How to Set Up Google Search Console

How to Set Up Google Search Console on Your Website

If you have a website, you are probably familiar with Google Search Console. Formerly known as Webmaster Tools, this free software is an absolute must if you want to run a functional site and increase traffic to your homepage. Continue reading to learn how to set up Google Search Console for your website.

Google is known for making software that tracks search query and behavior (as those of us with experience in Google Analytics and AdWords will understand). But Search Console is a different story. It is designed to optimize both the technical infrastructure and search-orientation performance indicators for a webmaster. In other words, you can monitor how the Google algorithm digests your site AND how your site performances in keyword searches.

Continue reading to learn how to set up Google Search Console on your site:

Is Search Console The same as Webmaster Tools?

As far as we know, Google Search Console is the re-branded version of Webmaster Tools. Plenty of industry discussion has gone on to identify the slight differences between the two platforms. For our purposes, the minor differences are of little importance. What matters is that the same core services are there – and they sure are. As Google states, you can do a whole bunch of crucial site maintenance work through Search Console, including:

• Make sure Google has access to your site content. Just because you publish something does not mean it will show up in Google search results.

• Submit new content to be crawled by Google bots. Bots are the fundamental tool Google uses to scan, record, and retrieve pages from all the sites on the page.

• Improve load-time and site-speed. Slow load-time on a landing page will cut into your site traffic like a hot knife through butter.

• Ensure no malware or spam enters your site.

As alluded to above, you can also manage how searchers interact with your site in the SERP. For example, you can see:

• Which search queries your site shows up for

• Average site ranking for specific keywords

• The performance of your site’s listings

These are all the same benefits made possible with Webmaster Tools. It should only underscore the importance of setting up Google Search Console for your website. So, without further ado…

Step #1 – Sign in to Google

Search Console needs to be added to your already active Google account. Sign in with your Gmail or Google+ account, or make one if you don’t have one yet.

Step #2 – Set up Search Console

Once you are signed in, you want to navigate to the Google Search Console domain (which you can do right here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en). As you’ll notice, the shortcut icon might still show up under the name ‘Webmaster Tools.’ Don’t worry about it, because they lead to the same software.

If this is the first domain you want to register, just follow the prompt on the home screen and add your domain URL. Then click Add Property. Note that if you have already registered a domain, you will not be prompted to add another. Instead, you will have to click on the red Add Property button on the right side of the screen, and a new blank cell will appear for you.

Always make sure to follow proper formatting for a site or an app, as it must match the naming conventions of your site.

Step #3 – Confirming Your Identity

Google will then ask you to verify that you are the owner of the site you are trying to register. The recommended method is to upload an HTML file, but there are several other options. To see the other options, select the ‘Alternative methods’ tab.

Verify Site Ownership

Method A: Google Analytics

The fastest verification process is through Google Analytics. Most SEOs and webmasters prefer this way because it is instant. However, you can select this option if you:

• Already have a Google Analytics account for the website in question

• Are listed as an “administrator”

Assuming you qualify on both fronts, you can go ahead and select the ‘Google Analytics’ option within the Alternate Methods tab. Then scroll down and click the ‘Verify’ button – and you are good to go.

If you do not have a Google Analytics account, you should do something about that ASAP. When properly optimized, Analytics is the best site traffic software on the market. Unfortunately, not everyone has Google Analytics set up on their site. If you count yourself in this category, then you have a couple of other verification methods available to you.

Method B: HTML Tag

This is a handy option for those who have access to the HTML code of their site. Keep in mind that not every domain hosting company will offer HTML code, though the big ones like WordPress do.

Start by selecting the HTML tag button. A grey drop-down menu will appear with instructions as to the next steps. Start by copying the HTML code given to you by Google (it begins with <meta name=>). Then go into the editor section of your site, and paste the code in the Head section. What this does is create a new meta tag for Google to interpret your site by. Save the changes you have made, and go back to Search Console to ‘Verify’ the actions taken.

Method C: Domain Name Provider

A third option available to you is the ‘Domain Name Provider’ option. This is a more labor-intensive process and should only be chosen if you don’t have access to Analytics or the HTML code of the site.

Begin by selecting the company through which you registered the site. Google will then have a series of follow up questions – different for every individual – to confirm that it’s you.

Method D: Google Tag Manager

Last, but not least, is the Google Tag Manager verification option. Unlike the other options, which are more general, this verification method is designed strictly for those with a Google Tag Manager account. If you fall into this category, then select this button and click ‘Verify’.

How Do I Set Up Tools On Google Search Console?

Once you have verified your identity as a site administrator, it’s time to begin optimizing. If you are wondering where to start, you have probably overlooked some of the basics. Namely, creating a sitemap so that Google can index pages of your site better, and retrieve them faster.

Other than that, you can begin exploring the platform to see which areas you want to optimize first. There is amazing SEO data that can help you optimize the search performance of your pages and posts.

I like to review what keywords result in search impressions for my site and what the resulting click through rate (CTR). There is so much you can do with Google Search Console, but that’s for a future post.

Conclusion

If you operate a website, it is critical to set up Google Search Console. Every element of SEO is available to you in Search Console, whether it’s improving site accessibility to Google bots, or optimizing keywords on specific pages to rank higher in SERPs.

Comprehensive web maintenance and search optimization starts with the basics, and that means installing Google Search Console to your website (or websites).

How to Track Email Campaigns with Google Analytics

Tracking email campaigns is an essential measure of business performance. Digital marketers rely on email campaigns to increase brand recognition, generate new leads, and bring targeted traffic to a landing page of choice. This short guide shows you how to track email campaigns with Google Analytics and is a must to determine the ROI of your campaigns.

Email is also an excellent communication channel to stay in touch with existing customers. People check their email more than their social media accounts – so if you are looking to strengthen customer relationships, there is no better outlet.

Of course, to achieve optimal results, you need to monitor what resonates with your audience by tracking email campaign performance metrics.

Why Should I Track Email Campaigns with Google Analytics?

Your email campaign is only as strong as the performance data it brings in. The goal is to have as many people as possible read the content of your email AND take the desired action.

An effective email should always have an actionable offering (an update from the business) or an incentive to keep reading (a discount on a product or free trial). Crafting the email is up to you – but when it comes to tracking, you need to ask yourself:

What is my email open rate? How many people are opening the emails?

Are new leads being generated?

Are new leads taken the desired action in the email (are they converting?) Did they sign up for my newsletter or make a purchase?

Having data-driven answers to these questions will help your marketing efforts thrive. To start tracking your emails, the first thing you need to do is install Google Analytics. Analytics is a free tracking software with tons of metrics and segmentation tools – just perfect for helping you increase click-through rates.

Using Google Analytics to Track Email Campaigns: The Basics

Once Google Analytics is installed, you can begin optimizing the software to suit your needs. Without any modification, Analytics will log the source of all traffic to your website pages. But after setting up an email tracking campaign, you will be able to see a new dimension in your traffic reports and discover a whole new world of traffic insight.

Step #1: Tracking URLs

Setting up URL tracking is a good idea whenever you are directing traffic from a source other than your homepage. It helps you know how effective your email campaign is in generating conversions (i.e., clicking on a link and landing on your website, for example).

Also, looked at over the long-term, URL tracking will show which emails brought higher than average conversion rates when compared with each other.

Trackable URLs break down differently for each traffic source:

● Email Campaigns. Allows you to see which emails are bringing in the most traffic and conversions.

● Guest Blog Posts. Helps you track the amount of traffic generated from a guest post on a different site.

● Influencer Marketer. If you are working with an influencer to promote a product, you should give them a trackable ID, so you know how much traffic is coming from their work compared to your email campaign.

● Banner Ads. Without a trackable URL, it would be hard to know which ad has the highest conversion rate.

Once your pages are trackable, the next step is adding parameters to each URL. Working with UTM parameters does mean delving deeper into the technical aspects of the platform. But it also guarantees more thorough reporting.

What are UTM Parameters and Custom Campaigns?

UTM parameters are little tags added to the end of a URL. Every time someone clicks on a link with UTM tagging; the information is sent back to Google Analytics. In short, UTM tags make it possible to isolate and measure different sources from where a searcher reaches your site. They are the buildings blocks for designing a custom campaign to monitor the performance of each source.

Custom campaigns are needed for every email newsletter promotion you want to track. You can measure key metrics and compare the performance of one traffic source with another over time.

For instance, let’s say you are generating tons of new leads from a new product offer. You want to know if your influencer marketing campaign is responsible for the spike in newsletter subscriptions, or if it’s coming from your newsletter. To check that, you need to set up custom campaigns for both your newsletter and your influencers newsletter, each optimized with UTM parameters. That way you can find out how many new leads are coming from your influencer’s newsletter campaign.

In general, segmenting data into categories via custom campaigns makes it easier to monitor the performance of specific traffic sources.

Step #2: Setting up UTM Parameters

The most important UTM parameters for all email campaigns are:

● Campaign source (utm_source). Usually listing the source of email list or newsletter (‘Welcome Email’ for example) where the link will be placed. This is where you can specify if it’s coming from an influencers account or not. Or if you’re promoting a social media post, I’ll type in Twitter or Facebook.

● Campaign medium (utm_medium). If you are running numerous email newsletters, you would want to differentiate them by publishing timeline (daily, weekly, monthly, May 23 Newsletter, etc.).

● Campaign name (utm_campaign). The name of the specific campaign itself (November eNewsletter, for example).

Consider filling out a Campaign Content (utm_content) parameter if you plan on doing any A/B testing. It lets you sort through the different links (image or text) that point to the same landing page URL.

Step #3: Using the Campaign URL Builder

Now that you know all the essential features of a campaign, it’s time to go ahead and build one. The Campaign URL Builder (save this link, you’ll use it often) tool makes it easy to start tracking your emails. Enter the following information:

Website URL (the URL for the page or post that your promoting)
Campaign Source (for example, ‘March Newsletter’)
Campaign Medium (for example, ‘email’, if you are sending an email campaign)
Campaign Name (for example, ‘sale’, but not required)

Once these four steps are complete, you will notice a ‘generated campaign URL’ pops up below the Campaign Content. Simply click ‘Copy URL’ and post it in your emails and share it with influencers, marketing collaborators, and business partners.

What Are Best Practices for Building Trackable URLs?

As with any technical domain, you want to keep things as simple as possible. With that in mind, you should pick a naming convention and use it every time. If you go ahead and make ‘unique’ names for each campaign title, it will be harder to remember which name applies to which data set.

A second recommendation is to use appropriate language throughout. Although it can get tedious working on website development, you have to remember that your audience will see the tags you write – who knew that branding gets so technical!

Step #4: Viewing the Results

Once you have let your campaign run for 24, you will start to see data coming in. To check the status of your email campaigns from the Google Analytics Dashboard, follow these steps:

Sign in to Google Analytics
Select Acquisition from the topics on the left navigation side-bar.
Scroll down and select Source/Medium.

Acquisition Navigation

Google Analytics UTM — Tracking example of a March newsletter.

In the Source/Medium window, you will be able to see all of the different metrics for each newsletter that you send out. I like to review bounce rate, session, session duration, and goal conversions.

Conclusion

If you are not tracking email campaign performance, you should begin to track email campaigns with Google Analytics today! The more you know about the performance of your email campaigns, the easier it is to optimize them and make proactive changes for future email campaigns.

How to Install Google Analytics Tracking Code

The only way to fully understand your site’s performance is with Google Analytics. To install Google Analytics tracking code, read this short guide to get started.

For beginners to Google Analytics, it might seem like a daunting challenge to get the infrastructure set-up. But with a little direction, it can be done. And before too long you will be receiving valuable traffic and performance reports for all the pages on your site.

What is the Google Analytics ID Tracking Code?

Google Analytics does offer some information about the ID Tracking Code. However, the instructions are quite technical and hard to interpret for a new user. But don’t sweat it – we have you covered!

1. Setting Up a User-ID

Setting up your tracking code is the first thing to do after signing up. In the Admin section of your Analytics homepage, you should see your account name linked to a site property.

Below the site property, notice the ‘Tracking Info’ headline. Click on it and select the ‘Tracking Code’ topic below the Tracking Info header. This is where your Tracking ID will be posted, in both an ID and HTML code form.

2. Paste Tracking Code to All Pages

Simply copy and paste this code onto the various pages of your site. In most cases it is placed above all the text in the <head> section of the site. If you are operating an e-commerce site via Shopify, they will provide clear instructions for where to apply a tracking code for the whole site.

If you are using WordPress, it is even easier! I recommend installing the Sumo or Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plugins. With these plugins, you simply copy and paste your tracking ID to the settings section of the plugin or authorize the plugin to use data from your Google Analytics account. No coding required.

Google Analytics for WordPress Plugin

3. Session Unification Is Helpful

Session unification is important because it ensures that when the same person searches for your site from two different platforms, Your Google Analytics software is able to associate them as coming from the same person, rather than two different people.

It is part of a larger User ID tracking system designed to streamline your customer insights, and as such makes for an important addition. To set it up, simply go to the Admin section of your Analytics account, click on User ID, and then select ‘Step 2’. You will see a toggle switch currently in the OFF position. Switch it to ON, and congratulations, you have just initiated session unification.

4. Verify that the Google Analytics Tracking Works

Once you have set everything up on the back end of your site, it’s time to verify that data is actually coming in! It takes approximately 24 hours for the first session views to be reported, and there are a couple of ways to ensure it’s all working for you.

Check the “Status” message on the page you applied the ID code to. If it states “Receiving traffic” then everything is as it should be.
Observe the number of people using your site right now in the Real-Time data section. To see if tracking works, simply browse through some pages of your site and see if they appear in the Real-Time data section.

Start Slow and Build Up a Solid Base

I hope this guide is useful to you when you install Google Analytics tracking code for your website. While it might take a few months to gather solid data on your site, by installing Google Analytics tracking, you are making it possible to optimize areas of your site you never thought possible.

Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics

SEO would be near impossible without access to site performance and traffic data. The free software that most search optimizers use is Google Analytics, a tool designed for analyzing all aspects of site performance. Google Analytics offers a ton a of important for any website owner or manager, so in our beginner’s guide to Google Analytics, we touch up on the highlights that it has to offer.

Offered up as a free software by the geniuses at Google, the best thing about Analytics is that you can isolate and solve key user experience issues – like site speed on mobile or bounce rate on a specific page – without having to conduct major site audits.

The data is all there for you as long as you know how to find it and interpret it!

This post is for those who have little to no experience with Google Analytics but want to start incorporating it into their site maintenance strategy. In our beginner’s guide to Google Analytics, we touch upon some of the many highlights of using Google Analytics.

How to Use Google Analytics in My Website

To install Google Analytics on your site you will need two things: access to the internet, and basic knowledge of HTML. If you would rather leave the HTML to your company’s webmaster or freelancer, that is an option too, but we promise it’s very easy!

To install the program, you first need to:

● Sign up for Google Analytics at Google’s Analytics Solution hub page.

● Make sure to link your most frequently used email, and one you plan to use for a long time. Just make sure you remain the only admin on the account.

● Begin on the New Account page by filling in the URL of your business, the industry it’s in, and the time zone you operate from (this helps with updates and tracking status reports)

● Read through the privacy report below the sign-up sheet and make sure everything jives with you.

Start Interpreting Performance Data

Now, you should have a fully functional account with tracking codes installed on every page. It should take a day or so for your site to sync up with Analytics, but before you know it, data will start flowing to it. Below is a snapshot of all the different metrics you can measure:

There are a total of five reporting categories, each with their sub-set of categories describing search session history. A few of the highlights include:

● Real-time users. You can track the real-time movements of people on your site to see if your tracking code is set up on all pages, if your one-day promotion is having the desired impact on search behavior, and get a clear idea where most of your traffic is coming from.

● Popular landing pages. In the ‘Acquisition’ category you can explore which landing pages on your site are most effective, and where the majority of this traffic comes from (social media or Google search).

Create Goals in Google Analytics

Collecting data is not all Analytics can do. You can set specific goals pertinent to your business needs.

A goal is defined by Google as “a page which a visitor reaches once they have completed an action”. It’s for this reason they are often referred to as conversions, or things like signing up for a newsletter or spend quality viewing time on a landing page you have optimized. It’s worth taking some time to explore your site traffic before designing a Funnel Path with key Entry Points based on your desired goal.

How to Read the Audience Overview Report

Lastly, it’s important to familiarize yourself with an Audience Overview Report. On the homepage, below ‘Customization’, you can select from nine different reports detailing customer behavior on the site. These are the bread and butter of GA and show you what is working and what is not with your Goals and overall web management strategy.

Start Understanding Your Website Traffic Today

At SeoHighLighter, we have mastered the understanding of Google Analytics, because we want to help your business grow. Our beginner’s guide to Google Analytics scratches the surface of what is available in GA.

Google Analytics Weekly Email Summary

New Feature: Google Analytics Weekly Email Summary

We just a released a new feature that will make it easier than ever to monitor your website traffic -> a Google Analytics Weekly Email Summary. Whether you are in our free or paid plan, you will receive a weekly email summary of your Google Analytics traffic.

You can expect email like the sample email below. Of course Site 1, Site 2 and so on will be replaced by the name of your website. Make sure you select your timezone in your settings page so that we can deliver your email at the correct time.

Every Monday morning, you can expect an email delivered to your inbox with important website traffic data. The weekly email summary covers the time period from Monday to Sunday of the prior week.

Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time in your settings page, but we know that you’ll find these Google Analytics summaries very valuable. In a future release, we plan to show the percentage changes over the previous week.

Sample Email

Hello Ben,

Here’s your summary of activity from last week.

* Site 1 had 1,378 sessions, 2,202 page views, 1,125 users, 1.6 pages/session, 90.09 seconds average session duration and 77.21% bounce rate.

* Site 2 had 1 sessions, 2 page views, 1 users, 2 pages/session, 1 seconds average session duration and 0% bounce rate.

* Site 3 had 27 sessions, 105 page views, 18 users, 3.89 pages/session, 371.41 seconds average session duration and 55.56% bounce rate.

* Site 4 had 16 sessions, 20 page views, 16 users, 1.25 pages/session, 10.31 seconds average session duration and 87.5% bounce rate.

For more analytic details, please visit: https://www.seohighlighter.com/customer

Have a great week!
SeoHighLighter.com Team

To unsubscribe from these emails please follow this link https://www.seohighlighter.com/customer/user/settings.

Average Session Duration in Google Analytics

Th average session duration in Google Analytics is an often used metric to understand the engagement of your website audience. Per Google Analytics, it is calculated as:

Average Session Duration = total duration of all sessions (in seconds) / number of sessions

Engagement Hits on Last Page

As you enter the landing page of SeoHighLighter, for example, Google Analytics tracks the time from the first hit on the landing page to the last hit on the last page you visit. For example, you start on the landing page, check out the FAQ section, and then find yourself on this blog post. You read it and navigate back to Google.com. Because you left SeoHighLighter, Google Analytics can track the time at which you left this site.

Average Session Duration in GA

You’re Browsing and Leave for Lunch

However, what if you are browsing SeoHighLighter.com, for example, landed on the home page and are now reading this post and then leave for lunch. Google analytics has no clue how long you have spent reading this blog post.

Average Session Duration in Google Analytics

Basically, when you don’t click anything else on my site or navigate away from my site, it stops the session duration at the time you first entered this blog post (assuming it was the last page your are reading on my site and then left for lunch).

Also, if you have high bounce rates, your session duration will drop because, again, GA doesn’t know how long spent reading this post if there is no last engagement to record another point in time.

Finding Your Top Pages in Google Analytics

Find Your Top Pages in Google Analytics

Find your top pages in Google Analytics easily with this quick guide.

Google Analytics provides tremendous insight about your website visitors and content. One area of Google Analytics that I check constantly is my most popular content and pages. And, of course, you can also review your least popular content.

Understanding your most popular content can help you with your SEO strategy, content refreshes, calls to action, and much more. For your least popular content, it might also be an indication that you need to delete that content altogether, revise your page SEO, or revise the page or post to increase traffic or improve the specific goal for that content.

I’ll walk you through how to find your most popular content with SeoHighLighter and then with Google Analytics.

Finding your Top Pages in Google Analytics with SeoHighLighter

1) Login to SeoHighLighter at https://www.seohighlighter.com/customer/login.

2) Find the site that you would like to check in the navigation pane on the left and click on that site, and then click on “All Traffic.”

Navigation Pane

3) Scroll down slightly until you see the Traffic tabs and then click on Top Pages.

Top Pages in Google Analytics

4) You will see a list of your top pages that you can sort by key metrics.

Sign up for free today!

The data you can view on this page is below along with their definitions.

Pageviews – defined as a view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code. If a user clicks reload after reaching the page, this is counted as an additional pageview. If a user navigates to a different page and then returns to the original page, a second pageview is recorded as well.

Unique Pageviews – aggregates pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session. A unique pageview represents the number of sessions during which that page was viewed one or more times.

Average Time on Page – the average amount of time users spent on a specified page or screen, or a set of pages or screens.

Entrances – is incremented on the first pageview or screen view hit of a session. In contrast, Sessions is incremented on the first hit of a session, regardless of hit type. Thus, there may be a discrepancy between Entrances and Pageviews or Screen views for properties where the first hit of a session can be an event hit.

Bounce Rate – is a single-page session on your site.

% Exit – For all pageviews to the page, Exit Rate is the percentage that were the last in the session

Page Value – is the average value for a page that a user visited before landing on the goal page or completing an Ecommerce transaction (or both). This value is intended to give you an idea of which page in your site contributed more to your site’s revenue

Finding your Most Popular Content with Google Analytics

1) Login to your Google Analytics account.
2) On the left navigation pane, click on Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages
3) This will serve a page with a chart and table showing your most popular content.

Connect SeoHighLighter to Google Analytics

How to Connect SeoHighLighter to Google Analytics

In this short video tutorial, we demonstrate how easy it is to connect your Google Analytics data to SeoHighLigter. Once connected, just login to SeoHighLighter to view your GA data for one site or many websites.

Social Media Dashboard in Google Analytics

Google Analytics Social Media Dashboard

Just Released: Google Analytics Social Media Dashboard

We are excited to announce our latest dashboard that will help social media managers, marketers, and more understand their traffic from social media networks. Our Google Analytics social media dashboard will quickly get you up to speed on how well your social media efforts are translating into website traffic and which networks perform the best.

Our site is mobile responsive so you can check your dashboards at anytime and from any device. In real time.

Check out select samples of the social media dashboards below. We’ll help you answer the following questions and more.

Where is my traffic coming from?
What social media sites are sending me traffic?
How many sessions and users were driven by social media?
What social network had the highest bounce?
What countries are social media visitors from?
And many more!

Sign up today for a free trial. No credit card required.

Social Media Dashboard: Traffic sources, which social networks, and sessions

Quickly understand the traffic sources from your website and then which social media networks are sending you traffic. Then check out session activity based on the date range of your choice.

Social Media Dashboard: Sessions by country (interactive)

Use your mouse to zoom in and out of regions to understand what countries are sending you traffic. Use this to fine tune your ad campaigns.

Social Media Dashboard: Visits by network, bounce rates, goal completions

Now you can rank your best performing social media networks by sessions and goal completions and also see which network bounces the most.

Check all of your domains with an easy drop down menu

Our Google Analytics social media dashboards will help you save time finding the most important data and save you from logging into Google Analytics and searching for the correct information.

Future releases will include dashboards by social media network (i.e Facebook, Twitter, etc.) for a more detailed understanding of your audience.