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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Google launches Site Kit plugin for WordPress
WordPress users can see data pulled from various Google products.
Google Sept. 2019 Core Update ‘weaker’ than June core update
A detailed look at the early impact from the latest Google core update.
Getting started with Google Tag Manager
Here's how you set up a GTM account, create your first tags and triggers, and use the platform to streamline your tracking setup process.
Social listening: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it
What is social media monitoring? Why is it important? What are the best social listening tools? Find out with this quick guide for 2020.
SMX Overtime: Your questions answered about Google penalties and their impact on websites
SMX London attendees asked SEO expert Fili Wiese a wide-ranging number of questions about penalties, indexing, crawling and more.
Finding content marketing opportunities that influence search performance
Start with your existing pages to identify opportunities, which typically involve some form of repurposing, reformatting and updating.
Simplifying Google Analytics configuration with Google Tag Manager
Using analytics through GTM allows you to simplify the code in place on your site and quickly set up advanced features like cross-domain tracking.
SMX replay: Create dashboards that inform and persuade
Sam Marsden of DeepCrawl explains how to use data visualization to get faster buy-in from management and stakeholders.
Leaning into SEO as Google shifts from search engine to portal
How to prepare your company for Google's new customer journey for search.
Why search needs to be combined with awareness for maximum impact
TV and display will drive better performing search queries, which in turn can indicate the effectiveness of those channels themselves.
Here’s how you align marketing strategy with your customer’s journey
SMX Advanced presenters Amy Bishop and Michelle Morgan outline tactics for paid media channels to effectively guide users from discovery to conversion.
Google tests showing weekly site visits in automated ad extension
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Frederick Vallaeys on why digital marketers will still have jobs and what they’ll look like in an AI world
"I think that this is full of opportunities for PPC, but it's going to be different from what we've been doing for the past 10 years."
4 website actions you can track with Google Tag Manager
There are limitless actions you can track to improve data gathering. Here is a step-by-step guide with website actions important to digital marketing measurement.
Google announces new ‘discovery’ ad formats, revamped Shopping experience, native placements at Google Marketing Live
The company also announced a new Google Shopping experience that aspires to be more competitive with Amazon.
7 best social media monitoring tools for any business
Social media is an enormous pool of insights on your market and competitors. These social listening tools bring those insights right to the surface.
Apple News, Google News, Google Newsstand: What marketers need to know
What they are, how they work and how to optimize for Google News and Apple News.
Here’s how to use Google Tag Manager’s new Trigger Groups
This update offers a new way to manage how often, and under what circumstances, a tag will fire in GTM.
5 additional data blending examples for smarter SEO insights
Once you preprocess columns to consistent formatting, additional data blending options include prioritizing pages with search clicks, mining internal site search for content gaps, analyzing traffic issues with 404 pages and more.
SMX Overtime: How to use customer segmentation to test new value propositions
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SMX Overtime: Learn the difference between mobile-first indexing and mobile-friendly SEO
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SMX Overtime: Enterprise SEOs explain tactical approaches for large implementations
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DuckDuckGo a new ‘default search’ option for Chrome, is it time to start paying attention?
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5 practical data blending examples for smarter SEO insights
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Advanced YouTube tactics: Create custom audiences to pursue, and watch that fine print
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Here’s how to use advanced audience tactics in Google and Bing
At SMX West, Christi Olson and Brooke Osmundson covered a variety of ways PPC marketers can use audiences in Bing and Google to improve campaign performance. Here are the big takeaways.
SearchCap: Bing Maps API, Google and YouTube ads and targeted SEO
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Now your Google text ads can show on YouTube search results, tooJan 30, 2019 by Ginny Marvin Google says early tests have shown similar performance results for text ads on YouTube […]
How to know when it’s time to pay for search analytics tools
SEO and search marketing experts offer feedback on when to pay for search analytics tools, factors to consider and making the most out of what you buy.
SearchCap: Amazon adds acquisition metrics, Google Posts, SMX West starts next week
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Get started with marketing automation–learn the terms you need to know Jan 23, 2019 by Digital Marketing Depot For businesses involved in digital marketing, marketing automation has quickly become a game-changer. […]
Ask an SMXpert: New approaches in customization can build better analytics reports
Data-driven digital marketing expert Simon Poulton outlines opportunities in various solutions to customize dimensions for more focused analytics reporting.
PPC 2018 in Review: These changes will have the biggest impact on advertisers in 2019
Significant shifts toward more automation affected nearly every aspect of the paid search landscape in 2018, and there were other important developments that will have a lasting impact in the new year.
SEO Year In Review: 2018 saw Google updates and a focus on mobile
Here is our recap of what happened in SEO in 2018 - with links and summaries of some of the bigger changes throughout the year in search and SEO.
SearchCap: Google Analytics with Search Console bug & old Search Console reports
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google to redirect old Search Console reports to new ones Dec. 13 Dec 7, 2018 by Barry Schwartz It’s time to get acquainted with the new Google Search Console reports. Google […]
Google Analytics admin emails sent to Search Console users in latest bug
Google said it has fixed the bug that was active between Nov.12 and 13.
SearchCap: Google Search Console bug, AdStage news & Local Services ads
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Don’t skip these critical recurring SEO tasksDec 4, 2018 by Jeremy Knauff As we near the end of the year, it’s time to review broken links, plugins, functionality and page speed […]
AdStage’s new Join automatically shows Google Analytics, Salesforce data for search, social campaigns
Customers will have full-funnel visibility into how their search and social campaigns are driving sales outcomes, without URL tagging.
8 best online reputation management tools for your brand
As more buyers rely on online research, your brand’s reputation can make or break your business. These 9 handy ORM tools will help.
SearchCap: Google PageSpeed Insights update, exact match PPC & account analytics
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Last chance: Save $450 on a seat at SMX WestNov 12, 2018 by Search Engine Land Results-obsessed marketers are attending SMX® West for actionable SEO and SEM tactics and strategies. Join […]
3 signs it’s time to make the switch to account-based analytics
If someone asked how you track your marketing efforts, how would you respond? Chances are, your answer would sound like a game of martech MadLibs. You’re using Google Analytics, advertising platforms, marketing automation, your CRM and myriad other tools to track, measure and take action on your marketing data. You spend your days building marketing […]
SearchCap: Google seller ratings, complex SEO & local reviews
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