Google Analytics
Stay up to date with the latest news, tips, and insights about Google Analytics on Search Engine Land, including strategies to optimize your use of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which replaced Universal Analytics in mid-2024. and the forced migration to Google Analytics 4, starting July 1, 2023, from Search Engine Land.
You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tutorials and data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
Navigating Google Analytics 4 and beyond
The transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) marks a significant change in how businesses track, measure, and analyze their website and app data. Search Engine Land offers in-depth insights and strategies to help you adapt to GA4 and leverage its new features for actionable results.
Discover tutorials on using GA4, creating custom reports, and getting the most out of the platform. Stay updated on understanding GA4’s new interface and interpreting its improved insights into customer behavior.
We also cover GA4’s expanded cross-platform tracking capabilities and its emphasis on privacy-focused measurement.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
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How expired landing pages kill your Google rankings
Soft 404s can lead to a poor user experience, fewer conversions and impact your site's visibility more than the loss in PageRank from maintaining them. Here's how to properly deal with expired landing pages.
6 tactics to rank better in Google Discover
While you can’t target users or interests, you can increase your chances of ranking better in Google Discover. At SMX Next, John Shehata shared the tactics he uses to up the odds and analyze what works.
What digital marketers should know about Google Analytics 4
Data is collected differently, stored differently, and even visualized differently. All of this change can be frustrating, but GA4 is quite a bit more advanced than the previous version.
Google Chrome makes Omnibox prefetch faster for your default search engine
This not only will work in Chrome for Google Search but potentially can work for any default search provider.
Holiday shopping SEO: Last-minute tips and techniques for e-commerce sites
How to optimize the work you’ve been doing year-round and what to avoid ahead of the most profitable time of the year.
How to fix the SEO issues that keep you from achieving your goals
Effective SEO requires a holistic approach. JR Oakes deep-dives into his approach from his session at SMX Report.
Built on GA4, Google announces the new Analytics 360
New features include the ability to create product line sub-properties, custom user roles and larger caps on dimensions, audiences and conversion types.
Google tackles pollution and competitors with Maps updates; Thursday’s daily brief
Plus, the hallmarks of bad content marketing.
Google Analytics 4 updates include data-driven attribution, machine learning models to fill in measurement gaps and a Search Console integration
Google hasn’t said when it will deprecate Universal Analytics, but the updates and language in the announcement suggest that search marketers should prepare for the change.
Comin’ out of my cage, and I’ve been doing just fine; Monday’s daily brief
Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all
Chrome tests Google side search in the browser
Also, Journeys is a new feature in Chrome that clusters your browsing history in a new way.
The top 4 data issues campaign managers face and how to solve them
Enable your marketing teams to be agile enough to react to real-time insights.
Google Ads announces machine learning-based data-driven attribution models in new privacy landscape
In the wake of losing data to FLoC, Google's new DDA solution seems to offer more attribution options even for smaller accounts
How to test your content site strategy for continued improvement
Forecasting, documenting and analyzing your content initiatives can help grow your brand’s visibility and your skills as an SEO.
Why are in-house SEOs looking for new jobs?; Friday’s daily brief
Plus, is pinning the solution to control RSAs?
Cleaning house: how Google and Yelp handle fake reviews; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, four tools to check for your title changes in SERPs
Four tools to check for title changes in the SERPs
These tools let you see whether Google changed your title, the date it changed and what it was changed to.
Title changes in Google Search causing distress; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also Google Shopping bug and Google Ads campaign set up screen.
Google Shopping issues in the UK lead to sharp KPI declines
If your accounts or campaigns have been affected by this issue, it's critical to communicate to clients and stakeholders that this change is a glitch in their metrics, and not indicative of other issues.
Three PPC targeting tactics that power every stage of the funnel
"You can make any channel work for you depending on who your prospects are and which channels they use and which targeting options are available across all channels."
How to maintain organic performance when merging multiple websites
Migrations and mergers can be unpredictable. Here's how to identify and prioritize your most valuable pages for your new site.
If you saw expanded search terms in Google Ads, it was a glitch; Friday’s daily brief
Plus, trying to get shadow banned on Insta for science
Do you follow the Google guidelines?; Wednesday’s daily brief
Also, Target impression share in Microsoft Advertising grows.
How do you plan for in-person consumer behavior and COVID at the same time?; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, Google’s math solver guidelines emphasize technical SEO and content accuracy.
The Search Engine Land mentorships have been announced; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, on the hunt for something new in 2021? New job opps in search
So Google gave you another year to prepare for the Cookiegeddon. Now what?; Thursday’s daily brief
And, 51% of local marketers say their business will hire more SEO staff this year.
Google adjusts the timeline for third-party cookie deprecation; Friday’s daily brief
Plus, why thinking like a group isn’t so bad after all
Google page experience update rolls out just as core update finishes; Wednesday’s daily brief
Plus, Google Search Console Insights report is now open to all
Google Search Console Insights is now available to all
A year after launching the limited beta, you can now access this new set of reports.
Google agrees to not favor its own products or access user personal data in commitments with UK regulator on FLoC
Depending on how the engagement plays out, this could mean that Google doesn't implement FLoC as quickly as anticipated.
Google changes Core Web Vitals metrics; How to use lab and field data for optimization
Field data, considered towards rankings, will vary depending on real-world user device power, screen size, and network connectivity. Lab data has default values for these and, (except in the case of Page Speed Insights), can be calibrated by developers to simulate all manner of conditions.
News from Google I/O for technical SEO practitioners and site developers
For technical SEO practitioners and site developers alike, we can glean a lot from the announcements the Chrome team made about the availability of technologies and extensions to their current products in the "What's new for The Web Platform" keynote.
Link building programs get no links 1/3 of the time; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, new updates to social -- undo tweets and post to Insta from a browser
Google Ads announces privacy-focused changes for Analytics, Tag Manager and enhanced conversions
These solutions from Google Ads attempt to preserve user data while ensuring that search marketers have the best information to improve and adjust their campaigns.
Google search rankings algorithm check-in; Friday’s daily brief
Local Service Ads Google bug, speeding up images and the value of our old internet companies.
Search Console: Is it every marketer’s favorite tool?; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, how to adjust your expectations and campaigns for iOS 14
Is it time to switch to a new SEO tool?
The biggest factors that influence the decision to purchase a new SEO tool.
Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s head of search appoints new leads
Elizabeth Reid to lead core search experiences, Cathy Edwards to lead Apps, News Discover and Ecosystem efforts and Sissie Hsiao to lead Assistant.
The 5 latest Google Ads features and how to make the most of them
A guide to testing the latest Google Ads features and let them work for you.
Google’s newest version of Analytics (GA-4) is here
Learn about the significant changes in GA-4 and what it means for your business.