Changes announced for GA-4

Google, in a blog post, announced changes, introductions of new dimensions and metrics with Google Analytics 4.

"We're excited to release new dimensions and metrics, enabling you to see bounce rate, additional UTM parameter values, and conversion rate across various surfaces, including explorations, segments, audiences, reports, and the Google Analytics Data API," the post said.

Here's a breakdown of the changes, via Google.

Bounce rate

In Google Analytics 4, Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. In other words, Bounce rate is the inverse of Engagement rate, which is the number of engaged sessions divided by the total number of sessions in a specified time period.

Bounce rate is available in Explorations and Reporting Customization. This is a metric currently available in Universal Analytics (or GA-3).

Bounce rate is calculated in Google Analytics 4 in a different way from how it's calculated in Universal Analytics. To learn more about how the calculations are different between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4, see [UA→GA4] Comparing metrics: Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics.

UTM term and UTM ad content

We've added new dimensions that surface the utm_content and utm_term parameter values in Explorations, Reporting, and the Audience Builder. Both parameters have a user-scoped and session-scoped dimension.

The following new dimensions enable you to see the value assigned to the utm_content parameter across user and session scopes:

• First user manual ad content
• Session manual ad content

Additionally, the following dimensions enable you to see the value assigned to the utm_term parameter across user and session scopes:

• First user manual term
• Session manual term

Conversion rate

The following new metrics let you report on the conversion rate for any conversion event:

• User conversion rate is the percentage of users who triggered any conversion event.
• Session conversion rate is the percentage of sessions in which any conversion event was triggered.

Remember. It is expected that Universal Analytics will be going away in July 2023. Click here to read more about the full-on switch to Google Analytics 4 or GA-4

Web design matters to SEO

When looking at a brand’s online presence, sure it’s important to be active and engaged on social media. But it’s just as important, if not more important, to make sure you have a highly functioning website.

I like to think of attracting leads, digitally, like this: social media is the outside facing of a company, business, etc. The website is what you see once you’re through the door from the outside.

Both need to make strong impressions. You need to capture their attention on social media. Then, you need to keep them “in the building” (or the website).

When considering a website’s functionality, navigation ease is an important part of it. But one area that is often overlooked and has high value as well is design.

Design matters.

And by design, it’s more than just easy-to-find call-to-actions. It also includes text size, colors, etc.

All of the above details matter when it comes to making a strong first impression to a user to your website, but also in terms of SEO results as well.

Let’s explore the key elements to an effective website, in this case, from a SEO results standpoint.

HEADLINES

There is a specific structure and flow you should follow when designing a website. It’s not only helpful for the users, but also for web search crawling tools as well.

Search engines, as well as human users, use headings to crawl through websites to understand the site’s content. Once a search engine understands the content, it better understands where and when to rank your site in search results.

Each page should have a single H1 and subheads in a sequential, descending order that doesn’t skip any levels.

For each headline after an H1 headline (sometimes seen as Headline1 in some templates), follow a hierarchy (H2, H3, H4 and so on). If you need to use subheads, use a paragraph-type text style.

Something else to consider, H1 headlines need to be short and clear. The further down you go in the headline hierarchy, the longer a headline can be.

PRIORITIZE WEB DESIGN FOR MOBILE OVER DESKTOP

According to Statista, the latest number of smartphone users in the world today (as of July 2022) is 6.6 billion, or 83.7% of the world's population.

Because of that, mobile-friendly websites are highly valued in SEO. Search engines can detect mobile devices, and they assign better results to websites that are mobile friendly over ones that aren’t.

Make sure your website automatically responds and adjusts to screen size and not make it reliant on the user to do it. That’s a negative experience and likely a lead lost.

Another thing to consider: videos.

Videos on desktop sites often look nice and add spice to a website. Given screen sizes with mobile devices, that same video likely won’t look as good on mobile. In addition, video slows down website loading speed, which diminishes not only SEO results, but also user-friendly navigation.

BE AWARE OF SITE LOADING SPEED

Page speed is considered one of the leading SEO ranking factors. Impatient users expect websites to load within seconds. Improve speed by contracting with a good host and enabling browser caching.

What also slows a site’s loading speed includes the previously mentioned videos component, large images and colors. A sharp-looking desktop site with all sorts of graphics and animations may look great and appealing on a desktop, but that may not transfer to the mobile site.

I often recommend, the simpler the design the better.

KNOW WHY USERS GO TO YOUR SITE

Sounds obvious, right? But it shouldn’t be overlooked.

Earlier, I talked about the key to a first impression. Attracting the users quickly and then holding them can also improve or diminish SEO results. Say if you are in the top spot on the SERP (search engine results page), that’s great. But, if the user immediately clicks back to the SERP and clicks a different link, that sends a trigger to search engines that the previous result didn’t apply to them. If those build, that’ll hurt SEO result.

IN SUMMARY

A visually pleasing website promotes users’ confidence in your brand, which causes them to stay on your site longer, which then improves your SEO results. Place high value on web-friendly images, a text hierarchy and simple graphic elements (such as video), and SEO results will improve.

One last point, always be sure your meta descriptions are up to date and accurate. Also include these on images and videos, if possible.

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