but may usher in a new era […]
Continue ReadingThis video blew my mind. Google shared how they are taking an AI first approach across all their products, saying, "The old way is getting old." AI is “the most profound shift we will see in our lifetime” according to Sundar Pichai. “It will touch every sector, every industry, every business function and significantly change […]
Continue ReadingGoogle's documentation on the helpful content system does not give us specific instructions for recovery. Their article on this system hints in a couple of places that the key to removing a suppression at the hands of this system is to "remove unhelpful content." However, they don't give much to specifically tell us which content […]
Continue ReadingStarting in July, some sites are seeing an increase in canonical pages errors shown in Google Search Console, with Google choosing different canonical pages than the ones declared by the website. In most cases, Google's chosen canonical pages don't make sense. It does look like this issue has resolved, but I thought it was worth […]
Continue ReadingHave you wondered how Google is able to detect and stop artificial link building schemes designed to unfairly manipulate search rankings? SpamBrain, one of Google's artificial intelligence systems, allows them to neutralize the impact of manufactured links. SpamBrain makes it so that Google can neutralize unnatural links rather than penalize for them. It's not perfect, […]
Continue Reading
A major Google update starting Sept 14 aims to reduce unhelpful content. Sites across niches like recipes dropped. Real-world experience is now key. To recover, remove unhelpful content or improve it. Passionately create helpful, engaging content if you have true expertise. This update is terribly disappointing for many, but may usher in a new era […]
Continue ReadingThis video blew my mind. Google shared how they are taking an AI first approach across all their products, saying, "The old way is getting old." AI is “the most profound shift we will see in our lifetime” according to Sundar Pichai. “It will touch every sector, every industry, every business function and significantly change […]
Continue ReadingGoogle's documentation on the helpful content system does not give us specific instructions for recovery. Their article on this system hints in a couple of places that the key to removing a suppression at the hands of this system is to "remove unhelpful content." However, they don't give much to specifically tell us which content […]
Continue ReadingStarting in July, some sites are seeing an increase in canonical pages errors shown in Google Search Console, with Google choosing different canonical pages than the ones declared by the website. In most cases, Google's chosen canonical pages don't make sense. It does look like this issue has resolved, but I thought it was worth […]
Continue ReadingHave you wondered how Google is able to detect and stop artificial link building schemes designed to unfairly manipulate search rankings? SpamBrain, one of Google's artificial intelligence systems, allows them to neutralize the impact of manufactured links. SpamBrain makes it so that Google can neutralize unnatural links rather than penalize for them. It's not perfect, […]
Continue ReadingIn this chat we discuss the following topics:
About Dana Ditomaso
Dana is President & Partner at Kick Point, where she helps people and teams do better marketing. Alongside the team at Kick Point, Dana pushes people and teams to set goals and track data so that they understand what strategies and tactics bring value and what is just a waste of money. Dana speaks at conferences about reporting and analytics, SEO, and brand building and is the weekly technology columnist on CBC Edmonton AM.
About Marie Haynes
Marie is the founder of MHC, a digital marketing agency that specializes in understanding and improving website quality in Google’s eyes. MHC is known for their work on improving E-A-T and all other aspects of site quality.
Marie: In Universal Analytics, we could easily look at organic traffic to a website and pinpoint whether it changed on the date of a known Google update. Can we replicate this chart or something similar in Google Analytics 4?
Dana: Yes, if you go to Reports > Acquisition > User or Traffic Acquisition and then click on the Organic Search dot below the “over time” chart to highlight that line.
The difference between User Acquisition vs Traffic Acquisition – user is users (if you have a login or if Google Signals is actually able to identify users), and traffic is sessions.
If you want to only show organic, click the “Add Comparison” button at the top, select Include Dimension “Session Medium”, pick organic, and then apply. You can then remove the “All Users” button at the top if you only want to see organic.
Additionally, you can customize any report in Google Analytics 4 by clicking the pencil icon at top right and then selecting what dimensions/metrics and charts you want to see. That can make this process a bit easier for repeat visits.
Marie: In Universal Analytics, we often compare fluctuations in traffic with the previous year’s traffic to determine if the site was impacted by an algorithmic update or any other possible explanation in year over year traffic changes. Can we compare year-over-year data in Google Analytics 4 the same way we would in Universal Analytics?
Dana: Yes you can! In the date control there is a “compare” slider, click that and then select your comparison period. I particularly enjoy the “match day of week” option which was not in Universal Analytics.
The trick here is that you need to set up Google Analytics 4 ASAP so that you can start building data for a year-over-year comparison!
Marie: If we downloaded our data from Universal Analytics, will we be able to actually use it once the Universal Analytics interface goes away?
Dana: The question is “use it where” — there are some analytics alternatives who are offering or will offer Universal Analytics imports, but who you pick will depend on what you want to do. Likely the most flexible method is to get the data into BigQuery and report in Google Data Studio.
There are definitely several tool providers out there right now working on solutions for the Universal Analytics data problem, and I will be sure to post about them as we test them out or hear positive experiences about them from other people.
Marie: Can we connect Google Analytics 4 and Search Console? If so, what can we do with this data?
Dana: Yes you can! Go into the admin (wheel at the bottom left), select “Search Console Links”, click Link, find your profile, select your web stream (you’ll probably only have one!), and then Submit. After a delay, you should see a new Search Console section in your Reports tab.
Right now the only 2 reports provided by default are Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic. There’s more information about the data in these reports here (However, I still really prefer blending GA data with GSC data in Google Data Studio.)
Marie: I’ve heard several people say that Google Analytics 4 is not designed for SMBs. Will you be recommending a move to a different software for analytics for some of your clients? If so, which one(s) are you considering?
Dana: I would agree with that – I think SMBs are going to struggle with this interface and most business owners will need someone internally / an agency that can help them out. We are testing Fathom and Matomo but I’m sure more recommendations will come up as well.
Keep in mind: tracking is getting harder, not easier and the analytics tool you use won’t fix that. Between ITP (Safari, Firefox), ad blockers, etc — people do not want to be tracked, so you’re making decisions based on less data. Look at trends, not absolutes!
Marie: Thank you Dana for chatting! You can get her course to help you migrate to Google Analytics 4 here.
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