The sampling in your Google Analytics account can be horribly inaccurate, and may dramatically skew the data that you rely on. Does that get your attention? What is data sampling? As defined by Google: “Sampling in Google Analytics (GA) or in any web-analytics software refers to the practise of selecting a subset of data from your website traffic and reporting … Read More
Craft better AdWords ads that result in more clicks
After careful detailed analysis, you’ve picked all the right keywords. Anyone searching for them has to be interested in what you are offering. So why are there so few clicks on any of your ads? How did you setup your ad groups? Creating campaigns with one single ad group packed with keywords and ads is not a good idea. This is … Read More
Decrapifying SEO trends in Google Analytics
When it comes to understanding how your website is performing from an SEO perspective, Google Analytics is an excellent quick and dirty tool. It’s also all too often used incorrectly. Important SEO analytics tip #1: Trends are more important than volumes. And they’re easier to spot. Important SEO analytics tip #2: Short term fluctuations don’t matter. I can’t tell … Read More
Dealing with poor Enhanced Campaign traffic
Now that we’re all being forced into using Enhanced Campaigns, we’re going to need to get used to having less control over who we target and how we target them. If you’ve never targeted mobile devices in the past or you’ve never been happy with their performance, you can block that traffic using the mobile bid adjustment of -100%. There … Read More
A brief interview with Jason Cohen
Over the next few months we’re going to be interviewing some of the more interesting people in our industry. The first of these, Jason Cohen, really needs no introduction, and his list of accomplishments is both extensive and impressive. Most of you will know him as the founder of Smart Bear and WPEngine, and also the writer behind the excellent a smart bear … Read More
Enhanced Campaigns will be attacking
Google Enhanced Campaigns are coming and they will attack your account in July. You need to be prepared and I’m going to help you! The very short history of Enhanced Campaigns. Back around February of this year, Google announced that they were introducing Enhanced Campaigns. Simply put, Enhanced Campaigns remove some of your control over how you target your customers. … Read More
Real-world SEO
You probably know this one: A woodcutter was straining to cut down a tree. A passer-by stopped to watch, and suggested that the woodcutter took a few minutes to sharpen his saw. “If you stop to sharpen your saw, you would cut the trees much faster.” The woodcutter retorted: “Who has time to sharpen their tools? Can’t you see how … Read More
Have a look at your AdWords Geographic data
We all know that the people you target within AdWords are just as important as the keywords you target. At its most basic level, you want to avoid showing your ads to people who can’t purchase what you’re offering. Most AdWords accounts that I have reviewed over the years seem to configure the geographic targeting and never look back. Some … Read More
Find the right keywords
Although money plays an integral part of running an AdWords campaign, you quickly realize that the keywords you choose play a more important roll as to how your campaign’s perform. If you choose the wrong keywords, you may realize that much of it turns into high cost hot air. Using the right keywords, will help ensure that you pay less per click … Read More
Why is Google so mean to SEOs?
I’ve been working with SEO since 1997, and have seen more change over the last two years than the 14 years prior to that. Even if you don’t know the specifics, you’ve probably heard about Penguin and Panda. And in this case, the specifics don’t matter. The majority of Google’s updates have one single purpose: cleaning-up the garbage from the … Read More
