Before we jump into server-side tracking for analytics it is important to understand the state of website tracking up to this point. For simplicity, we are going to use Google Analytics as the tracking tool for this discussion. But, the same ideas apply to virtually every analytics and user tracking tool out there. How site…
Author: steve
Digital marketer with deep experience in paid and organic search engine marketing driven by website analytics.
Website Analytics and Reporting
I’ve been asked what we use for analytics and tracking. The short answer is Google Analytics (like most everyone.) But, I think a better way to think about it is “how do you use your analytics platform?”, whatever it is. We find that we are creating different implementations for our clients, but every implementation has…
Google Ads: Another AI/ML Move To More Data-Driven Automation
As Google continues down the path of AI/ML-driven “everything”, advertisers are left with blind spots. The latest push came when Google announced that last-click attribution will be replaced by data-driven as the default for Google Ads. This, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. What it means to you depends on your program. …
Google Ads Match Types Lack Meaning
As Google continues to push its belief that the Google Ads AI is better at aligning search queries to advertisers’ needs than are advertisers, the Google Ads Match type becomes less meaningful. From phrase match to exact match, Google increasingly serves ads for queries that are not aligned with the goals of the advertisers. This…
Seeing beyond our inner geek. A digital marketers biggest challenge
Sometimes a flyer with big black letters printed on bright yellow paper stuck in a person’s front door handle is the best marketing tool. Okay, I said it. The world doesn’t revolve around digital marketing. Sometimes the best answer is the simplest, most straightforward, non technical approach. This is true on the spectrum of marketing.…
What to do with SEO if You are not an SEO
We get asked questions about SEO all the time… its what we do, so it makes sense. One of the things that come up from people who do not have the budget for a true SEO program is “what can we do to help our pages rank?” Well, one of the biggest things you can…
SEO & Digital Marketing For Business to Business
B2B companies make up the core of our digital marketing clients. Over the years, our B2B clients have recognized that the shift in B2C purchasing is also taking place in B2B. While personal relationships will always be an important part of the B2B landscape, there is a shift to using the internet as a key…
Google Exact Match Changes: Review Your Search Terms Reports
Google Ads, (AdWords) has become a mainstay of most advertising programs, and certainly of most digital advertising programs. Let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to light up a new campaign. But, it’s not so easy to do it well. Then, once running, there are a lot of actions to make a paid search program run…
WordPress and SEO: Its more complicated than you think
Over the past ten years, the cost of launching and keeping a site has decreased considerably. You can easily find hosting plans for less than $10/ month. With WordPress, you can update your site real-time, adding and editing content as frequently as you want. To the casual observer, this is great. To those in the…
Exact Match Will Be Even Less Exact… what you should do
Google Ads will no longer offer Exact Match. Yes, it has not been truly exact for some time, but now, it’s not even close. In the next couple of months, Google will do away with even the appearance of exact match. Google’s AI knows that when someone types in “maroon widget”, they actually mean “red…