How Google Analytics Can Be Misleading...

I love Google Analytics, but their reports can be misleading if you don’t understand the critical concept in the article below.

In today's Check This Out, I’d love to get your input...

 

 

Why Google Analytics Reports Do Not

Match AdWords Reports

 

Out of many popular topics like Facebook advertising, email marketing, mobile website development, and a handful of others, would you believe me if I said more people want help with Google Analytics setup and reporting?  Well, it’s true.  My assumption going into the survey was that bland and boring Google Analtyics would be sitting on the rock bottom.  But it’s right at the top!
 

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to write about a topic that I’ve held back for fear that no one would find it interesting.  However, it’s a very important concept to keep in mind when you’re reviewing your Google Analytics reports.  It’ll also explain why your Google Analytics reports are often very different than your Google AdWords reports (if you’re advertising).
 
It’s call attribution.
 

What is Attribution?

Online attribution is the process of assigning credit for a website conversion, or Goal in Google Analytics. Think of it like giving credit to a salesman for closing a new client.  In that case you’re attributing the sale to one particular salesman.  The same thing happens online when a Goal is completed in Google Analytics.  The program must attribute the sale to the correct source of traffic (i.e. SEO, AdWords, Facebook referral, etc.).
 
This sounds simple until you think about the typical person surfing around online.
 
Let’s say I do a search in Google and click on one of your ads, which brings me to your website.  I read all about your amazing widget and how I would be insane if I didn’t purchase right now.  Then I leave your website. :)
 
I do a little more research into your company, I read some reviews, and find an online press release or two.  Finally, I search in Google again, but this time I use your company name, and I click on the non-paid result (the organic SEO result).  I’m already sold so I quickly make a purchase.
 
In that example, how do you think Google Analytics will handle attribution?  Does the AdWords ad get credit for the sale?  That’s how I originally found your site so that seems like a logical answer.  Or does the non-paid, organic result get credit because that’s the last action I took before purchasing?  Or do both get credit?
 
Take a guess if you’re not sure before reading on.  Don’t cheat. :)
 

How Google Analytics Handles Attribution

By default, Google Analytics uses what’s called “last click” attribution.  That means in my example, the conversion will show up as coming from the non-paid, organic search.  So it’ll look like revenue from SEO, not from the AdWords ad that originally brought me to the site!
 
Ah ha! See why I said this was a critical topic.  All this time you may have been misinterpreting your reports in Google Analytics.  Just because you’re getting all of your leads and/or sales from organic traffic, doesn’t mean your advertising is not performing.  It could be simply a case of mistaken attribution.
 
To make this even more complicated, I need to warn you that Google AdWords reporting uses “first click” attribution. That means in my example, when you run the report in Google AdWords, the sale would be attributed to the keyword and ad that was first clicked on.  So you’ll see the sale in AdWords and you’ll see the same sale in Analytics, but Analytics will be telling you the sale was generated from SEO!
uh oh… which program, Adwords or Analytics, should you trust?
 

Which Attribution Model Is Best For Your Business?

The short answer to my question above is that it depends on your business.  If most of your leads and sales are generated quickly upon the first visit, then “last click” attribution is most likely fine for you.  If you have a longer sales cycle and you know people shop around before making a purchase or contacting you, then first click might be best.  The good news is that earlier this year Google Analytics gave us the ability to report on conversions, or Goals, using 7 different attribution models.  They even let you create custom models if you really want to go nuts.  For the record, I do not recommend going nuts… Stick with the basic models.
 
To see this in action, log into your Google Analytics account and go to Conversions in the left navigation.  Then click on Attribution and then Model Comparison Tool.  You’ll see a report like the one below where you can compare different models.
 

 
I also recommend you review the Multi-Channel Funnels while you’re in the Conversions section of Google Analytics.  The most interesting reports are:

• “Time Lag” to see how many days it takes for prospects to convert.  This is where you can see if the majority of your conversions happen on the first day, or if it usually takes longer.
• “Top Conversion Paths” to see the full path to conversions.  In my previous example, this report would show “Paid Search” led to the “Organic Search” which then generated the sale.  So rather than rely on one single attribution model, you can see the entire sales path.

OK, that’s probably more than enough Google Analytics reporting info for one day.  The key takeaway is to always be aware of how Google Analytics (or any other tool you use) is attributing conversions in your reports.  And if you’re receiving reports from a marketing company, then make sure it’s clear how their tool is handling attribution.  Different attribution models can show vastly different results, which can lead to vastly different decisions about where to focus your marketing budget.

Is Your Website "Over-Optimized"?

If your website is “over-optimized” then your Google rankings will suffer.  Use today’s article as a 4-point checklist to ensure you’re not sabotaging your rankings using overly aggressive SEO tactics.

4 Spammy SEO Mistakes to Avoid

 

Many businesses are so eager to get ranked in Google that they over-do it. They use aggressive SEO techniques that ultimately backfire, pushing their website further and further down the rankings…
 
It reminds me of the guy who is trying so hard to impress a girl that he ends up doing the complete opposite – she runs away.  When you over-do it with Google, she’ll push you away as well!
 
So, in today’s article, I’m going to walk you through 4 “over-optimization” mistakes to avoid to ensure you don’t get pushed away by Google.
 

1. Stuffing Keywords into Page Titles

Google looks at the title of every page, and it helps to tell Google what your page is about. Your titles have a major impact on how your pages will rank in Google.
 
In case you’re not familiar, your title is part of the code of each page. It’s actually not visible on the webpage itself, but if you open up a browser, in the upper left-hand corner of that browser, you’ll see the title of the page.
 
Because of the weight Google puts on titles, a lot of people try to force their keywords repetitively in the title. I see this mistake very often when I’m reviewing websites.
 
Back in the day, this type of keyword stuffing could improve your search engine rankings. But these days, that tactic does not work as well. Instead, it can be counter-productive.
 
It’s important to include your keyword in the title, but if you repeat your keywords a lot or include lots of different variations unnaturally, that can actually hurt your search engine rankings because Google will see that as manipulative.
 
And here’s another way that stuffing your titles with keywords can backfire…
 
The title is actually what shows up in the search results – it’s the blue under-lined link in Google’s search results. And if you’ve just put a lot of keywords as the title, then when somebody does search, and your website shows up, then that’s going to look pretty spammy.
 
I know, personally, I’m not going to click on that link if it doesn’t look like a legitimate website.
 

2. Forcing Keywords into Your Webpage Copy

The second over-optimization tactic I see all the time is stuffing keywords into the actual webpage copy.
 
Before, I was talking about stuffing keywords into the title. From a website visitor’s standpoint, you could sort of fly under the radar stuffing keywords into your title tag, because most people actually don’t notice that when they’re on your website.
 
But putting keywords directly into the body of the webpage is obviously much more noticeable to your website visitors.
 
If you force keywords into your copy, your website visitors will read unnatural sentences and random keywords stuffed into the content. That looks really spammy, and it can be counter-productive for your ultimate marketing goals.
 
After all, what’s the goal of SEO anyways?
 
It’s not just rankings. And it’s not just traffic either. The ultimate goal of SEO should be to generate leads and sales. And if your website content is spammy, that could really hurt your website conversions.
 
Plus, if you force keywords into your website copy, Google will see that as unnatural and spammy as well. And that can hurt your search engine rankings. So it’s just not a good idea.
 

3. Creating Near-Duplicate Pages Purely For SEO

Imagine you’re a dentist, and you wanted to rank for the keyword phrase “New York City dentist.” You might create a page on your website focused around that keyword phrase, right? Maybe you’d optimize your homepage for that phrase.
 
But then, you might decide you’d also like to rank for a similar phrase like “Manhattan dentist.” And so, maybe you’d create a page for that keyword phrase too.
 
And so on, and so on.
 
Creating those near-duplicate pages used to work OK years ago…
 
But not today.
 
Google has gotten smarter at figuring out that a lot of different keywords are synonyms with the same search intent. And the Hummingbird update improved Google’s abilities even more.
 
You don’t need to have two different pages for New York City dentist and Manhattan dentist because Google understands that’s the same search, so they’ll display the same results for that.
 
Instead of creating near-duplicate pages for different synonyms, you should group your keywords into topics, and then create the best page you can for each topic.
 

4. Over-Optimized Anchor Text

When it comes to SEO, you need to build up your website’s authority.
 
And a major factor in your website’s authority is the quantity and quality of links from other websites that are linking to your website. You can basically think of a link from another website as a vote in your favor.
 
Every link to your website has what’s called anchor text, which is the clickable text.  This anchor text helps Google understand what a particular page is about.
 
Again, imagine you’re a dentist based in Manhattan, and you want to get your website ranking at the top of Google for “New York City dentist.”
 
Wouldn’t it be great if lots of websites linked to your website with the anchor text New York City dentist? That would help you reach the top of Google for that phrase.
 
And so, that’s how a lot of companies have approach SEO for years. They would go out and build tons of links with identical or very similar anchor text.
 
When we’re conducting an SEO audit, we’ll take a look at a website’s link profile, and see how many links they have and where they’re coming from, and the anchor text of those links.
 
Often, we find that websites have very highly-concentrated anchor text, with almost all the incoming links containing the same keyword phrases.  Well, this is extremely unlikely to happen naturally!
 
Google knows that, and increasingly, this type of linking has become a big red flag to Google. When Google sees this, they know you are trying to manipulate the search results. As a result, taking this approach with your SEO can do more harm than good over the long-term.
 
Google’s Penguin updates and “unnatural link” penalties are focused on devaluing (or penalizing) these unnatural linking schemes. So you should avoid building links to your website with overly-concentrated anchor text.
 
If you’re in business for the long-term (which I hope you are!), then it makes sense to take a long-term approach to SEO. By avoiding these 4 mistakes, you’ll stay on Google’s good side and protect your rankings for the long-term.
   

Do Not Use Google AdWords Unless...

Do Not Use Google AdWords Unless You Answer ‘Yes’ To These 5 Questions 

If you’ve been following me for a while then you know I love Google AdWords. AdWords search advertising is one of the most targeted forms of advertising because you can show your ads when your prospects are in the act of searching for your product or service.  It doesn’t get much better or easier than that when you’re trying to match your offer to what your prospect is looking for.

 
AdWords also provides excellent reporting and tracking tools to measure return on investment.  Oh and there’s no minimum investment to get started, and you only pay when prospects actually click on your ads… See what I mean? AdWords can be an amazing tool to drive leads and sales for your business.
 

With that said, I’ll be the first to admit that AdWords is NOT right for every business.  Whenever I talk to a business struggling to profit from AdWords, then 9 times out of 10 it’s because they are not following best practices.  However, there are a handful of cases when AdWords is simply not a good fit.  So in this article, I’m going to walk through the 5 questions to answer to make sure AdWords is right for YOUR business.
 

1. Are Your Prospects Searching in Google?

This one should be obvious.  The only way AdWords search advertising is going to work is if your prospects are going to Google.com and searching for your product or service.  If no one is searching for your products or services, then no one is going to see your ads.  That’s pretty straight forward.
 
However, we need to take this one step further.  There are really two types of searches:

1. Searches to do research
2. Searches to do shopping

Since the #1 goal of advertising should be to get customers, we’re primarily concerned with the shoppers.  Researchers will click on ads, but they don’t tend to buy anything.  Keep this in mind as you’re using Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to find out IF (and then what) your prospects are searching in Google.com.
 

2. Do You Have a Compelling Offer?

Assuming your prospects are searching to buy what you have to sell, then the next step is to review the competitive landscape.  How does your offer stack up to all the other ads already showing in Google’s results?  Are you offering the same product or service at the same price?  Is there anything that makes your offer more compelling?  If not, then you’re going to struggle.
 
Think of your offer like the quarterback of a football team.  Even with a roster chock full of superstars, the team is going to struggle with a lousy quarterback.  On the flip side, a superstar quarterback can more than make up for a mediocre roster.  The same is true with AdWords advertising.
 
If you do everything else perfectly, but your offer is weak, then your campaign is most likely not going to work.  However, I’ve personally seen campaigns set up incorrectly, but they were still profitable because the offer was so strong.  So the key action item here is to review the competitors’ ads and offers for all of the keywords you found in the previous step.  Then make sure your offer is more compelling for your prospects.
 

3. Do You Have a Sufficient Test Budget?

Very rarely is an advertising campaign profitable right out the gate.  Usually it takes some tweaking to find the best search keywords, bids, ads, and landing pages.  So it’s best to think of the first couple months as your testing period.  If you can break even, then that’s a win because you’ll be able to optimize the campaign to make it profitable.
 
With that mindset, you need to set aside a test budget.  But how much?  That’s one of the most frequently-asked questions that I receive each month.  How much should you invest in Google AdWords?
 
It’s impossible to answer that question without first completing the keyword research using Google’s Keyword Planner Tool (see section above).  The Keyword Tool will give you the estimated cost per click for each of your target search keywords.  That tells you approximately how much you’ll spend when a prospect clicks on your ad.  Next we can use some basic math.
 
If you expect to convert 1% of your visitors into sales, then you’ll need 100 clicks on your ad to generate a sale.  100 multiplied by the estimated cost per click from the Google Keyword Tool will give you the cost per one sale.  For example, your budget to generate 1 sale from a keyword that costs $5 per click will need to be about $500 (100 clicks x $5 = $500).  Of course, this depends greatly on the estimated conversion rate of 1% so I recommend you calculate a range of budgets using different conversion rates.  This will give you an idea for how much you’ll need to spend to generate just one sale.
 

4. Do You Have a Shot At Being Profitable?

Now that you know how much you’ll need for a test budget, you’ll want to double check the numbers.  Do you have a shot at being profitable with your estimated cost per clicks and conversion rates?  Or are you setting yourself up to lose money even at the highest estimated conversion rates?
 
Unfortunately, this step is often overlooked and it can be painful to realize you have no shot at being profitable after you’ve gone through all the work of setting up and testing your campaign.
 

5. Do You Have Sales Tracking?

The final step is to make sure you have a system to track sales from your AdWords campaign.  The only way you’ll be able to measure success is if you track leads and sales generated directly from AdWords.
 
AdWords provides online tracking to see which keywords and ads are generating e-commerce sales and webform submissions (i.e contact forms).  AdWords also recently released offline conversion tracking that allows businesses to upload sales generated off of the internet.  Plus, I recommend phone call tracking so you can see how many calls were generated from AdWords, and how many of them led to sales.

Is Google AdWords Right for You?

If you can answer ‘Yes’ to all 5 questions above, then for the reasons I listed at the beginning of this article, I highly recommend you set up and test a Google AdWords campaign.  If you were shaking your head ‘No!’ to one or more of the questions, then it’s absolutely critical to get those areas fixed (if possible) before you advertise.  Remember, AdWords can be an amazing advertising tool, but only if you can answer ‘Yes’ to all 5 questions above!