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BOUNCE VS EXIT Blog

Google Analytics Bounce Rate vs Exit Rate: The Death Knell of User Engagement

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Let’s compare two valuable metrics in Google Analytics, the bounce rate vs the exit rate. We’ve all had that hopefully non-recurring nightmare where our bounce rate looks like an Olympic ping pong champion and our exit rate implies that someone yelled ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. If I’m losing you already, it might be good to familiarize yourself with the importance of using Google Analytics data to create comprehensive reports on bounce rate, exit rate, and just about every other stitch of information about your customer’s engagement with your website. Maybe check out this article that describes the importance of data reporting. When you get back, we’re going to take a hard and focussed look at just these two important metrics and dive into their meanings as well as the pitfalls and opportunities they each present.

A bounce rate refers to visitors who leave a website from the first page they land on whereas an exit rate is page-specific and refers to a visitor who has visited more than one page and applies to the last page they visited before exiting.

Are Bounce Rate and Exit Rate the Same Thing? 

I’ll keep this simple. Bounce rate and exit rate are not identical metrics, however, they both seem to dance to the same tune (Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles comes to mind). Both of these data sets refer to that miserable moment that one of your visitors decides to up and leave your website without even saying goodbye. In this sense, they are equally disturbing and worth digging into to find out what happened.  

Bounce Rate: The Mysterious Dis.  

Bounce rate is by far the most confounding dismissal. Bounce rate specifically relates to a visitor who makes it to your website (either the home page or a blog post, etc) and leaves without exploring any other page of your site or without interacting with your site in any way.  

For fun, let’s think of a website like a party that needs guests to be successful. Imagine you are back in college and you pass a house party on your walk home. Some late-night revelers on the porch invite you in and you decide to give it a try. Once you walk inside the door, however, you immediately realize that this is not your type of scene and decide to, well, bounce without greeting anyone else in the room. You just leave. Maybe you go to a different house party or maybe you just decide you’re gonna go do something else entirely. Either way, you bounce out of there as if the front door were made of rubber bands. Of course, Google describes it this way “A bounce is a single-page session on your site… such as when a user opens a single page on your site and then exits without triggering any other requests to the Analytics server during that session.”

Let’s take a look at some sample bounce rate data.

BounceRateAnalyticsExample

As you can see above rows 8, 9, 11, and 12 all have very high bounce rates. They are wildly underperforming in this metric whereas hardly anybody bounces from the welcome page and the profile page. You can also note the correlation of how much time people spend on each of these pages and how they relate to the bounce rate. This can sometimes be an indicator of customer engagement and is worth considering where applicable. In the case of row 12, for example, users spend an average of only 9 seconds exploring the consultative approach page.

Bounce rates are problematic because there is so little data on why a visitor left. You are not completely in the dark, however, and a little further down we’ll discuss what to look for when your bounce rate is high.

Exit Rate: Just When Everything Was Going so Well!

Exit rate, as I mentioned earlier, also involves a visitor leaving your website but in this case, you almost convinced them to stay. Let’s rewind the tape of the house party a bit. So, you’ve been invited into the party and you make it through the front door. When you walk into the foyer, you like the music that they’re playing and you even want to talk to some of the people in there. So you stay awhile, you check out the basement scene, maybe even make it to the kitchen to try the appetizers and pizza. All in all, you may be having a great time. At some point though, you encounter a conversation that you are not interested in and decide that you have had enough of the scene and you exit the party.  

Again, Google likes to get a bit more technical about it. “For all pageviews to the page, Exit Rate is the percentage that were the last in the session.” It is important to note that bounce pages are also exit pages in Google’s metric. Since the last page of a user’s session is the exit rate, a bounce may also count as an exit.

Let’s rundown this example of an exit rate data set for 10 pages of a website.

ExitRateAnalyticsExample

As you can see above, if we are analyzing the exit rate for pages other than the landing page, number 3 on the list is far outperforming the rest whereas the 2nd, 5th, and 6th pages are places that visitors decide to leave. We will discuss why that might be a bit later. In this example, the exit rate is a percentage of all the exits divided by all the pageviews for each specific page.

As you may have guessed, the exit rate is an extremely useful data set. Since the visitor came to a page on your website and then continued exploring the site, the exit rate of any given page tells you, in a very tangible way, which pages are prompting people to stop exploring your site. 

Are Exits and Bounces always a Bad Thing?

In some cases, bounces are really just a case of mistaken identity. Maybe someone was in the market to buy a futon and they land on a website that sells only sofas. They realize it is not what they were looking for and so they leave immediately. This would be recorded as a bounce and doesn’t really reflect on the page they landed on in any negative way.  

In other instances, a bounce could be the result of a benign activity. The person goes to the website, realizes they aren’t ready to take action, and they leave. This is also not the fault of any page that they landed on. 

When it comes to exits, some of the same examples apply. Additionally, with an exit at least the visitor stuck around the website for a period of time and engaged with it in some meaningful way. It’s possible that they found the information they were looking for on the page that they eventually exit from. In that situation, the visitor was well served by the site and left at a logical point in their journey.  

A checkout page, for example, is a common exit page. Once the visitor purchases goods or services and checks out, it is natural for them to leave the site at that time.

When we set those outliers aside, however, we can begin to see the usefulness of these data sets as they pertain to the performance of individual pages and the overall level of engagement with the content of the website. 

What is a reasonable bounce rate for my site?

Let’s face it, because of the reasons I mentioned a moment ago, you are going to have people bounce from your site. There will never be a 0% bounce rate and if there is, you would be the most successful webmaster that has ever lived. According to RocketFuel, “a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average. 56 to 70 percent is higher than average”.

As you can see, bouncing is common behavior for web visitors. So don’t despair if half the people who find you leave immediately. The internet is fairly impersonal that way.  

How to Solve a High Bounce Rate

The reason the bounce rate data is compelling, however, lies in the fact that webmasters can use analytics to discover which pages people are landing on that they bounce away from. If people are bouncing from your landing page, for example, you should take a good hard look at how you’ve structured your content there.  

Ask yourself hard questions.  

  • Is the content relevant to what people are searching for when they find me?  
  • Have I presented the information in a visually compelling and aesthetically pleasing way?  
  • Are there pertinent links to more information?
  • If it’s a sales page, is there a call to action?
  • Are you distracting the visitor with unnecessary pop-ups?

Unless it’s directly relevant to what you are selling or saying, don’t weigh the reader down with your company history on the landing page. Answer their queries simply and beautifully. They found you because they were looking for something. Make sure that your content is giving them what they want in the best way that you can.  

If they are bouncing from a blog post or a product page, apply the same rule there as well. Spruce the page up, focus on the answer they are seeking, lead them to other areas of your site, keep calm and carry on.  

What is a reasonable Exit Rate for a Page?

This is a trickier question to answer. The reason for that is because it completely depends on the purpose of that particular page. As we discussed earlier, some pages are natural exits. In this case, it is better to consider the purpose of each page.  

Pages with similar functions (i.e. blog post pages all serve the function of providing information to the visitor whereas sales pages all provide a call to action for the visitor) should be examined side by side. From that standpoint, the page in the group with the highest exit rate should be compared to the pages with the lowest exit rate to glean insights into what may be pushing the visitor away.

Again, don’t be discouraged. This process is one of experimentation and flexibility. Don’t be overly possessive of your content if it is underperforming. Be agile and able to meet the needs of your visitor on each and every page of your website. 

Using Analytics to Solve Exit Rate Problem Pages

Pages with higher exit rates than others can be very revealing. In many cases, the visitor has gone through at least one other page on your site. In Google Analytics, you have access to every page’s exit rate. Take a moment to reflect deeply on the pages that are performing the worst in this metric

The basic questions that you asked yourself about bounce rates apply equally to these pages. Consume the content on these pages from the point of view of someone who has found some of what they were looking for on your site, but then came to a certain page and decided they’d had enough.  

Is the content something that they should naturally walk away from or can you improve the look, the style, and the message on this page? Is there enough visual stimulation to create an effective message without boring them to leave. In many cases, when you examine these problem pages, you will see something that puts you off for one reason or another.  

Here are a few things to consider about a page with higher exit rates:

  • Does the page answer a question that the visitor searched for (keyword research is vital here)
  • Are there graphics, videos, or images to help explain the message?
  • Is the information organized with headings, subheadings, and bullet points? (Make sure you are using the proper H1 and H2 tags)
  • Is there a call to action for the visitor to answer? 
  • Is the writing grammatically accurate and written in an accessible format?

Bounce Past the Exits

The most important thing to remember is that bounce rates and exit rates are not roadblocks. They are opportunities to better understand what your visitors are looking for and how to best serve their needs. This is the direction the internet (and search engines) have been going for the past several years. Content is not just decoration around your product line, it is the road map to higher sales and profound customer engagement.  

Take a look at your analytics and examine the performance of every page on your website until you understand the bottlenecks and free-flows. Then adapt, experiment, and grow. I look forward to visiting your party and sticking around for the lively conversation I find. See you on the first page of Google!

 

  

Apis Productions Social Media Strategies 2020 Blog

Social Media Strategies to Look for in 2020

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Social media has changed the way we buy, sell, consume, and interact with brands, people, and products. Social media marketing is an industry that is not slowing down for growth or opportunity. However, social media marketing is always changing. What can we expect next in 2020?

The key to social media success is staying ahead of trends. This seems overwhelming when talking about one of the most rapidly advancing industries in our digital ecosystem, but the reward of implementing even one of these social media marketing strategies into your goals for 2020 will put you in good place to capitalize on social media in the future. 

Social Media Contests Add More Value than Just Followers

For years, running a contest on social media has been one of the most effective ways to attract new audiences. The initial strategy behind social media contests was to gain followers quickly on whichever social network the contest ran.

Now, approaching 2020, the way brands are interacting with their audiences has changed. Marketers are using this strategy to focus on engaging and connecting with social media users. 

Other benefits of running a social media contest include: 

  • Turning existing followers into a community
  • Attracting new followers
  • Raising brand remembrance
  • Getting audience feedback 

Along with the shift in how we interact with our audiences online, brands are now focusing more on what their audience values. In order to get value from running a contest on social media, you need to know what your audience values, and offer incentive that aligns with those qualities. 

Your social media contest should cater to your target audience and make sense for your brand. This strategy can be more challenging for publishers who don’t actually sell a product but still want to utilize social media contests to engage with their audience or generate traffic.

Ikea can reward contestants with furniture and Taco Bell can give away a lifetime supply of tacos; but publishers, bloggers, and website owners need to focus their incentive on providing things their specific audience finds importance in. 

ikea example social media Apis Productions

Taco Bell Example Social Media

By building your incentive around something your target audience values, and that aligns with your brand, you can avoid the fluke of strictly gaining followers fast for the sake of winning the contest, only for them to remain unengaged and eventually unfollow after a short period of time. 

Not having a consumer product to offer as a reward for contests actually help brands get more creative with their social media contest and create something audiences can interact with. In the past, major publications have held contests where readers can submit their own written or artistic pieces for a prize; in addition to the prize, the winner(s) get to feature their work on that publisher’s website. Not only is this contest interactive and engaging, the publisher and the contestant both reach a new audience.

Your call-to-action for your social media contest can be as simple or creative as you decide, depending on the value of your reward. Social Media contest call-to-actions can be: 

  • Follow to enter
  • Like to enter
  • Comment to enter
  • Tag a friend
  • Take a quiz
  • Share or repost
  • Vote to enter
  • Use a hashtag
  • Create a new logo
  • Share your own questionnaire

The Rise of Video Content Isn’t Approaching—It’s Here

Surely you’re already aware of the growing popularity of video content. It began with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and has escalated to features like IGTV and TikTok. Let’s not forget about YouTube and its dominance of internet video.

Living in a visual generation, video content has taken the internet by storm and swept social media up with it. In 2020, expect more marketers to leverage this as a social media marketing strategy.

Video 2020

Every social media network offers some type of video-sharing feature. Video content on social media is becoming more impactful to marketing trends because it is one of the most direct ways to engage with users online.

Take a look at TikTok. With TikTok’s quick-growing popularity, marketers and advertisers are directing more of their spending budgets to the app. Remember Vine? The video-sharing platform that was a hit with the young? Despite the platform reaching an untimely demise in 2017, the popularity of short-form videos continued to live on. Now, TikTok is in the front row of it all.

TicTock 2020

Don’t Undermine LinkedIn: Learn About Their New Features

LinkedIn has been rolling out a lot of new underrated features that can help marketers amplify engagement and make the most out of the platform.

While there isn’t an optimal zone for visuals on LinkedIn profiles and company pages, you need to make the most out of the space you do have to create a visually-engaging profile. You can do this through new and existing LinkedIn features that enable you to optimize for: 

1. Banners 
2. Call-To-Action Button 
3. Long-form posts 

Banners 

It’s always a bad social strategy to have a banner-less LinkedIn page – displaying the default blue background. If you want to stay ahead of future social media trends to grow your brand or business, use that space to your advantage by turning it into a campaign-style image(s). 

Apis Productions' LinkedIn Banner Example

Call-To-Action Button

Another new feature LinkedIn offers is CTA (Call-To-Action) buttons that drive traffic to your website. You can leverage this feature to send leads to your blog, sign-up page, registration page, or whatever landing page is most relevant to your business.

Linkedin Call to Action

Long-Form Posts

LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes long-form posts because they are more engaging for the LinkedIn platform. Try to create LinkedIn posts that consist of 700 characters. This includes hashtags, emoji’s, and mentions. If you include all of these elements, LinkedIn is more likely to drive visibility to that post. 

Will there be Augmented Reality for Social Media?

Augmented reality (not to be confused with virtual reality) can take the world, live through a user’s mobile camera, and project computer-generated augmentations that are meant to enhance audience engagement. 

Snapchat has opened the door for AR technologies in social media. Brands can create augmentations featured on Snapchat that appear as “filters” where elements are added to a user’s selfie camera. This has turned into quite a popular campaign strategy for many major brands. 

Snapchat example 2020

As we move into 2020, expect to see other social networks embracing AR on their platforms. Facebook recently introduced a Facebook AR Studio, a user-friendly studio that marketers staying ahead of trends can use to easily create rich AR experiences. 

As AR continues to normalize on social media expect to see brands using AR to speed up purchase paths through virtual try-on and even virtual stores, interactive AR at live events, and more. 

Finding cool ways to engage your website or brand audience with these new and emerging tools offers a big opportunity to grow in popularity very quickly if you can be the first to innovate or tap into these new trends.

Finally, and Above All, Being Relatable on Social Media is What Sets Brands Apart.

Social media has a dramatic impact on the constant spread of information, and it must be relatable.
To be a successful social media marketer, you want to build an audience of loyal users who trust your brand or business to be transparent, authentic, and relatable. In 2020, ensure that your social media strategy follows these guidelines and your audience loyalty will follow. 

At Apis Productions, we are dedicated to providing you with a hive of solutions that work for you including video marketing and social media management.If you need more advanced methods with your video marketing strategy or video creation, reach out to us! For more information, visit this link.

To find out about diverse social media packages, visit this link.

We’re here to help!




Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2019-2020 Core Colors

Pantone Autumn/Winter 2019/2020 Color Palette

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Sometimes, a little inspiration from the experts of color can help guide you in a new direction.

Published for the fashion industry by the Pantone Color Institute, this season’s report features the top 12 stand-out colors, as well as current takes on the four classic neutrals we can expect to see from fashion designers on the runway as they introduce their new autumn/winter collections.

Colors for autumn/winter 2019/20 reflect an emergence of confidence; bold and strong, a visceral palette of colors that are relatable yet display some clever tweaks for the winter season. Expressing our wide-ranging acceptance of color, combinations for Autumn/Winter 2019/2020 suggest a thirst for liberation and a desire to realize our own individualized unique identities.

“Colors for Autumn/Winter 2019-2020 range from easy and sophisticated to strikingly different and unique,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute. “This palette of versatile hues builds a sense of empowerment and confidence, enabling the wearer to choose the colors that best reflect his or her mood and persona.”

About the Autumn/Winter 2019/2020 NYFW Color Palette:

Visceral hues coupled with seasonal core shades create a versatile palette inclusive of the following:

Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2019-2020 1

Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2019-2020 2

Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2019-2020 3

About the Autumn/Winter 2019/2020 Classics:

This season’s core shades are strong enough to stand alone or work equally well as a foundation for distinguishing color contrasts.

Pantone Colors Fall Winter 2019-2020 Core Colors

source: Pantone.com

Apis Productions Psychology of Color

Psychology of Color and Branding

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Colors are everywhere. They can affect our perceptions and the way we react to the world around us. Our brains respond to specific colors differently, and this can influence our mood, behavior and decision-making.

In the world of business and marketing, color psychology plays an important role that goes beyond perception.

The psychology of color has the power to increase conversion rates and establish brand identity. When it comes to branding, the right choice of color can help a brand to stand out from a highly competitive market. Take a look at some of the ways that brands have benefited from implementing color psychology.

Forging a Visual Identity

It is apparent in the way many prominent and popular brands use color to make themselves distinguishable — think about Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, or PayPal.

Each of them has distinct colors that define their brand and sets them apart from their competitors. It is not as easy as it may seem since branding takes more than just picking the brightest and boldest color in the hopes of grabbing the attention of your target market. There is more complex logic behind making good color choices.

Red is the color of excitement, so it is understandably a common choice in food, technology, and transport industries.

Psychology of color brands red

Blue, on the other hand, can communicate security and trust, which is why it is popular in the health care, finance, and energy sectors.

Psychology of color brands Blue

Attracting Your Target Audience

Brands can make use of color to appeal to specific audiences. People react differently to colors; some prefer white and abhor red while others always fall for blue and avoid yellow. Color preferences can be influenced by gender, age and cultural background.

Generally, soft colors like pink and turquoise are attractive to most women. Men choose bolder colors such as blue, green, and black. When it comes to age, bright colors appeal to young audiences while the older generation prefers cooler shades.

Branding is a tricky aspect of marketing. It requires careful consideration of important elements that can make or break your identity. Discover more about the use of color psychology for improving your brand and winning more customers in the info-graphic below.

color-psychology-branding-marketing

Apis Productions Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence: The Wisdom of the Weekly Report

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The business that masters where it has been, is the master of where it will be. A solid business intelligence architecture is the keystone of market success. Today’s world teems with opportunities for any company that wishes to enhance their customers’ experience and expand their marketing footprint towards an even larger audience. While technology dramatically alters the landscape for business owners, it also compliments the core tenet of the most successful enterprises. Know your customer.

Apis Productions Data Collection Then and Now

Data Collection: Then and Now

It wasn’t so long ago that the extent of data that businesses would collect on their customers was limited to what and when they purchased a product or service. Brick and mortars collected personal data in the form of actually meeting their customers day in and day out. Back then, knowing the needs and behaviors of a customer meant literally observing them. While these were friendly times, the ability to share and analyze most of this information was scant.

Today, our online business marketplace allows for an overwhelming amount of information to be processed by marketers and specialists all in the name of knowing your customer. Like spokes in a wheel, every company has data coming in from different sources. From sales to pageviews, email marketing campaigns to Adword and social media campaigns, you’d have to keep your head on a swivel to organize it in real-time. Fortunately, we can keep our eye on the prize and let the tech swivel for us.

Consistent reporting makes any company more productive. Google Analytics alone is used by more than 4 million businesses today with the majority being companies that employ 10-50 people. Competing, from a data perspective, is all about the right tools. So how do we get all this information into one centralized location?

Apis Productions Google Data Studio

The Hub and the Spoke: Making the Wheel Go ‘Round

There is a way to set yourself up for success when it comes to productive data analysis. While many of the tools are free, setting them up in the most efficient manner takes time and planning. With all the free products offered by Google, an easy set up begins with a Google account. Here are some of their essential tools that you should have in your business intelligence arsenal.

  1. Google Account (spoke)

  2. Google Analytics (spoke)

  3. Google Search Console (spoke)

  4. Google Data Studio (hub)

The best report is one in which all the data comes together in a central expression that tells a compelling story. The report is the hub that ties all your data to your core business. The best reports are concise, accurate, and easy to understand at a glance. With tools such as Google Data Studio, we can now bring all that data together in one place to make precise, custom-tailored reports. Let’s look at some examples!

Apis Productions Data Chart

Apis Productions Data Chart

The 3 Second Rule

When you look at a report you should be able to stare at one element and understand what it means in 3 seconds. This is why graphics like charts, pie graphs, heat maps etc. are so useful. Data should be presented without the need to explain it. Not only does this practice make for a more beautiful document, it also allows each member of your team to get on the same page quickly.

Know what Data you want to Collect

Here are some key fluid metrics to consider.

  • Users – How many people are visiting your website every week?

  • Sessions – How many of those users returned?

  • Session Duration – How long are people engaging with your site?

  • Bounce Rate – How many people leave after visiting only one page of your site?

  • AdWord Clicks – How many people have clicked on your google ad?

  • Email Campaigns – Which campaigns received the most click-throughs?

  • Geography – Where in the country and the world are your visitors from?

  • Channels – Are your visitors coming from Facebook? Or from organic search?

  • Devices – Are your visitors finding you on their phones, desktops, or tablets?

  • Revenue – How much money did your customers spend and what did they buy?

This is far from a comprehensive list as it is possible to connect spreadsheets of just about any data to your report. This means that any software you currently use that export data as a csv file can be shared with your centralized report and sent to your inbox on schedule. Let’s talk about that for a moment.

Scheduling Weekly and Monthly Reports

Gone are the days of compiling all your spreadsheets to manually create a status report for your business. The ability to compile information from all these sources is a remarkable convenience in and of itself. The fact that you can have these reports self-update in real-time means that when they are scheduled to go out to everyone on your team, the new data will reflect the current status without you ever having to tell it to.

While your Google Analytics continues to track user events on your website the report remains current. After you save new data into a running spreadsheet, the report remains current. When an email in your campaign is opened, the report remains current. Boom. Your weekly and monthly reports have been automated. Obviously, this saves an enormous amount of time and effort. Now you can focus on the story the data is telling you so that you are prepared for your next update meeting.

Data Analytics Steers the Ship

Data about our business, clients, and customers come from every angle. Some of the information is important and some of it may seem irrelevant. (although, if you think about it long enough, then it all becomes consequential) It’s one thing to know if clients are visiting your services page on your website and quite another thing to know how long they stuck around once they got there. Keeping your customer engaged is proof that you are addressing their needs.

Once you have all of this information, the story begins to tell itself. Where do your company’s goals resonate with your customers’ needs? Where can you be more articulate in your commercial offerings and where are you being too verbose? The answers to these questions always hide in the data. With solid, visual reporting, however, they will emerge from the informational morass and point your team in the right direction.

Customer data really does steer the ship. It allows you to promote and capitalize on the most popular products and services and gives you the information you need to know which ones to ditch or incentivize further. From a website perspective, it allows you to better hone your messaging on pages that are underperforming. It helps you meet the needs of your clients in the most engaging manner. Analytics provides a running scorecard that tells you exactly where you are and where the trend is heading. This is how you avoid the iceberg and sail into more favorable seas.

Use Analytics to Define Your Goals

Once you have your first comprehensive report, you can use this information to set goals for every aspect of your business that you are tracking. Some of the tools mentioned earlier can help with this task. In Google Analytics, for example, your web team can create, set, and track goals concerning how your customer is interacting with your site. For example, you could tell Analytics to record the number of times somebody on your website clicks from one page to another, how often they leave their shopping cart with unpaid items still in it, or whether or not they read your services page. If you are running a promotion, you can track how successful you were at getting customers to click on the banner to check it out.

You can probably see by now that the flexibility of this information system will require some prudence on your part. You want to hone in on what data matters most without leaving any stone unturned. Spending time in the set-up phase asking the right questions will result in better and simpler reporting down the road. After a few reports, and a few tweaks, you’ll have a consistent and reliable weekly report that sheds light on the most important aspects of your business.

Apis Productions Business Intelligence

One Report, Endless Opportunities for Growth

In conclusion, the ability to compile a fresh, easy to understand report on a regular basis will help you steer your business toward a path of consistent growth and impeccable customer engagement. With the right tools and the right team beside you, your compass will always guide you towards a path of success.

Google Search Console Analytics

Google Search Console: Part Two – Analytics

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In part one of our blog relating to the Google Search Console, we showed you how to set up GSC and verify your website. Now, let’s see how to connect Google Search Console to your Google Analytics.

The Google Search Console reports in Analytics provide information about the performance of your organic-search traffic. You can see data like user queries and the number of times your site URLs appear in search results (impressions), along with post-click data about site engagement like bounce rate and e-commerce conversion rate. This combination of data helps you optimize your site for the most profitable traffic.

Before you can see the Search Console reports, you need to:

Add your site and verify it with Search Console.
If you have not yet used Search Console, you need to add your site to Search Console to begin collecting search-query data for the SEO reports in Analytics.
Configure SEO reporting within Analytics.

To see the reports:

Assuming you already have a Google Analytics account, sign into your Google Analytics account, and select the website in your list that you want to connect with your Search Console account. If you don’t have a Google Analtyics account, get one!

Click Admin in the bottom left side.

Navigate-to-the-Admin-Area-of-GA

In the Property column, click “All Products” under the Property Column.

Click-All-Products-in-GA

Then click Add.

add-search-console-settings-connection-to-GA

You can now see the websites in your list. Remember, the URL in the setting for Both Google Search Console and Google Analytics need to be identical.

link-your-GA-site-to-GSC

Select the property with the identical URL and click Save. (You might need to navigate to the Google Analytics, or Google Search console settings to confirm that the URLs are identical.)

your-site-settings-need-to-be-identical

And then click OK.

Now you can access your search console reports under the Acquisition » Search Console » Queries:

Search-Console-Google-Analytics

Based on what types of information you want to view or track, you can choose which reports to view. For an in-depth article how to go about this, see our blog post Track Those Visitors.

Google Search Console Part 1 Apis Productions

Google Search Console: Part One – Setup

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Since Google is the number one search engine in the world, you naturally want to rank high in their SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

What is Google Search Console (GSC)?

Google Search Console (GSC) tells you everything that you wish to know about your website and the people who visit it daily. For example, how much web traffic you’re attracting, what are people searching for in your site, the kind of platform (mobile, app, desktop) people are using to find you, and more importantly, what makes your site popular.

Who should use Google Search Console?

Anyone with a website! From generalist to specialist, from newbie to advanced, GSC can help you.

Business owners: Even if you won’t be using GSC yourself, you should be aware of it, become familiar with the basics of optimizing your site for search engines, and know what features are available in Google Search.
SEO specialists or marketers: As someone focused on online marketing, GSC will help you monitor your website traffic, optimize your ranking, and make informed decisions about the appearance of your site’s search results. You can use the information in GSC to influence technical decisions for the website and do sophisticated marketing analysis in conjunction with other Google tools like Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Ads.
Site administrators: As a site admin, you care about the healthy operation of your site. GSC lets you easily monitor and in some cases resolve server errors, site load issues, and security issues like hacking and malware. You can also use it to ensure any site maintenance or adjustments you make happen smoothly with respect to search performance.
Web developers: If you are creating the actual markup and/or code for your site, GSC helps you monitor and resolve common issues with markup, such as errors in structured data.

GSC offers tools and reports for the following actions:

  • Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.
  • Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.
  • View Google Search traffic data for your site: how often your site appears in Google Search, which search queries show your site, how often searchers click through for those queries, and more.
  • Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.
  • Show you which sites link to your website.
  • Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.

How to Use Google Search Console

If you already have a Google account, great! If you don’t, get one. Head on over to the Google Search Console page and sign in.

Now, take a look at these steps and learn how to set up Google Search Console:

Step 1: Add a Search Console Property
Before you can start using Google Search Console you have to add something to track.

Google calls this a property and it can be either a website or an Android app. For this tutorial, we’ll be working with websites.

Click the “Add a property” button near the top of the homepage. Choose “Website”, then type in the name of the property (URL) and click the Add button.

google-search-console-1

Step 2: Verify Ownership

Google needs to make sure you actually own the website you’re trying to set up. You’ll be presented with a few possible methods for this step. The easiest way is with Google Analytics, assuming you have that set up on your site. If you need help with any portion of this step, give us a shout. We’ll be happy to help!

Search_Console_2

If you can’t do it that way and you’re not tech-savvy, the easiest way is probably to choose the HTML tag method. 

Search_Console-3

After selecting the HTML tag option, copy the meta tag provided, then paste it in your SEO plugin in WordPress. We’ve used YOAST as an example. It looks something like this:

Search_Console-6

Click “Save changes”

Next go back to Webmaster Tools and click “Verify.” You should have a confirmation message of a successful verification.

In our next part of the Google Search Console series, we’ll go over sitemaps as well as how to integrate your Google Search Console into Google Analytics so they talk to each other.

 

Google My Business Apis

Take Your Google My Business Listing to the Next Level

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In our last post, we told you about a free platform called Google My Business (GMB). To review some of the basics, check out our article here. 

Make sure you have added all the primary profile elements of your GMB listing (address, business hours, phone number and website address) and then take some time to enhance your listings with photos and a brief description of your business. You can make all those edits and additions from the Info section in your profile. 

GMB Info Section

Now, let’s take your listing to the next level!

Posts

Google My Business (GMB) posts show up in your business’s Knowledge Panel (the right section of a search engine results page on a desktop view or often the top of a mobile view). You can use a Google My Business post to promote your next event, to share information about your latest sale or to cross-promote your most recent blog, just to name a few ideas. There is a seven-day lifespan on GMB posts except for a live event promotion, which will get automatically pulled once your event ends. Space in a GMB post is limited to just 300 words, so make sure you have a clear call-to-action and a catchy headline, and include an eye-catching image to increase your click-through rate. Google My Business Posts

Read more about GMB posts on the official Google page here.

Insights

The insights section of Google My Business shows you how people are finding your business online and provides you with analytics about your listing. There’s some really interesting data here so make sure to check it out. You can see exactly what queries people type into Google to arrive at your listing. You can also see whether your customers used regular Google search to arrive at your GMB listing or if they searched via Google Maps to find your GMB listing.

You can also drill down and see what actions people took on your Google My Business listing such as a visit to your website, a request for directions and calls to your business. Once you see the calls and visits coming directly to your business via your Google My Business, you will be more motivated to enhance your listing! Note: To be able to track activity on your Google My Listing entry within your Google Analytics account, use UTM tracking.

GMB Insights

Reviews

As we all can attest to, reviews are a crucial factor in determining whether we will trust and try out a new business. Multiple platforms and websites are dedicated to eliciting reviews from customers and publishing them online. Google is one of the primary players in the review market, and they have created a set of recommendations for replying to reviews. You can access those here. 

Timeliness is key in responding to reviews. You can set up an email alert to be triggered whenever someone submits a review via your Google My Business listing.

Questions & Answers

In 2018, Google added a Q&A section to GMB listings. Customers can post direct questions about your business and services. Again, you can stay ahead of the conversation and set up to receive an email notification when someone posts a question about your business. Make sure you are getting those notifications by checking in your Settings section. You and your team should reply to questions as quickly as possible.

Messaging

People looking up your company on Google can now directly text you via the GMB app. Once you download the app, you’ll be able to message with customers who are actively viewing your listing. Read more about messaging here.

Bookings

If you operate a business that uses an online booking platform, you may benefit from integrating that platform with GMB’s bookings tool. People typically want to be able to take an action right from the spot on the web where they find info about your business. Read more about how to integrate your booking tool with GMB.

social google places Blog

Keep Your Business Info Up-To-Date

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If you haven’t claimed and verified your business, get started with this link.

Update your business information

When information about your business changes, update it with Google My Business. Keeping your account up-to-date makes sure that Google has the most accurate information to share with potential customers. In some cases, Google may not accept changes if they believe they’re inaccurate.

Here are the types of business information that you can update with Google My Business:

  • Business hours
  • Physical address (If you change your address, you’ll need to complete the verification process again to confirm the new address.)
  • Phone number
  • Category (What kind of business do you run?)
  • Website

You can also add new businesses to Google My Business. 

Add owners and managers to share responsibility

By adding owners and managers to your Google My Business listing, you can delegate responsibility to other members of your staff while keeping ownership of the page.

There are 3 kinds of users:

  • Owners: listing owners have the widest set of privileges and access, and can make high-level administrative decisions like adding other owners and managers or removing the listing from their account. 

  • Manager: a manager can do most of what an owner can do, like edit business information, manage Hangouts (which let you hold video calls with customers), and view Insights about how many people are viewing and interacting with your listing. You might make a trusted staff member a manager of your listing to help keep your information and web presence up-to-date.

  • Site manager: a site manager can interact with customers on behalf of your listing by posting pictures and responding to reviews. Friendly, tech-savvy members of your staff might make good site managers.

A site manager sign-up link can be found in the Business Profile of claimed chain locations on Maps and Search. New users who sign up for Google My Business, as well as existing users who try to access claimed chain listings, can verify as a site manager. The sign-up link makes it easier for franchise owners and store managers to manage listings for locations they own or operate.

Site managers will be verified by Google to make sure their profile data is accurate. Owners can still manage user access through their Google My Business accounts.

When signed in to Google My Business, a site manager can request to upgrade to listing manager or owner of a verified listing. The listing owner can approve or deny the request.

You can remove owners and managers at any time. Learn more about owners and managers

Source: Google

 

 

 

apis blog cta

Call-to-Action Examples that Really Work

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source: HubSpot

Think about all the times you’ve signed up for things in your life. Did you once download Evernote? Dropbox? Spotify? Maybe you’ve even taken a class on General Assembly. Each one of these signups is likely a result of an effective call-to-action (CTA). It’s really important to guide your visitors through the buying journey using strategic CTAs.

Think about it: If you hadn’t been drawn in by the copy or design of the CTA, or been guided so eloquently through your sign-up process, you would probably use a lot fewer apps and websites than you do now.

Here are a few different actions an audience can get called to carry out:

Sign up.
In this type of CTA, the audience might be invited to sign up for a free trial, an online course, a future event, or even a software product. It all depends on the CTAs context on an ad or website.

Subscribe.
This CTA doesn’t commit a person to a purchase. Rather, it invites them to receive updates from the company. “Subscribe” CTAs are common to company blogs, for which the business wants to develop a readership.

Try for free.
Nearly every company website has a free trial offer today. Each of them are CTAs of this variety, and they allow people to demo a product before deciding if it’s worth the cost to them.

Get started.
This CTA can drive a variety of behaviors for a company, from a free trial to virtual reality experience.

Learn more.
Sometimes, all you want is to give your potential customers a little more information so they’re prepared to buy something. That’s what this CTA is for.

Join us.
Do you manage an online community. Is your product built on collaboration between users? You might find yourself placing “join us” CTA somewhere on your website.

The above types of CTA all serve a designated purpose, but keep in mind the language they use can vary. And today, marketers everywhere have put some creative spins on their calls to action to generate the leads their businesses depend on.

These call-to-action examples are broken out into three categories:

  • Simple and effective CTAs
  • CTAs with great call-to-action phrases
  • CTAs that balance multiple buttons on one page

1. Evernote
CTA Button: Sign Up
“Remember Everything.” Visitors can immediately understand that message the moment they land on this page. The design on Evernote’s website makes it super simple for users to see quick benefits of using the app and how to actually sign up to use it. Plus, the green color of the main and secondary CTA buttons is the same green as the headline and the Evernote logo, all of which jump off the page.

evernote-cta

2. Dropbox
CTA Button: Sign up for free
Dropbox has always embraced simple design with a lot of negative space. Even the graphics on their homepage are subtle and simple.

Thanks to that simple design and negative space, the blue “Sign up for free” call-to-action button stands out from everything else on the page. Since the CTA and the Dropbox logo are the same color, it’s easy for the visitor to interpret this CTA as “Sign up for Dropbox.” That’s one effective call-to-action.

dropbox cta

3. OfficeVibe
CTA Button: Subscribe
Here’s a slide-in call-to-action that caught my attention from OfficeVibe. While scrolling through a post on their blog, a banner slid in from the bottom of the page with a call-to-action to subscribe to their blog. The best part? The copy on the slide-in told me I’d be getting tips about how to become a better manager — and the post it appeared on was a post about how to become a better manager. In other words, the offer was something I was already interested in.

office-vibe-pop-up-CTA

4. Netflix
CTA Button: Join Free for a Month
One big fear users have before committing to sign up for something? That it’ll be a pain to cancel their subscription if they end up not liking it. Netflix nips that fear in the bud with the “Cancel anytime” copy right above the “Join Free for a Month” CTA. I’d venture a guess that reassurance alone has boosted signups. Also, you’ll notice again that the red color of the primary and secondary CTAs here match Netflix’s logo color.

netflix-cta

5. Square
CTA Button: Get Started
To achieve effective CTA design, you need to consider more than just the button itself. It’s also super important to consider elements like background color, surrounding images, and surrounding text.

Mindful of these additional design components, the folks at Square used a single image to showcase the simplicity of using their product, where the hovering “Get Started” CTA awaits your click. If you look closely, the color of the credit card in the image and the color of the CTA button match, which helps the viewer connect the dots of what to expect if/when they click.

square-cta

We hope you can see just how important little CTA tweaks can be. It’s a good idea to experiment with your CTAs.

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