google-analytics

How to compare hourly sessions in Google Analytics 4 to track the impact from major Google algorithm updates (like broad core updates)

I was just asked on Twitter if there was an easy way to compare Google organic traffic hourly like you can in Universal Analytics. That’s a great question, and that’s a super useful report to have as major algorithm updates roll out. You can typically start to see the separation over time as the update … Read more

Google Multisearch – Exploring how “Searching outside the box” is being tracked in Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA)

Google first announced multisearch in April 2022 (right before Search I/O 2022) and it was really the beginning of Lens entering the spotlight. With multisearch, you can use Google Lens to analyze a photo and then add to your search by typing in a query. Then Google will display more results based on the query … Read more

Exit The Black Hole Of Web Story Tracking – How To Track User Progress In Web Stories Via Event Tracking In Google Analytics

Google’s Web Stories, previously called AMP Stories, can provide an immersive AMP experience across both desktop and mobile. Google has been pushing them hard recently and stories can rank in Search, Google Images, and in Google Discover. On that front, Google recently rolled out a Web Story carousel in Discover, which can definitely attract a … Read more

Visualizing The SEO Engagement Trap – How To Use Behavior Flow In Google Analytics To View User Frustration [Case Study]

When thinking about content quality, it’s incredibly important to meet or exceed user expectations based on query. If your content cannot do that, then users can end up extremely frustrated as they search Google, click through your listing in the search results, scan your page, and not find what they were looking for. And that … Read more

NOT taking the (canonical) hint: How to estimate a low-quality indexing problem by page type using Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, and Advanced Query Operators

During a recent crawl analysis and audit of a large-scale site that was negatively impacted by Google’s core updates, I surfaced an interesting SEO problem. I found many thinner and low-quality pages that were being canonicalized to other stronger pages, but the pages didn’t contain equivalent content. As soon as I saw that, I had … Read more

How To Use Scroll Depth Tracking, Adjusted Bounce Rate, and Average Time On Page As A Proxy For User Engagement and Content Quality

I was helping a company a few months ago that got hit hard by recent algorithm updates. When digging into the audit, there were a number of problems that were surfaced, including content quality problems, technical SEO problems, user experience issues, and more. From a content quality perspective, the site had an interesting situation. Some … Read more

Beyond the UI – How to filter Google Search Console (GSC) data using regular expressions in Google Analytics (GA)

Update: April 2021 Google has finally rolled out filtering via regular expressions (regex) directly in Google Search Console! That’s great news and it’s something the SEO community has been requesting for a long time. You can access the filters in the Performance reporting directly in GSC. You can still do this in Google Analytics like … Read more

How To Bulk Export Top Landing Pages From Google Analytics Using Analytics Edge in Excel

I help a lot of companies with website redesigns or CMS migrations (from an SEO standpoint). As part of that process, it’s extremely important to download all of a website’s top landing pages so you can check them in staging and when the redesign or migration goes live. By doing so, you can test the pages … Read more

Panda Analysis Using Google Analytics Segments – How To Isolate Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet Traffic From Google

In previous posts about Panda analysis, I’ve mentioned the importance of understanding the content that users are visiting from Google organic. Since Google is measuring user engagement, hunting down those top landing pages can often reveal serious content quality problems. In addition, I’ve written about understanding the devices being used to access your site from … Read more

How To Check If Google Analytics Is Firing On Android Devices Using Remote Debugging With Chrome [Tutorial]

We all know that having a strong analytics setup is important. Marketing without measurement is a risky proposition for sure. But in a multi-device world, it’s not as easy to make sure your setup is accurately tracking what you need – or tracking at all. And if your analytics code isn’t firing properly across smartphones, … Read more

How To Remarket 70+ Ways Using Segments and Conditions in Google Analytics

I know what you’re thinking. Can you really remarket more than 70 different ways using segments in Google Analytics?  Yes, you can!  Actually, when you combine the methods I’ll cover today, there are many more types of Remarketing lists you can build!  So the total number is much greater than 70. My post today is … Read more