5 Reasons You Need Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google has released the newest version of Google Analytics (Google Analytics 4 or GA4), replacing the long-standing Universal Analytics (UA) property type. Our first impression? We like what we’re seeing.

What is Google Analytics 4?

There are three major differences between UA and GA4. The first difference is how users are tracked. In UA, users are tracked via sessions (or set periods that encompass everything a user does on your site). 

GA4 is event based. Instead of creating a new session when a user returns to a site, GA4 records all events they complete. This allows Google to more accurately deduplicate users and emphasizes what users actually do on your site, rather than just caring that users get there.

The second difference is the reporting. In UA, there are several set reports with some customizations possible. GA4 has only top-level reports built in, and if you want specific reports, the analysis tab is the place to go. This gives you greater freedom in how your reports look and lets you drill down to the data that’s most important to you. 

The third difference is how they’re set up. UA uses a property and view setup while GA4 allows you to mix data from your apps and website. This happens through a single property and Google Analytics’ data streams. 

You can place the same tracking code in the different properties (i.e., website, iOS app, or Android app) and consolidate the data to track a user between the streams. That means that there’s a new tracking code. Instead of the UA-XXXXXX-X type code, the tracking ID now looks like this: G-XXXXXXX.

Why should you switch to Google Analytics 4?

The new Google Analytics is just what it sounds like: new and improved. Google Analytics is for apps and websites. If you’re ready for actionable insights regarding those who view your content, Google Analytics 4 is the solution.

Here are some more reasons to consider switching:

1. GA4 is the future of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics 4 is poised for Google to add new analysis technology without requiring additional code. GA4 is already fully functional and, as of October 16, 2020, is now the default property type when creating a new Google Analytics property. As time goes on, Google will add more standard features.

2. GA4 is forward facing only.

Eventually, GA4 will be the standard for analytics. However, as with all things Google Analytics, the new GA4 property will only collect data from the time of creation. It won’t import past data from UA properties. So, to have more data at your disposal, we recommend implementing GA4 straight away.

3. Upgrading to Google Analytics 4 is easy.

If you’re using UA on your website, upgrading is easy. First, go to google.com/analytics. Navigate to your preferred account. Under the property column, select “Upgrade to GA4.”

Under “I need to create a new Google Analytics 4 property,” select “Get Started.” If your instance of analytics is installed with gtag.js, you can select the “Enable data collection using your existing tags” option. 

If you use Tag Manager, you’ll have to set this part up manually. Once you create the property, you’ll go to the stream details page, where you can customize settings. You can change what events get recorded under “Enhanced Measurement,” though we suggest leaving all events enabled. 

Once you’ve configured your event measurement, it’s time to get the tracking code on your site. If you already use the gtag.js for UA, you can copy and paste an additional line of code to your existing tag (gtag instructions here).

If you use Tag Manager, you’ll need to add a GA4 tag to your existing container. DO NOT DELETE your UA tag. To set up your GA4 tag, you’ll only need your new GA4 ID, and you’ll set your trigger to fire on each page view, just like the UA base tag (Tag Manager instructions here).

4. More upgraded features are coming.

As we keep going, you’ll have the option to transfer more features from your UA property to your GA4 property. As of now, GA4 properties have no filtering capabilities (at least not in the same way that filters are set up in UA), but this may become available at a later date. 

5. You’ll have greater flexibility.

Google Analytics 4 allows–and even encourages–users to create custom reports for the data they need. This significantly reduces the number of irrelevant, premade reports. In this way, your dashboard is less cluttered. You can find the most important data for your business faster, enabling you to make informed decisions more quickly, increasing your website and/or app’s effectiveness. 

Conclusion

Google Analytics 4 is on track to be more powerful than Universal Analytics and provide more relevant data about why users are on your site and/or app. It allows you to combine the data from multiple data streams into one property and more accurately attribute actions to users across devices. 

While GA4 won’t give you all this data right off the bat, early implementation will help you take advantage of the enhanced experience and data sooner rather than later. We encourage all site owners to implement GA4 on their sites and apps as soon as possible.

Why did Google discontinue SearchMash?

 **SearchMash** was an experimental, non-branded search engine that Google used to be able to play around with new search technologies, concepts and interfaces. It was first introduced in October 2006, and unveiled to the public exactly one year after that. Some people actually traded in Google’s search engine for SearchMash, were apparently quite pleased with the experience and are now sad to see it go.

The service wasn’t meant to attract a mass of users, but rather for Google to play around with meta-search features (results for web, images, video and Wikipedia were blended together), third-party integration (it used Snap for previewing landing pages of outside links), user interface experiments (like ‘infinite scroll’ that allowed you to view as many search results on the same page) and technologies (it had an Ajax and Flash / Flex version).

There’s something inherently strange about Google not having used **SearchMash** as a playground for trying out the **SearchWiki** features, and even more so that they decided to quietly kill it while at the same launching the latter.

How to Get Pages Indexed by Google, Quickly?

If a page isn’t in Google’s index, there’s 0% chance that it will receive organic traffic.

Indexation, in an over simplified nutshell, is step 2 in Google’s ranking process:

• Crawling
• Indexing
• Ranking

This article will focus on how to get Googlebot to index more pages on your site, faster.

How to check if your pages are indexed by Google

The first step is understanding what your website’s indexation rate is.

Indexation rate = # of pages in Google’s index / # of pages on your site

You can review how many pages your website has indexed in Google Search Console’s “Index Coverage Status Report“.

If you see errors or a large number of pages outside of the index:

• Your sitemap might have URLs that are non-indexable (i.e. pages set to NOINDEX, blocked via robots.txt or require user login)
• Your site might have a large number ‘low quality’ or duplicate pages that Google deems unworthy
• Your site might not have enough ‘authority’ to justify all the pages

You can dig into the specifics in the table underneath (this is an awesome new feature in Google’s updated Search Console).

 

How to get pages on your site indexed

I hate to be cliche, but you really need to deliver the right experience to get Google’s attention. If your site doesn’t meet Google’s guidelines in regards to trust, authority and quality, these tips will likely not work for you.

With that being said, you can use these tactics to improve your site’s indexation rate.

 

1. Use Fetch As Google

Google Search Console has a feature allowing you to input a URL for Google to “Fetch”. After submission, Googlebot will visit your page and index.

Here’s how to do it…

• Log into Google Search Console
• Navigate to Crawl Fetch as Google
• Take the URL you’d like indexed and paste it into the search bar
• Click the Fetch button
• After Google had found the URL, click Submit to Index

Assuming the page is indexable, it will be picked up within a few hours.

 

2. Use internal links

Search engines crawl from page to page through HTML links.

Image credit

We can use authority pages on your site to push equity to others. I like to use Ahrefs “best pages by links” report.

This report tells me the most authoritative pages on my site – I can simply add an internal link from here to a page that needs equity.

It’s important to note, the 2 interlinking pages need to be relevant – it’s not a good idea to link unrelated pages together.

Read my guide about internal linking silos

 

3. Block low quality pages from Google’s index

While content is a cornerstone of a high quality website, the wrong content can be your demise. Too many low quality pages can decrease the number of times Google crawls, indexes and ranks your site..

For that reason, we want to periodically “prune” our website’s by removing the garbage pages

Pages that serve no value should be:

• Set to NOINDEX. When the page still has value to your audience, but not search engines (think thank you pages, paid landing pages, etc).
• Blocked via crawl through Robots.txt file. When an entire set of pages has value to your audience, but not search engines (think archives, press releases).
• 301 redirected. When the page has no value to your audience or search engines, but has existing traffic or links (think old blog posts with links).
• Deleted (404). When the page has no value to your audience or search engines, and has no existing traffic or links.

We’ve built a content audit tool to help you with this process.

 

4. Include the page in your sitemap

Your sitemap is a guide to help search engines understand which pages on your site are important.

Having a page in your sitemap does NOT guarantee indexation, but having failing to include important pages will decrease indexation.

If your site is running on WordPress, it’s incredibly easy to setup and submit a sitemap using a plugin (I like Yoast).

Read more about how to build a sitemap

Once your sitemap is built and submit is GSC, you can review in the Sitemaps report.

Double check to make sure all pages you want indexed are included. Triple check to make sure all pages you DON’T want indexed are NOT included.

 

5. Share the page on Twitter

Twitter is a powerful network that Google crawls regularly (they index Tweets, too).

It’s a no brainer to share your content on social media, but it’s also an easy way to give Google a nudge.

 

6. Share the page on high traffic sites

Sites like Reddit and Quora are popular sites that allow you to drop links. I make it a regular practice to promote recently published pages on Quora – it helps with indexation, but also can drive a ton of traffic.

If you’re feeling lazy (and grey hat), you can buy “social signals” on sites like Fiver.

 

7. Secure external links to the page

As previously mentioned, Google crawls from page to page through HTML links.

Getting other websites to link to yours is not only a huge ranking factor, but a great way to pick up the indexation of your website.

The easiest ways to get links:

• Guest post on a relevant, authoritative website
• Find relevant bloggers or media sites and reach out with an advertising request

This is grossly over simplified – you can check out my top link building tactics for more ideas.

 

8. “Ping” your website

Sites like Ping-O-Matic that send “pings” to search engines to notify them that your blog has been updated.

Honestly, it’s not the greatest method – but it’s fast, free and easy to use.

Source: https://webris.org/google-index/