In previous articles, we have dived into many ways you can
improve user experience on your website. From optimizing SEO for better rank to
using Google analytics tools to understand your users better, improving user experience
is a site wide endeavor. However, one aspect of your site that may need work
is the first thing your users ever see: you “above the fold” content.
What does Above the Fold Mean?
Above the fold is a concept that stems from newspapers.
Newspapers are chalked full of interesting content, but getting people to open them
up to read that content can be a challenge. Thus, newspapers are set up in such
a way that their most interesting headlines are visible from their bin. For
people walking by, those headlines may pique their interest enough to buy a
newspaper and read the rest of the articles inside.
The same concept can be applied to your website. In the
case of the internet, your “above the fold” content is the content visitors see
first without the need to scroll.
Why is Above the Fold Content Important?
Just like with our newspaper example, above the fold content
is important to optimize for the sake of first impressions. If the first
part of your page does not catch your user’s interest, they may leave without
scrolling or clicking further. Adjusting your above the fold content is necessary
to begin the process of turning visitors into customers.
How do I Improve my Above the Fold Content?
There are many ways you can start making your above the fold
content more attractive and engaging.
Make sure your headline is understandable and compelling
Usually, above the fold content involves information that
explains who you are and what you do. While the structure of above the fold
content may vary per site, most have some sort of headline that aims to capture
the attention of visitors. This headline, which will most likely be the
first thing that draws the user’s eye, needs to express your purpose and expertise
quickly and clearly. What is your specialty? What makes your company different
from others? Answering these questions immediately will help the user determine
if they are in the right place, or if they are looking for a different solution.
Note: Keep your Audience in Mind
Especially when creating your above the fold content, it helps to keep your target audience in mind. Who are you trying to sell to? What are those users looking for? What are the problems they are trying to solve? Keeping your ideal user in mind can help in creating the perfect above the fold content.
Create a Powerful Call to Action
After the user understands what your company offers, your above the fold content needs to guide them to their next step. This could be as simple as a “Shop Now” Button that will easily bring users to your products. Making sure this call to action is obvious and clear is important to making it simple for aninterested user to explore your content further. After all, even if a user finds your above the fold content interesting, there is always the chance that they will not scroll further.
Keep your Imagery Simple
While we can go all out in beautifying our above the fold
content, keep in mind that too much content can be distracting. Backgrounds,
images, and videos are all great content to share, but having all of them at
once can overwhelm your potential customer and cause them to leave. A good
rule of thumb is to share a glimpse of your best media and content in your
above the fold content. One quality piece of media can really help persuade your
users to give your company a chance.
Note: Page Speed can be affected by large media
In previous articles, we have explored how page speed impacts user experience greatly, so it is important to keep in mind the speed of which your above the fold content loads. Make sure the media you use to create your best first impression doesn’t negatively impact your page speed. If the users can’t quickly see your content, they may not stay long enough to consume it.
Want to Learn More about Optimizing your Website?
Above the fold content is just one piece that we can improve
to optimize user experience and conversion rates. What other aspects of our
sites can we improve to make our website work for us? Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The
Converting Website,” will dive into the tools and techniques your can use
optimize your website for higher conversion rates.Join the
waitlist today to stay up to date on the classes release!
There are many ways that we can increase our search engine ranking with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, one of the simplest ways that we can optimize our website is through internal linking.
What is Internal Linking?
As described in our article on SEO and site structure, internal links are links that connect a page on your website to another internal page. There are many places where we can put internal linkage. To list a few, we can find internal links in:
Navigation Menus – These menus, usually located at the top or side of your webpage, aid in structuring your pages and making it easier for users to access your most important content.
Taxonomies – Taxonomies are categories and tags given to pages that allow you to group certain pages together. These tags can be internally linked to in order to provide more related content to users as well as guide search engines into understanding the relationships between certain pages.
Articles – In blogs, we often embed URLs into our content to guide users to similar pages or next step options that they can take.
Related Post Sections – Located usually at the bottom of a page or blog post, these lists contain links to similar content on your website that users may be interested in.
What are the Benefits of Internal Linking?
Guides Users on Your Site
Rather than linking externally, where we send users to a
different website entirely, internal linking keeps users exploring our content.
For users, these links help them navigate your website with ease. On
your homepage or navigation bar, internal links offer simple ways for users to
explore the content you have to offer. They also help in suggesting related content
to your users, such as linking a related blog post to another existing
blog.
Helps Google Understand Your Content
While internal links help in showing users more of your content,
they also help search engines understand your website. For Google, internal
links help establish what relationship your pages have. By linking two
pages together, you are suggesting that these pages share something in common. This
can help Google understand what content you specialize in as well as well as
what content they should suggest to your users next.
Internal links also aid Google in figuring out what pages you value the most. This concept is called link value. For example, your homepage is often filled with links to your content. It also is often back-linked to on other pages. This makes its’ link value very high since Google assumes that, by having this page linked often to other pages, it must be very important.
Note: Importance of Shared Link Value
An important aspect to understand about link value is that a pages’ link value is shared to the other links on its’ page. Thus, by linking a page to your homepage, that link will be deemed more valuable as compared to if it was linked elsewhere.
How do I choose what content to link?
While we have gone over some of the places we can put internal links as well as the benefits these links bring, the question of which pages to link to can be difficult when you have a lot of content to share. The best rule of thumb is to internally link to your best content. This is content that is of high quality, is complete, and is important to your business goals. Your best content is the content that you want users see when searching for your products and topics of expertise. By linking your most quality content, you are telling Google and your users that you consider these pages to accurately reflect your company and what you have to offer.
By choosing your best content, the process of deciding what content to link to should become easier. Add many links to these quality pages around your site to emphasize their importance. For example, your homepage tends to be very important to explaining who you are and what you do. Linking your homepage in multiple places will help search engines understand that this page is valuable to share to users searching for your content.
Note: A warning about Link Stuffing
While internal links are very useful, too many of them can be harmful. As with keywords, link stuffing is a method that no longer works as well as it once did. With the advancements of search engines, Google can recognize when you are adding links for the sake of having them, so pick and choose your links carefully and only link them in places where it makes sense. For example, while we could link every mention of SEO to one of our blog posts, that would negatively impact our SEO ranking. Instead, keep things light, but consistent. In our case, one mention of our important related blogs is good enough to show Google how our pages relate.
Want to Learn More about SEO?
Improving your SEO is a continuous process that will require
consistent maintenance as your site grows and SEO requirements change. The same
can be said for your website as a whole. Carrie Saunders’ upcoming
course, “The Converting Website,” will dive into SEO and other important
factors that aim to optimize your website.Join the
waitlist today to stay up to date on the classes release!
In previous articles, we have explored a variety of ways to improve On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO). From page speed to the content itself, there are many ways to approach increasing your site’s ranking in the eyes of search engines. Another aspect that is important to both SEO and general user experience is your site’s structure.
What is Site Structure?
Site structure is the way your content is organized.
From product pages to blog posts, where these pieces of content are and how
people navigate to them are determined by your site’s structure. Any linkage
in your site plays a role in guiding users to your content. A few major
aspects to your site structure are:
Taxonomies – taxonomies are the way in which your site classifies its content. They group related content by using categories and tags. Taxonomies aid users in finding the content they want and help Google properly index your website.
Navigation Menus – Navigation menus are usually the collection of tabs at the top of a site that guide users to other content. Easy to understand categories and neatly arranged sub-menus aid in bringing users to more content without overwhelming them.
Internal & External Linkage – Internal links are hyperlinks that guide users to more content within your site. External links lead users to material you deem useful that is outside of your site. These links keep users engaged longer and also help Google understand your focus, increasing your visibility.
Breadcrumbs – A breadcrumb is a text path located at the top of a page that identifies where users are on your site. An example of a breadcrumb would be Home > Blogs > Site Structure. While simple, breadcrumbs help both users and Google understand your site’s structure and easily backtrack to explore more of your content.
How does Good Site Structure Benefit my Site?
The main goal of quality site structure is to make it easier for both your users and Google to find your best content. For Google, site structure helps guide their bots to your most important content. Via your links, Google will navigate your pages in an attempt to understand your business. This content should help Google understand what you site is about and what you specialize in. The easier Google can explore and interpret your site, the more likely your SEO rank will increase.
If Google deems that your site performs well, usually your users
share the same sentiment. Good site structure means that users can easily
find the content they want. With proper linkage, you can guide your users
to your most relevant content, helping them find solutions to the problems they
came here to solve. Improved SEO and good user experience are key to
increasing your traffic and conversions.
How do I Improve my Site Structure?
Prune your Content
Content pruning is the process of removing content that is no longer relevant. Such content could out of date, uninteresting to your users, or too similar to existing content. As your site grows, so will the number of blogs and pages you have, and that means it can become overwhelming for users to find your most important content. Cut content that you deem is unnecessary in order to de-clutter your site.
Note: Remember to Use Redirects
Your pages and blogs were all made with some purpose in the beginning and may be linked to other existing content. May sure to redirect the links on content you decide to remove to better content that fulfills a similar purpose. Broken links are a quick way to lose users.
Optimize Navigation & Taxonomies
Navigation and taxonomies are places where too much content
can become overwhelming. Too much content makes it harder for both users and
Google to understand what they should be looking at. We want to guide both
visitors and search engines to our best pages and blogs. To do this, we need to
make sure that no category in our navigation menu or in our taxonomies is too
much bigger than the others.
Note: Don’t Overfill your Categories
A good rule of thumb to follow for both your navigation bars and your taxonomies is to make sure that no category is more than twice the size of another. This means that, for your navigation bar for example, no tab should have a much longer sub-menu than the other. For your taxonomies, this means a category shouldn’t contain the majority of your content, but instead be divided into smaller, more palatable collections.
Improve Internal Linking
By putting internal links into an article or page, you
are telling your users and Google that this content is important and relevant.
Internal links can help keep users on your site by giving them easy avenues to
access more content that is similar to what they already read. By strategically
placing internal links, you will keep you users engaged longer and aid Google
in understanding the relationship between your content.
Note: Consider Link Value when Inserting an Internal Link
As Google explores your internal links, it also determines link values. Link values are determined by the location of the link. For example, your homepage tends to have the most link value due to it having the most back-links to it. So, if you link your blog article to your homepage, that link will be considered more valuable than if you linked it somewhere else. This helps Google find your most important content faster.
Want to Learn More?
Improving your SEO is a continuous process that will require consistent maintenance as your site grows and SEO requirements change. The same can be said for your website as a whole. Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website,” will dive into SEO and other important factors that aim to optimize your website.Join the waitlist today to stay up to date on the classes release!
In previous articles, we have explored some of the benefits of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). As an analytics service, GA4 allows us to see how users experience our websites and what makes visitors become customers. One of GA4’s key features is its ability to show traffic both in real-time and over specific periods of time. However, what do we do if we open GA4 to see that suddenly, our traffic has dropped?
First, Are you New to GA4?
While the question may sound silly, the switch from Universal Analytics to GA4 can lead to visually less traffic. This is not because your traffic truly dropped, but because GA4 collects data differently from its predecessor.
In Universal Analytics, users couldn’t be identified specifically, which means that if they were a reoccurring user, their interactions counted as different users visiting your site. In GA4, users are tracked more efficiently. If a user, for example, visited your page online, and then on their phone, they would still count as one user. Thus, your traffic may appear to drop if you are still getting used to GA4.
Next, Check if the Data is Accurate
Technical Difficulties & GA4 Settings
While seeing a sudden drop in traffic can cause panic, the drop could be inaccurate. These inaccuracies could be cause by incorrect settings in GA4, as well as outside difficulties with technology. Check that your pages are live and running. If it’s not a technical issue, review your date settings in the right-hand corner of your “Report Snapshot” page. If the date is inaccurate, such as spanning to days that haven’t occurred, your data may just be incorrect.
Checking the date in the “Report Snapshot” Tab of Google Analytics 4.
The Day and Date
Another thing to check before diving further into diagnosing your loss of traffic is to note the day. Is it the weekend? A holiday? A drop a traffic could be a normal occurrence in context. One way to check this is to compare your current data to past data. This can be done by clicking the “Add Comparison” option located under the title of your “Report Snapshot” page.
Adding comparisons in the “Report Snapshot” Tab of Google Analytics 4.
Unexpected Events
The drop in traffic could also be due to something completely out of your control. For example, if you get the majority of your users from a specific region and your traffic drops in that region suddenly, it could have to do with a real-life event. A special holiday, a natural disaster, a power outage, or even shifting political climate could affect people’s access to your website.
Using GA4, we can visit the “Demographics” tab under “Users” to analyze where our traffic comes from in terms of place of origin. “Demographics Overview” shows us the top countries that our users reside in, as well as offers more granular data, such as top cities. More data can be found in “Demographic Details.”
Analyzing the “Demographics Overview” tab in Google Analytics 4.
We can use these tabs to see if certain countries have suddenly dropped in traffic. If so, checking the news or the state of your website for those countries can help identify if something beyond your website has impacted your user activity or not.
Using GA4 to Diagnose your Traffic
If your change in traffic is still unclear after initial diagnostics,
we can use GA4 to explore more internal issues that may be affecting our website.
We can start this by looking into the reports under the “Acquisition” Tab.
“Acquisition Overview”, “User Acquisition”, and “Traffic Acquisition” can help us understand where users are coming from over time by specific categories. The default categories GA4 illustrates are Organic Search, Direct, Organic Social, and Referral. A drop in traffic within one of these categories can help guide us to what we should do next to improve site engagement.
Looking at traffic in the “User Acquisition” Tab of Google Analytics 4.
Diagnostics & Types of Traffic
Organic Search Traffic
Organic Search traffic are users who arrived at your site from search engines such as Google. Techniques like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) directly impact this category of traffic, and thus a drop in Organic Search may have something to do with SEO.
While you can find some data about the keywords you are using to bring people to your site as well as your actual ranking in search queries by using GA4 or Google Search Console, it can be hard to track SEO related information. Your drop in traffic could be something as serious as a Google Penalty to something more organic such as a shift in audience preference.Your users could have started using different terms to search your products and services, or even be looking for something entirely different now. More internal, your SEO titles or descriptions concerning your pages in search queries may be irrelevant or inaccurate, causing users to click less on your pages.
Next Step: Improve SEO
There are many avenues that you can take to improve SEO. From technical SEO to on-page SEO, there is a lot of ways you can optimize your site’s searchability. Key factors that determine your rank are your keywords, content quality, and overall user experience. Keeping up to date with the keywords in your industry, creating relevant and readable content, and maintaining the health of your website are all beneficial to increasing SEO.
Direct Traffic
Direct Traffic contains users that arrive to your site by directly using the URLs of your pages. These are users who may be reoccurring visitors who are already interested in your products and services. When Direct Traffic drops, it is time to check on your website’s health as well as your competitors.
Direct traffic may drop when there are issues with your pages. Perhaps a page is broken and unreachable. The content of that page could also be less relevant to your audience. Noting recent changes to your site can also lead you towards the source of the problem. Besides changes to your website, changes in the industry can also affect Direct Traffic. Is there a new competitor in the market that has gain popularity? Has a rival come out with a new and improved service or product? Keeping up to date with your industry can help diagnose sudden changes in your users.
Next Step: Improve Website
Addressing broken pages or links is essential to maintaining your current flow of Direct Traffic. Beyond general maintenance and keeping content up to date, improving your content will also help keep your site attractive and relevant. The more useful and easier to use your site is, the more likely users will enjoy spending time on it. You can’t go wrong with improvements that will benefit user experience.
Organic Social Traffic
Organic Social Traffic considers users that arrive to your site via your social media outlets. Shifts in this traffic could suggest issues with your social media page, a lack of activity from your business, or a change in your audience.
When Organic Social Traffic drops, make sure your social
media pages are running smoothly and check out your most recent content. Is your
page up to date? How have your recent posts been doing? Does your audience seem
to be getting bored? All of these can affect the draw of users from your social
media outlets.
Next Step: Optimize your Social Media Channel
One way to draw more clicks from your social media channels is to improve your page and posts. Make sure your information is up to date and that you are active on your platforms. Social media is a place where users can ask questions and share opinions about your products. Such information can be beneficial in terms of improving your brand. Asking and answering questions from users can help create a better understanding of your products and your audience’s needs. The more you know about your users, the better you can produce content that will keep them interested and coming back.
Referral Traffic
Referral Traffic stands out as different from other forms of traffic. This category contains users that arrive to your site from sources that are not under your control.Your social media outlets or search engine results would be excluded form this category. Instead, this type of traffic is created when a different site entirely links your page to their own.
Referral traffic can come from “Top 10” like articles as well as explanatory pages that link your content to theirs for the sake of education. In a way, these pages reflect how others rate the quality of your content. For your blogs or products to be considered useful enough for another website to link to is a complement on its own. A drop in this kind of traffic would suggest that a better source has come out for your type of content.
Next Step: Improve Website Content & Network with Others
While this traffic is usually smaller compared to other sources of users, it can say a lot about what you are doing right. Using GA4, identify where your referral traffic is coming from and for which of your pages. Note the content of those pages and keep it in mind when improving and adding new content to your website. Checking out what other websites they linked to may also help in deciding what content you want to pursue in the future.
If you want to pursue more referral traffic, reach out to the website that brought users to you already. Connect with them, or maybe link to them in your own content. Networking can be beneficial in continuing to receive referrals from other sources.
Want more Tips and Tricks for Improving Your Website?
Optimizing your website to not only bring in traffic, but to build a reoccurring relationship with customers can be hard. There are many avenues that can be worked on to increase the conversion rate of your website. At BCSE, we can help!Contact us to discuss how we can improve your online shop.
Want to learn more about what you can do on your own to improve your eCommerce endeavors? Join the waitlist today for Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website.” In this course, you will learn the tools and techniques you can use to bring more traffic to your business.
In previous articles,
we explored how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can bring more traffic to your
site. With SEO, search engines like Google can better serve your website to
relevant customers. The goal of this process is to increase your rank in searches
where your products are services could be the answer.
One of the main ways people perform SEO is through the use of key words and phrases. These dialogues are determined by the words your audience use to search your line of work. However, keywords alone cannot fully improve your visibility.
The Issue with Key Words
While key words are still an essential part to bringing traffic to your site, search engines have become smarter over time. In the past, using a key word multiple times in your content would increase your rank in relevant searches. However, entities such as Google have broadened their scope to include the user experience when judging rank. This means that readability becomes a factor in determining your site’s placement.
When reading anything, hearing the same word over and over again can get boring if not annoying. Repetition breaks the natural flow of a piece and can cause readers to stop reading. The same applies for your content. While you could use your keywords as many times as possible on your site, it will not be attractive to your users. As with any piece of writing, the use of synonyms can help greatly with this issue.
Improving Content & SEO with Synonyms
Synonyms, words that are similar to your desired word, will not only improve the readability of your content, but also improve your SEO as a whole. Today, search engines can understand and define synonyms of your key words and phrases. Thus, using synonyms will continue to enhance the searchability of your site, if not broaden the words that users can use to find your services. At the same time, your writing will be improved as a whole, making it more palatable and interesting.
Keeping users on your page is key to create customers. In order to tell if your site is attractive as well as optimized for searchability, make sure to read your content multiple times. How does it sound? It is enjoyable? is it relevant? Being critical of your content is a simple step in optimizing your website for turning visitors into customers.
Want to Learn More?
Wondering what key words you could use to optimize your website? Interested in learning more about the many ways you can work on SEO? BCSE is always here for you! Reach out to us with any questions you may have! If you are desiring a more hands-on approach to learning more about SEO, join the waitlist for Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website.” In this course, she will dive into SEO and other important factors that aim to optimize your website.
In previous articles, we have explored some techniques we can use to improve our site’s searchability and ranking through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). From technical SEO to on-page SEO, there are many aspects that we can work on to push our search engine ranking higher. One such method is content pruning.
An aspect of your site that search engines consider when determining your rank is content. Quality content not only is essential for good user experience, but also for the bots that crawl your website in search of its meaning. If the bots do not find value in your content, they will rank your page lesser, bringing down the ranking of your site. Thus, it is important to cut content that isn’t helping your business thrive.
Content pruning is the process of removing content that
is no longer relevant. Such content could be out-of-date, low performing,
or too similar to other content, bringing your search engine rank down. Any
content that confuses users or causes them to leave your site should be questioned.
By removing ineffective content, you bring focus to your site, improving user
experience and SEO.
Bad Content Vs. Content in need of Editing
When content pruning, you may wonder what the difference is between bad content and content that just needs some improvements. The main difference between bad content and editable content is potential.
If a currently ineffective page has the potential to
reach the goal you created it for, then it may be worth editing. If the
page already has rich content that could be improved, it may be worth bringing
it up to date. Sometimes, the problem with a page is less about the content and
more about the linkage. A page could be great, but not linked in a way that is
reachable by most users and bots. These kinds of pages have room to grow and
still be useful.
However, pages that are completely out-of-date and no longer serve a purpose lack potential for expansion, especially if a better page already exists to replace it. Your company may have grown beyond this page, the content no longer relevant or accurate. A bad page could also be seen as useless by your users, despite its original intentions. These kinds of pages are on the chopping block for content pruning.
There are also some pages that are not bad, but do not rank well for special reasons. These pages tend to have content that is misunderstood by the bots because they are unusual in their usage. Pages that are only live for certain parts of the year, or pages that are aimed at very specific parts of your audience could fall into this realm. These are pages that should be hidden rather than removed, as they are useful to your business in certain cases.
Analyzing your Site for Content Pruning
Trying to figure out what pages need cut, edited, or left
alone can be tough. The best way to determine what pages need content pruning
is to illustrate the big picture of your site’s performance. What pages are
performing well? What pages are lacking? Such information can be found through analytics
services like Google
Analyics 4 and Google
Search Console. With analytics services, you can analyze data such as
page views, bounce rate, and conversions to see how attractive your pages are.
Internal linkage is also an important factor to look at when determining a page’s
success, as well as external links, such as social media. How users arrive and
respond to your page determines your page’s success.
Want to Learn more?
Carrie Saunder’s upcoming course, “The Converting Website,”
will dive into SEO and other important factors that aim to optimize your
website. Join
the waitlist today to stay up to date on the classes release!
In our previous article, we discussed some of the challenges
that we may face when switching from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.
Most of these challenges stem from the absence or inclusion of certain features
that were different in Universal Analytics. Let’s take a deeper dive into some
of the differences that set Universal Analytics and GA4 apart.
When Universal Analytics was created, less than half of the population had smart phones. At that time as well, eCommerce profit was only half of what it is now. With both of those factors increasing over time, marketing and privacy were both heavily impacted. GA4 is designed to handle these changes better than Universal Analytics can. Some key aspects that have changed include privacy concerns, data collection, and general future proofing.
Privacy
Privacy continues to be an important aspect of online life,
and GA4 aims to increase its privacy options as compared to Universal
Analytics. Some ways that GA4 does this is by making it easier to customize
and control collected data. In GA4, you can easily delete data at the
request of a user as well as determine how long you want GA4 to store user data
before deleting it entirely. You can also turn off the collection of certain data,
such as location specific or ad personalization data if desired.
The most notable way GA4 has grown from Universal Analytics’ privacy is through its decision to no longer collect or store IP addresses. In Universal Analytics, IP addresses were collected unless manually set to be anonymized. This push for increased user privacy has resulted in mixed feelings on part some companies. Many marketing efforts relied on tracking IP addresses to identify users and their location for the sake of advertisements. However, with GA4s personal identifiers for users and variety of tools, this shift shouldn’t impact the effectiveness of this tool, being beneficial for both users and eCommerce shops.
Data Collection
As the replacement for Universal Analytics, GA4 aims to
better understand the user experience and journey. With the market changing,
GA4 has shifted its focus to customer acquisition and retention unlike
its predecessor who focused strictly on acquisition. As a result, the metrics
GA4 tracks have evolved from Universal Analytics. Behavior, for example, was a
collection of metrics included in almost every report in Universal Analytics.
Behavior included metrics like bounce rate, page session, and average session
duration. These have now been replaced by engagement metrics in GA4, which
track engaged sessions, engaged rates, engaged user per session, and other data.
Metrics collected for monetization have also changed between Universal Analytics and GA4. In Universal Analytics, monetization data was found in conversion reports. The data collected on monetization was limited to eCommerce. In GA4, monetization is its own category that includes other streams of revenue, including ad revenue, in-app sales, and eCommerce. While this allows companies to better see where their company is making money, GA4 does not inherently track non-monetary conversions, a metric that was an option in Universal Analytics.
Future Proofing
With GA4 becoming the default Google Analytics tool in July of 2023, it includes a variety of new features that Universal Analytics did not offer. Customization of reports, metrics, and even dashboards offer the ability to track and visualize data to your needs. Machine learning is ingrained in GA4, offering not only insights like Universal Analytics, but also a variety of machine learning tools to explore. Anomaly detection and predictive analytics offer ways to identify key changes in your data and to note patterns that could follow in the future. Overall, we have not yet established the full potential of GA4’s new and improved analytics service.
Want to learn more?
Interested in using GA4 to gain a deeper understanding of your business? Want to learn more about the capabilities that GA4 has to offer? Save your seat today for Carrie Saunders’ “4-Day Google Analytics 4 Boot-camp.” In this bootcamp, Carrie will guide you in getting your GA4 account set up and exploring the many ways you can use it to optimize your business!
Starting July 1st, 2023, Google’s Universal Analytics will become deprecated. In its place, Google Analytics 4 will become the default analytics tool for tracking engagement and traffic on your websites. With more granular data collection and broader customization, GA4 has a lot to offer. However, the improvements made in GA4 as compared to its predecessor come with some challenges.
The main challenge of switching from Universal Analytics to GA4 is a general change of workflow. Universal Analytics was designed as a collection of default metrics and reports. Much of the data analysis and predefined key factors came out of the box. Overall, this made Universal Analytics easier to use and learn.
GA4, on the other hand, aims to break the limitations of Universal Analytics. With fewer default reports and tracked metrics, GA4’s usefulness can demand customization. Let’s take a look at some of the major changes that we will encounter using GA4.
Metrics
In Universal Analytics, data collected is based on “Sessions” and “Page views.” In a attempt for granularity, GA4 has shifted its data model to be based on “Events.” Due to this shift, certain metrics that were once default in Universal Analytics or either absent or changed in GA4. While these shifts don’t change the usefulness of Google Analytics Services, it may push us to change the way we determine success. Learning new metrics and what they mean for our business will take time.
Reporting
Much like metrics, Universal Analytics and GA4 have varying reports. Universal Analytics had a many types of reports that you could use in order to examine your website. GA4 has condensed those reports into fewer ones while also offering the ability to create customized reports of your own. For example, in the “Acquisition” tab of Universal Analytics, over 30 reports were available. GA4 offers only 3 general categories in its “Acquisition”tab, offering only a handful of reports within them. The rest can be tailored for your business needs. GA4’s breadth of options for customization can present a barrier in terms of its learning curve.
Need help with GA4?
Confused about how to use GA4? Need help understanding GA4’s new layout and reporting system? BCSE is always here to help! Want a more hands-on approach? Save your seat today for Carrie Saunders’ “4-Day Google Analytics 4 Boot-camp.” In this bootcamp, Carrie will guide you in getting your GA4 account set up and exploring the many ways you can use it to optimize your business!
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool that you can use
to see how well your website is working for your business. By tracking engagement on your platforms, GA4 offers insight
into how users interact with your website. Simple
to start and offering a variety of metrics and reports, GA4 can help you
optimize your online store.
In our previous article, we
explored a few of the metrics we can find illustrated on “Report Snapshot,”
under “Reports.” However, another aspect of GA4 that we
can use to aid our business decisions is “Events,” a metric that tracks
specific interactions on your website.
When we first introduced GA4, we briefly discussed its predecessor,
universal Analytics. One important change between
Universal Analytics and GA4 is the concept of “Hits” and “Events.” In Universal analytics, interactions are
defined as “Hits” and fell into
predefined categories that you could track. Broadening the data that you
can track, GA4 replaced “Hits” with “Events.” Events
allow you to track any interaction in your site and give you the ability to
pick and choose what’s important to you.
Types of events in GA4
While you can create events on your own, GA4 comes with a few default events that you can start tracking immediately. You can find these events along with events you create on your own in the “Engagement” tab under “Reports.” Let’s explore a few of categories that GA4 tracks automatically.
Page Views & Sessions
Some events that are automatically tracked follow user traffic on
your pages. Whether it be for the first
time, or a reoccurring user, GA4 identifies and tracks the pages a user loads,
how long they stay on that page, when they leave, and much more. By giving users identifiers, GA4 can collect quality data that
can separate a user reloading a page many times from multiple
new users visiting your site. Such information can help you
identify which pages are attracting users to remain on your site and which
pages could be irrelevant or difficult for users to interact with, offering
room for improvement.
Transactions & E-commerce
Default events for tracking the exchange of money are
available for use in GA4. These events help you note when
a user converts to a purchaser, diving into detail about the page and product
that led to this development. These events also can track
when, for example, a subscription-based customer cancels their subscription. Such
data aids in defining what sells well and what products or services are not
selling, backing your future business decisions.
Other User Interactions
Other default events that can be
found as you start using GA4 are more granular interactions with your
page.
Downloads, link clicks, video play backs, and scrolling are just a few of the events you can find. Such data can be tied
to specific pages, offering detailed data concerning
what attracts your customer to dive deeper into your website. With
a better understanding of your customers, you can improve customer experience
and increase the conversion rate of your online store.
Want to Learn More?
Interested in using GA4 to gain a deeper understanding of
your business? Want to learn more about the capabilities that GA4 has to offer?
Save your seat today for Carrie Saunders’ “4-Day
Google Analytics 4 Boot-camp.” In this bootcamp, Carrie will
guide you in getting your GA4 account set up and exploring the many ways you
can use it to optimize your business!
In
previous articles, we have explored some of the tools you can use to
analyze how well your website is doing. Page views, clicks, and search
engine rankings are ways to measure the success of your online business, but
what other ways can we look at? One way to see how well your business is doing is to take a
closer look at your incoming revenue.
The fact that your business’ income reflects its success is
an obvious statement. However,
dividing your income into different groups can help tell a more detailed story
about your success. Let’s take a look at three different types of business income.
Operating Income
Operating Income is any revenue made from your business’
core activities. Sales of products and services make up the majority of this
category. This category of income is the best representation of how well your
company is doing. It illustrates the efficiency of
your operation, and thus may be used by
shareholders and potential investors to assess how profitable your business is.
Non-Operating Income
Non-Operating Income is income gained outside of the core
activities of your business. Rather than sales, this income stream tends to be
from passive sources. Rent, interest on an investment,
royalties, and other forms of passive income fall into this category. While
your business makes non-operating income, the indirect nature of this income
stream makes it inaccurate when depicting the success of your core business.
Exceptional Income
Exceptional Income is income that you only earn once. Income from situations such as legal action or selling company
assets fall into this category since they are not scheduled. Since
these flows of income are random, it is best to not include this kind of gain
in your total revenue when evaluating the success of your business.
The Bigger Picture
While there are a variety of incomes your business can earn,
a gain is a gain! Interested in earning more income passively? One way you can gain more from
your business is sharing your knowledge with others via a digital course. Check
out Amy Porterfield’s “Course Confident,” a live 5-day
bootcamp that teaches you how to start your own course and earn additional
revenue!
