GDPR Check 1, 2, 1, 2
Let’s cut to the chase. The GDPR deadline is just four days away, and you may have heard about changes in Google Analytics to ensure compliance. Penalties for non-compliance pack a pretty heavy punch. With the threat of a $4 billion dollar fine hanging over Google’s head, it’s no wonder they’ve decided to implement GDPR-compliant changes.
In this article, Will Critchlow gives us two actions you need to take before the deadline comes into effect:
1. Change your data retention settings in Google Analytics
- Here’s why: Google will delete segmentation data more than two years old. If your website is well over two years old, that means saying goodbye to all of those events and custom dimensions you’ve worked so hard to create.
- Here’s how: in your Google Analytics account, go to Admin > Property settings > Tracking info > Data retention > select “Do not automatically expire” from the drop-down under data retention controls and save.
2. Audit your account for personally identifiable information (PII)
- Here’s why: In short, Google will delete your account if they find PII stored on your account.
- Here’s how: you can search within GA for personally identifying data, review rules in Google Tag Manager or review the code on pages where people are most likely to input personal information (best practice would be to do all three).
Read the full article to learn more.
What Google’s GDPR Compliance Efforts Mean for Your Data: Two Urgent Actions
moz.com | Will Critchlow | May 21, 2018
Bouncing is for bunnies…not your website
Bounce rates are one of the top factors that affect your search engine ranking. An important part of Google’s algorithm is search intent. Say your website lands a first-page rank for a specific search query, but users often click on your page and leave without further interaction. That tells Google that the content on your page or website is not what they intended to search for, and ultimately leads to a lower rank.
Neil Patel’s super in-depth guide on bounce rates can help you figure out what a good bounce rate is for your industry, create and modify page and segment-specific bounce rate reports in Google Analytics, and how to decrease your bounce rate.
Bounce Rate Analytics: How to Measure, Assess, and Audit to Increase Conversions
neilpatel.com | Neil Patel | May 2, 2018
Spam and spiders and trolls, oh my!
Spammers could be trolling your data and wreaking havoc on your website. While not usually an issue for larger, more developed websites, this could pose a serious issue for smaller websites.
Too many visits to your site at once could overload the server and cause your page loading speed to slow — and your bounce rate to spike. This hurts your ranking and your ability to attract and keep real visitors.
Two weeks ago, we shared an article on blocking spam traffic that focused primarily on Google Tag Manager. Well here are six more ways to block spam SEO traffic from within Google Analytics.
6 Ways to Block Spam SEO Traffic in Google Analytics
jeffbullas.com | Jeff Bullas | April 26, 2018
GOOOOOOAAAAAL!
We talk a lot about tracking goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) in Google Analytics, but what’s the difference between the two? They’re often used in the same context, but they’re not the same.
KPIs are the metrics that help us reach a goal, like adding items to a cart, starting a video or contacting an organization. Examples of the ultimate goal, however, can be a sale or a lead submission. In this article, Josh McCoy gives us a beginner-friendly guide on how to create and make the most out of Google Analytics goals.
How to Set up Google Analytics Goals & 7 Tips to Get Ahead
searchenginejournal.com | Josh McCoy | May 17, 2018