Why Should You Link Your Google Ads Console to Google Search Console?

Um, because you’ll get more data. DUH!

By connecting Google Search Console (GSC) with Google Ads you get a snapshot glance of paid vs. organic keywords. You will get data at the Search Query and Keyword levels so you can see the incremental value of paid vs. organic terms.

This should be really great news for paid advertisers and organic search campaign leaders alike. Google’s spin is that you can see new, organic opportunities and new, paid search opportunities. Equally, you can see – in a really simple report – where you are performing well organically and make adjustments to drop paid search bids or pause keywords altogether if you’re on a limited budget. This is especially great news whether you’re doing both yourself or if you’re working in an agency that provides both PPC and SEO to the same client.

How To Create a Google Search Console Linked Account in Google Ads

• Tools Needed: Google Search Console, Google Ads Console
• Time Required: 10 minutes
• Estimated Cost: $0

Similar to linking Google Ads to Analytics, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and select Linked Accounts. You’ll see an option for Search Console. Follow these steps:

1. 1. Access ‘Linked accounts.’ Click on the Tools button on the top navigation of your Google Ads dashboard. Clicking this will produce a dropdown of 20 different options. Click the link titled  “Linked Accounts” under the Settings section.
   2. Select ‘Search Console’ from your list of options. Since first releasing this feature in 2013, Google has added several other options under the “Linked Accounts” heading. Search Console is one of the last options in the list, located in the 9th position of available options – fifth row, right-hand side. Click the link for ‘DETAILS’.
      
   3. Click the link titled “LINK” to launch Search Console. Pretty self-explanatory, we think.
      
   4. Enter your website address, and click “CONTINUE”. Again, we also find this step to be pretty self-explanatory. One note of caution: make sure your domain names in each account are a match. For instance, if you use https:// and www in front of your domain name in Ads, make sure you select the Search Console account with the same naming convention. You are using https, right? Of course you are.
      
   5. Voila! Your Search Console account is now linked to your Ads account. Depending on whether or not this is successful for you, you might receive one of the following results from your attempt at linking these accounts.
      
      Here is what you should see if your Search Console account was successfully linked to Google Ads.

If you have already verified ownership of your site in Google Search Console – congratulations, you’re all set!

If you haven’t claimed your site, simply click the blue link for “Claim it at Search Console.” This will direct you to Google Search Console and provide the recommended methods for verifying your site.

Need more help? Check the Google Help article here or contact a friendly DOM digital advertising specialist (link below).

The Paid & Organic Report: The Mother Lode of Google Performance Data

The Paid & Organic Report can be found under the Predefined reports tab (formerly known as the Dimensions tab). By the way, if you’re not familiar with this section of Google Ads, take some time and play around. There are so many insightful reports here.

To get to the Paid & Organic report, navigate to Basic > Paid & Organic.

Check out the screenshots below. Although the search terms and other personal information has been blurred out, below is a synopsis of what you’ll see in the paid and organic report:

“This table shows how your paid and organic results performed for every search that triggered an ad or organic listing.”

The click details and other data updates once a day and we do not believe that you can see historical data, rather it starts accruing once you link the accounts. However, our Ads reps were not certain about this at the original time of publication. Over the last five years, we have confirmed that as such :).

Key Takeaways on Connecting Google Ads to Search Console

• Linking Google Search Console with Google Ads provides valuable organic search data that can improve paid search campaign performance.
• This integration allows you to identify keywords performing well organically and adjust your paid search bids accordingly for better budget management.
• By seeing both paid and organic data side-by-side, advertisers can make more informed budget allocation and keyword bidding decisions.
• The combined data helps you understand the incremental value of running paid ads alongside organic listings for the same search queries.
• This integrated reporting reveals instances where paid ads are essential to support weak organic rankings, and where organic visibility is strong enough to recommend lowering ad spend.

Conclusion

Google keeps giving us more and more reporting features from within the Google Ads interface. You can see competitive data, analytic data, funnel data, data…..data…..data! Now there’s even more! It’s almost like Google wants you to be successful.

Hell yeah, they do! We love that they’re tying all their properties together. Instead of being an outlet mall, Google Ads has evolved into being a one-stop-shop.

If you found this article helpful, you might want to check out one of these other posts on getting the most out of Google Search Console for your SEO efforts.

• How To Make the Google Knowledge Panel Work For You
• Set Your Course In Google Search Console With International Targeting
• What are Core Web Vitals and What Should I Do About Them?

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

This article was updated to add additional information on April 28th, 2025.

The post How To Link Google Ads To Google Search Console (Updated 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Google does not stand still for very long. Just when you think you have a handle on everything you can get from the Alphabet-owned search giant, they put out something brand new that you, as a good digital marketing professional, feel like you should know about. One of those things may be Google Analytics 360.

When you’ve been around as long as DOM, you learn to keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground. You never know what new tools you absolutely must start using in order to keep up with your competitors.

Luckily, we’re here to help you figure out when you absolutely should be using some fancy tool Google whips up (like this example, for example) and when you can safely go about your business of doing business. We’ll just tell you straight out of the gate: you do not have to start using Google 360 to keep up with your competitors. Note that we might have a different suggestion if you can easily afford the $125,000 yearly cost for these fancy tools.

No, we didn’t add an extra zero to make our point; that’s how much it is. And if that’s not enough to turn you away, then you have more money in your marketing budget than most. Great! There are plenty of guides that can tell you what to do with Google 360. That’s not what this post is.

We’re going to give you some reasons why you can happily and, with a clear conscience, go about your merry way without Google 360.

Google Marketing Platform – More Than Just Google Analytics 360

While Google still uses the nomenclature of 360 (Display & Video 360, Analytics 360, Surveys 360, etc.), it rolled them all together with its Doubleclick acquisition into a premium version of the Google Marketing Platform. When you see somebody mention a specific piece of the Premium GMP, like Tag Manager 360, it is easier to see it as just one arm of the Premium GMP octopus.

What am I paying for with Google Marketing Platform?

Great question! When you get GMP, you are buying access to the following tools which are unavailable to mere mortals:

• Display & Video 360
• Analytics 360
• Surveys 360
• Search Ads 360
• Tag Manager 360
• Optimize 360

You also get integration to tools that are available to mere mortals, like Google Data Studio. If you look at the above list and say to yourself “I can get all of these for free except without the number 360 after it,” then congratulations! You’ve unlocked the first and, as we told you above, the most pressing matter of all.

That said, it’s not like these tools are completely created equal. For instance, Google Analytics 360 has a smaller time window for data freshness (4 hours max versus 24+ hours), a 99.9% Data Collection S.L.A., and custom unsampled tables to help make your data less reliant on machine learning models.

Premium GMP is nothing you haven’t seen before or don’t have access to already, it’s simply souped-up versions of those products. The GMP you know and love is still there, with all of the free tools you’ve come to love.

How is Google Marketing Platform different?

When we say “souped-up,” that’s exactly what these products are: suped-up, as in super-duper.

For example, Google Analytics 360 will give you access to premium products like:

• Advanced analysis
• Unsampled reports
• Google BigQuery export
• Data-driven attribution

It also provides more detailed funnel and attribution information. With Google Search Ads 360, you can track pretty much every platform there is, using Floodlight and the good old reliable Doubleclick cookie. Speaking of Doubleclick, Google has rolled the old DoubleClick Bid Manager into Display & Video 360, “a single, integrated tool that helps creative, data, and media teams work together to execute end-to-end campaigns.”

In other words, Google 360 is more of what you need, but more than more, and definitely more than most.

What does it all mean?

Like we said before we started down this path: you don’t need Google 360.

Most companies are absolutely, totally fine just using the free products that Google already offers its customers. Don’t misunderstand the bottom line, though: the advanced tools provided by the 360 versions are definitely worth the money!

If you have that princely sum to spend on these premium digital marketing tools, then your brand is enterprise level enough to make the purchase worth the price. For the rest of us, Google Marketing Platform is all we’ll ever need.

Having trouble trying to determine the best Google Analytics solution for your business? Contact us today to schedule a strategy session with one of our analytics consultants or learn more about our status as a Premier Google Partner before you reach out.

The post What is Google Analytics 360 and What Can the Data Do For You? (Updated 2022) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

About Google Discover

Even when you aren’t searching, Google says you are. That probably feels a touch unsettling given the current data privacy environment stoking the flames of Congress, but we can get that all cleared up (not DOJ privacy investigations, rather, Google Discover).

Google Discover is a Google content feed found on Android devices. It was originally called Google Feed.

It supplies users with relevant content through an app. You notice the use of “content feed,” not “news feed,” to distinguish that the platform supports more than just trending news. That’s relevant because many people assume that Discover is just for news. Evergreen content is content that doesn’t need to be new, rather, it lives on as useful beyond the date it’s produced.

Google Discover – The New Big Thing For Publishers?

Many site owners curiously report mysterious googleapis.com referrals, that’s actually Google Discover traffic. Wait, this MIGHT be Discover traffic (more on that later).

Maybe you think you are getting Google Discover traffic. Maybe you know you are. This might be the reason you searched for how to SEO for that platform. Because your googleapis.com referrals have you stymied, you’re now looking for a way to improve and evolve your site’s content accordingly.

We can get to all of that, but first, let’s get to the brass tacks.

What Is Google Discover?

The Google Discover example above nicely illustrates the concept. While it began as a service running on Google’s Android platform, they have since rolled it out to iOS devices running the Google application.

So, why is Discover “search without searching?”

That’s because users of this platform don’t search, the content is instead recommended to them based on browser history, AI learning, and marked interests. So you don’t search on Discover, rather you discover content preselected for your taste.

There are roughly 800 million people “discovering” search to date.

Make no mistake about it, publishers need to get to know Discover from Google. It’s here to stay.

And if you don’t, you’ll be missing out.

How Can You Optimize Your Site For Google Discover SEO

Now the meat and potatoes – how do you optimize your site for Google Discover.

The introduction of Discover into SEO isn’t dramatic, but it’s relevant to strategy. As a base strategy, nothing should change in your current traditional SEO strategy.

The same way you optimize for search query traffic is the same way your content will get “Discovered.” If your content has trouble ranking in traditional Google search, it is likely to have trouble ranking in Discover.

So then what’s left?

Google Discover SEO Checklist

Here’s a simple to remember Google Discover SEO optimization checklist (you can scroll to the illustration if you prefer prettier checklists).

Create Useful Content – Does your content engage? Is it timely? If it isn’t timely, is it an evergreen piece that engages? Would someone want to share your content? Straight up, your content needs to connect with users. People should find your content interesting and shareable. If they don’t, it isn’t likely that Discover will determine it to be a relatable piece for a specific user set. Remember, Discover isn’t a top listing of content, rather, it list content on a per user basis.

Create Trending or Evergreen Content – Your content marketing strategy can be one, or both, of these two content types. However, trending content remains the ruler of the roost. Discover is doing its best to not pigeon hole its algorithm to just trending news. However, a good idea is to create evergreen content that’s supported by relevant trending news.

Who Wrote Your Content? – If your answer is a fake author or a nameless author, you’re probably doomed with Discover. Much like a traditional search, Google aims to foster an environment of trust between search and user. Anonymous authors signal untrustworthy content.

How Interactive Is Your Content? – Are people sharing and commenting and liking your content? Google needs to get signals from users regarding which content they like, and don’t like. High-quality content tends to engage users, which often results in more sharing and liking. You might consider boosting Facebook posts to help increase user engagement. Additionally, leverage email marketing as a way to increase content engagement.

How Engaging Are Your Images? – In October 2020, Google sent out an email to site owners through Google Search Console with the suggestion that they produce “high quality, compelling images” that are at least 1200 pixels wide (or larger). For sites with visual content smaller than 1200px wide eligible for presentation in Google Discover, their images will only appear in thumbnail mode if they do not make this change. Site owners interested in enabling larger image previews need to add the “max image preview” robots meta tag to their header coding.

Here’s a Google Discover Infographic that’s easy to remember.

In the end, promote your content.

Google Discover vs. Google News

Some site owners jump to the conclusion that Discover is the highway fast track to getting into Google News. At first glance, this seems like a reasonable conclusion. At second glance, it feels like fake news.

The answer is somewhere in between.

Google Discover’s content optimization instructions, located here, cite that “your pages are eligible to appear in Discover cards simply if they are indexed by Google and meet Google News content policies.”

The verbiage leads many to believe that if they are getting Discover traffic, they are eligible for Google News. Although this seems to imply such, the fact is, there is no supporting evidence of this connection. In fact, we’ve known a number of sites experiencing Discover traffic that got denied by Google News.

So we aren’t sure what to make of things. Maybe it’s best to view Google Discover as a step towards Google News, rather than a confirmation.

Discover CTR Is Higher Than Traditional Search

In terms of what to expect from Google Discover search stats, you likely can expect the CTR to be more inflated. You might expect three times higher CTRs. This, of course, depends on your content. But overall, CTRs seem to be higher on Discover than they are on traditional Google search.

Do you have questions about whether PPC or SEO is right for you? Check out this video:

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post Google Discover SEO Optimization (A Complete Marketing Guide) [Updated 2020] appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Here’s some help going international. This video lays out 5 resources to start or optimize your export marketing. Your business may qualify for grants or loans from federal, state, or municipal organizations that aim to help U.S.-based companies expand their reach internationally.

Does your business operate in different countries? Hoping to find new customers in new markets with international targeting SEO strategies on a new site? Google Search Console international targeting may be an easy (and effective) answer to your hopes and dreams.

If you answered yes to either of these questions, your organization should take advantage of one of the most underutilized features in Google Search Console.

International Targeting.

This feature in Search Console is so underutilized that when Google announced in January 2019 that they were migrating and discontinuing several features from Search Console, they didn’t even mention international targeting.

It’s still not getting the attention it deserves in old Google Search Console. To date, there are still no publicly disclosed plans for how Google is going to handle this feature in the future.

Regardless if it lives on forever in old Search Console, or if it thrives someday in the new Search Console, international targeting SEO strategies can be an asset to your goals of global domination on the world wide web.

Brace yourself. You are about to learn everything you ever wanted to know about international targeting in Google Search Console.

Language Tab: Troubleshoot Your Hreflang Errors

Utilizing hreflang markup in the header file of a website is nothing new for businesses trying to grow confidently online in international markets.

How do you know if you should be using hreflang markup on your site? Well, here are four easy ways to determine that.

• Your website targets countries that speak different languages than your native tongue
• A country you are targeting with your website has multiple official languages
• Your website domain is generic (.com, .org, .edu, etc.) but you want to target visitors that speak certain languages in specific countries
• Your website domain ends in a ccTLD (like.io or .me) that does not match the TLD of your target country

But just because you can identify that you should be using hreflang markup on your site doesn’t mean it will always be implemented correctly.

In fact, a 2017 study by growth hacking platform Serpstat indexed over 2.9 million pages with SEO issues stemming from hreflang errors.

In the event that you, your SEO team, or your developer have implemented hreflang incorrectly, International Targeting has a tab for helping you fix that.

Within the Language tab of International Targeting, you will find feedback on two specific hreflang errors:

1. No return tags
2. Unknown language code

No return tags will trigger if you have a language tag identified in your hreflang that is not matched on an individual page, in a sitemap, or in a header file.

The Unknown language code will trigger if you have hreflang installed on your site, but the browser fails to recognize your combination of language codes and country codes.

For instance, if you wanted to target Chinese speakers in Canada, but you documented your hreflang tag as zh-ca, this code would trigger. The proper language code for simplified Chinese is zh-hans.

Interested in seeing all of the approved language and country codes? Click the two links below.

• Approved Language Codes for hreflang markup
• Approved Country Codes for hreflang markup

Still, you think you don’t have the coding chops to tackle hreflang? Only have one domain to target at one language in one country? You can potentially skip hreflang altogether and leverage the Country Tab instead.

Country Tab: Tell Google Exactly Where To Showcase Your Site

The Country Tab in Google Search Console is an oldie but goodie for your international targeting efforts.

It is important to acknowledge in advance, however, that the Country Tab is a one trick pony. The Country Tab in International Targeting will only serve your needs if your situation meets the following criteria:

1. You only have one country to target with your domain
2. You only have one language in that country to target with your domain

Here’s a step by step guide (with screenshots) for how to identify your target country using the Country Tab in old Google Search Console. Assuming you are starting this journey in new Search Console:

1. Click the dropdown in the bottom left of the screen to uncover ‘Legacy Tools and Reports.’ Then select ‘International targeting.’

   

2. By default, International Targeting loads the Language tab first. Click the tab to switch to Country.

   

3. Check the box next to “Target users in” to activate the dropdown box. Scroll to select the country you want to target.

   

4. Once you have selected your country, don’t forget to click save.

   

By following these simple steps, you should be able to successfully geotarget a domain using International Targeting in Google Search Console.

So Does Google Search Console International Targeting Actually Work For SEO?

In practice, we have definitely seen this work. Especially when you are operating a trustworthy domain and the only differentiation is a:

• Country code top level domain (CCTLD), or
• a hreflang tagged subfolder

We can feel your skepticism, though. So if you don’t want to take the sage advice of an SEO Strategist from a digital marketing firm, that’s cool. We understand.

Instead, would you trust the advice provided by one of Google’s leading Webmaster Trends Analysts?

We thought you might.

On May 6, 2020, reddit user Christelleorangee asked a similar question in the TechSEO subreddit: Does search consoles “target audience in:” have any effect?

And Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes – respectfully known as @methode to most of the social web – chimed in with this response.

Thanks for jumping in and providing some feedback, Gary.

To recap Gary’s insights in bullet point fashion:

• Setting a specific country in Google Search Console’s International Targeting doesn’t prevent it from being shown in other countries.
• However, it does signal to Google that your content is extra relevant to users in a specific country.

Because of that, leveraging this tool if you have a specific country to show a subfolder, subdomain, or CCTLD can improve the chances of SEO success for your domain in your target location.

PS – Hat tip to Episode 132 of Marie Haynes’ Search News You Can Use for the tip that Gary offered these insights on reddit. We promise moving forward to pay more attention to /r/TechSEO so we don’t miss any of the action!

Google Search Console International Targeting: Seems Easy (And Effective!).
Choosing An International Domain? It’s Complicated.

Making the choice to target international markets as part of your growth strategy is pretty easy. If you know your customers and want to reach similar people who speak another language or that live in another part of the world, there is no better course of action.

But before you get started with an international targeting SEO campaign, make sure you have the right combination of the following:

• Domain Extension
• hreflang Tag
• Geo-targeting

This will help position your site for the desired international targets. Below is a great chart from Moz’s Guide To International Website Expansion to help you make the right decision.

Checked out the graphic? Will your domain/hreflang/geotarget implementation result in the correct interpretation of the types of searchers you want to target?

Yes? Solid! Proceed with language and country international targeting for your domain in old Google Search Console. Well done!

No? Don’t do what you probably want to do, and delete your whole site from its server.

Instead, before you jump into international targeting in Search Console, maybe you need to take a second to reconsider your global domain(ation) strategy.

There are subtle but important differences in how website domains are interpreted for:

• global speakers of a language
• speakers of a specific language in a specific country
• natives of a country regardless of their preferred language.

Make sure you are on the right course before you dive too deep into international SEO.

For more on international SEO from our team of international digital marketing specialists, contact us or check out one of these posts:

• International SEO Tips To Conquer The SERPs And Emerge Victorious (Updated June 2019)
• How Online Marketing Helps Global Exporters Grow
• Our General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance Checklist

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post How To Set Up International Targeting In Google Search Console appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

In the widely distributed notification, Google alerted Search Console users that the Chrome browser will begin showing security warnings on pages that contain insecure forms as soon as October 2017.

While the warning specifically states “form,” an internal review of pages that triggered this warning included pages with any text input fields. This included site search boxes and chat features.

Image Credit: Nikki P.and MS Paint

Did you receive one of these alerts? Afraid you have no idea what to do about it?

Fear not! We are here to help you!

Below you find out what this warning is all about, what you need to do about it, and what your friends at Google are doing to help keep your site (and your visitors) safe as you buy, sell, and surf online.

Understanding Your Chrome Security Warning For HTTP URLs

Beginning this past January, you may have started noticing that Google Chrome now marks HTTP pages as “Not Secure” if they contain password or credit card fields.

As Google continues their quest for improved Internet security for all, they will begin expanding the reach of these “Not Secure” warnings this October with the release of Chrome Version 62.

(sample warning your visitors may see) Image Credit: Wired

Once Chrome 62 hits your computer or mobile device, the browser will show this “Not Secure” warning when pages are loaded that meet one of the following two criteria:

1. If a user is asked to enter any data on an HTTP page (not just password of credit card information)
2. When browsing any page, of any type, served over an HTTP connection in Incognito mode

To avoid having visitors to your website greeted with a ‘Not Secure’ warning, your site must update its server to an HTTPS protocol, or at least modify your form markup to use the secure version of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS).

Below are some helpful tips to make the transition easy.

Image Credit: Etsy Studio

So You Received The Chrome Security Warning. Now What?

For starters, you should consider yourself lucky! Google has given you about a six-week advance notice that you have some site modifications to make prior to this update in their Chrome browser.

According to statistics compiled from W3Schools, Chrome is the preferred browser of over 76% of web users.

Ok, so based on that, you probably have to do SOMETHING… so what are your options? Our experience and expertise suggests that you really have 3 choices…

GIF Credit: Imgur

1. Migrate your entire domain from an unsecured connection (HTTP) to a secured connection (HTTPS)
2. Reprogram all of your pages with forms being served over HTTP to now be served over HTTPS
3. Do nothing, and put your site at risk of losing a large percentage of traffic from what is widely considered to be the web’s number 1 browser.

It is no secret around the web development and online marketing communities that Google wants the web at large to be more secure , so if you ever needed an excuse to get the green light to move your site from HTTP to HTTPS – now seems to be the perfect time

However, you need to be aware that this isn’t a cut and dry solution. Before you simply go buying an SSL certificate, updating your settings with your hosting provider, and washing your hands of this whole “secure site” thing, there are a lot of things you need to take under consideration. It probably would make sense to connect with your web developer or get in touch with someone for an SEO consultation before you get too far down a path that brings high risk.

The Background On Google, Chrome, And HTTPS

If you did begin noticing this past January that Chrome now marks HTTP pages as “Not Secure” if they contain password or credit card fields, then you caught an important (but simply incremental) step in the timeline of Google’s journey to help the world wide web get more secure.

Dating all the way back to 2014, Google has been working to lead the web towards a more secure environment for all. At the beginning of that year, about 48% of web pages on the Google server were secure. As of their last report on July 28, 2017, around 88% of all Google sites and services are now secure… and the internet at large has taken a similar growth trajectory over that time.

In September 2016, the Security Team at Chrome announced on the Google Security blog (linked to in the previous section) that they wanted developers to begin doing their part to help the web be more secure. One month later, a very helpful guide to accomplishing this was released, and the rest is history.

Reports vary on how many websites currently use HTTPS over HTTP, but based on what survey you choose to believe, estimates range somewhere between 30% and 50%.

Google obviously realizes there is still a lot of room for improvement, which is likely leading to the notification you received in your Google Search Console last night.

One Last Thing… What Is HTTPS Anyway?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site using encryption, data integrity, and authentication. In many ways, it’s similar to standard HTTP, except that data in encrypted when sent to HTTPS servers and only decrypted once both parties’ security certificates have verified their identities.

When switching from HTTP to HTTPS you must obtain a security certificate that is issued by a certificate authority which takes steps to verify that your website actually belongs to your organization. When setting up the certificate you can ensure a high level of security by selecting a 2048-bit key.

Another best practice to follow when making the switch is to ensure that your HTTPS pages can be crawled and indexed by Google. To do this make sure that you do not block your HTTPS pages by robots.txt files, do not include meta noindex tags in your HTTPS pages, and use “Fetch as Google” to test that your pages can be accessed before launching.

It is also recommended that your HTTPS site supports HSTS. This tells the browser to automatically request HTTPS pages even if HTTP is entered into the location bar. This will also allow secure pages to appear in Google search results and will minimize the risk of serving an unsecured web page to a visitor.

Image Credit: Chromium Blog

A final tip when making the switch to HTTPS is to set up server side 301 redirects for search engines and users. This is another way to ensure that you are not showing an unsecure page to visitors, which could hurt the site’s reputation.

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post Chrome Demands You Get Your HTTPS Together appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Well, you are correct. They simply have re-branded the tool with a new name: Google Search Console.

No worries, if you already have a GWT account, you need not do a thing. Simply log in and you will notice the name change in the upper left hand corner. If you don’t have a free GWT, I mean Google Search Console account, what are you waiting for? GO GET ONE!

The reason behind this update is because Google knows that the tool is used by a wide variety of people and not just “webmasters”. I’m not a webmaster, however I love the tool and I use it every day as an SEO professional. GWT was launched initially with the purpose of simply being somewhere that webmasters could submit sitemaps; since then it has come a long way, including the recent overhaul which updated the Search Queries Report to Search Analytics.

In the end, the name change is not a big deal but knowing how Google works (or at least thinking that I do) I can’t help but think this is just the beginning of many changes to come! Change is good and I am excited to see what happens next.

Stay tuned for the next Get to Know Google and I promise to keep you updated on all things Google!

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.

The post Get To Know Google: Say Goodbye to Google Webmaster Tools! appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Now in beta, Google has rolled out the new report to everyone. They made some changes through the alpha stage, one of which includes re-naming the report to Search Analytics. A very appropriate name as the new features absolutely resemble Google Analytics. The new report will allow you to see how your search traffic changes, where it comes from, and what queries that are being searched that will most likely display your site.

A Choice of Metrics

Having the ability to choose which metrics to measure is always a bonus! The Search Analytics report allows you to aggregate results by site or page. You can group, filter, and compare the following metrics:

• Clicks: how many times people click on a link to your site in search results
• Impressions: how many times your site appears in search results
• Click Through Rate (CTR): click count divided by impression
• Position: average page position of the results from your site

A Change for the Better

In the new report, Google is actually calculating the data differently resulting in much more accurate data. Some of the biggest changes include:

• Individual page impression counts merged
  All links to the same site are counted as a single impression

• Search properties & devices separated
  Get unique metrics for web, image, mobile, and video

• Coverage and partial counts differ
  Data coverage might not be the same and values can be different between the 2 reports

• Image click count reduced
  Only expanded images will count as a click

• Data consolidated by full domain
  The new report assigns all click, impression & search data host name

For a detailed guide on the changes and a step by step guide on how to get the most from this awesome new report, check out the GWT Help Section.

Google will give you the option to “Go back to the old Search Queries report” for 3 months before they remove it for good. While it can be difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, this is one where we highly suggest you get to know Google and use; it’s a great tool!

The post Get To Know Google: Search Analytics Report appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Along with April comes spring, a feeling of freshness and a new start. April also has one of the most historically dreaded days of the year… Tax Day! Those who wait until the last minute run around all day from the accountant’s office to the post office and everywhere in-between.

Well, thanks to Google, this year the most dreaded day will no longer be the 15th! It will be TODAY: Tuesday April 21, 2015

…the day of

M O B I L E G E D D O N

Google’s Mobile Friendly Update!

What is Mobilegeddon? Are you ready? Did you wait until the last minute? What do you need to know? What do you need to do?

No worries, take a deep breath and allow us to guide you!

What is Mobilegeddon?

Simply put, Mobilegeddon is the day that Google will begin to give a boost in rankings to pages that have earned their mobile-friendly label in mobile SERPs.

Therefore, if you ranked highly for a specific keyword and have not made your site mobile-friendly, there is the potential that you will lose those rankings.

Unlike many other Google updates, Google has been more than fair with this update. They officially announced the update back on February 26th which is the same day that they launched the oh-so helpful, Mobile-Friendly Test. Playfully, the SEM Community has dubbed the day as “Mobilegeddon.”  In the world of SEO this update has occupied a majority of the chatter and shaken up the focus for search engine optimization.

Top Facts to know about Mobilegeddon:

1. 1. The mobile algorithm update will be on a page by page basis. Rather than classifying your entire site mobile-friendly, it is actually possible to have some pages labeled as mobile-friendly while other pages are not. If time is an issue for you, check Google Analytics for your top mobile content and prioritize which pages to update first.
   2. The mobile update is in real-time. This means that as soon as you update your site and then Google crawls it, it will immediately be labeled as mobile-friendly and immediately benefit from the update. We tested this on a client in-house and can verify that this is true! (hint: fetch as Google in GWT use the mobile: smartphone option to submit the updated URLS)
   3. The update will only affect the mobile SERPS. Desktop and mobile SERPs are not the same. Today’s update will only have an effect on your mobile SERPs, therefore you can rank one page for desktop SERPs while ranking on a different page for mobile SERPs.
   4. Google has announced that they will no longer show URLs in mobile search results. Google has begun to replace mobile URLs with the site’s name and breadcrumb path. These changes will roll out gradually and will only affect the mobile search results.
   5. Responsive sites DO NOT equal mobile friendly! It’s very common for business owners to assume that just because they have a responsive site in place that they will naturally gain the mobile friendly tag. While responsive design will re-size the content of your site, you will want to be sure to avoid many common mistakes, including blocked JavaScript, CSS, and image files. (Have you checked your robots.txt file lately?) Allow Googlebot to see exactly what your users see!

Avoiding the Wrath of Mobilegeddon:

Do you want to ensure that your site doesn’t experience the wrath of Mobilegeddon? I sure hope so! Let’s take a look at a few things that you can do rather painlessly and fairly quickly without understanding web development.

Begin by checking your site on Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). If you do not have an account, you should! It’s free, it houses a ton of information about your site, and as I said, it’s FREE! Sign up HERE!

Once you have created or logged in to your GWT account, locate the Dashboard on the left side of the page and click the arrow for Search Traffic. The last item in this category is the Mobile Usability section which will show you not only which pages have mobile usability issues, but also provide links to guides on how to fix these issues. (Tools to prepare for an algorithm update? Again, demonstrating that Google was more than fair with this update!)

As you can see in our example, there are a total of 281 pages on this site with mobile usability issues. Below that you will see a timeline that will give you a quick snapshot of when there was a spike or decline in mobile usability issues. Google then breaks that down even further and will list which pages have which issues. (Please note that one page can appear in multiple categories.) When you click on each individual issue, you will see a list of URLs that are affected by that issue.

Once you have clicked on a URL, you will get a screen that will give you several options for testing or fixing the issues on that specific page.

The 4 Main Components to Determining Mobile Usability (and a layman’s definition):

1. Touch elements too close
   • Buttons, links, or form fields are too small or too close together to be used easily on a touchscreen.
2. Content not sized to viewport
   • Users have to scroll horizontally or zoom out to see the whole page
3. Viewport not configured
   • Code that gives the browser instructions for the page’s dimensions based on device
4. Small font size
   • Page copy is too small for users to read when not on a desktop

You can also check random pages on your site by going directly to the Google Mobile-Friendly Tool. This tool is available to the public and also free to use. Be sure to check several pages before assuming that your site is ready; as I stated earlier in this post, the update is on a page by page basis.

Should you fear Mobilegeddon?

As an agency, we have seen an array of issues and obstacles involving mobile usability issues; however, most have had an easy solution once the developers were involved. For the ones that haven’t, we dove in and conducted further research to find a fix.

Really, Mobilegeddon is just a play on words and should not be feared. While the amount of traffic that comes to your site varies greatly by niche, mobile use has surpassed desktop already and is forecasted to continue to grow. So, wouldn’t you want your users to have a good experience no matter what device they were on? Use Google’s mobile-friendly tags to your advantage (while you can) and complete your mobile site’s “spring cleaning.”

If you are still losing sleep over Mobilegeddon, I’d suggest you call us now!

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post Mobilegeddon: Or Why You’re about to Lose a Ton of Traffic appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The Search Impact Report allows you to break down your site’s:

• Clicks
• Impressions
• Click through rate (CTR)
• Average position

Using different dimensions, including:

• Date
• Countries
• Devices
• Search Type (web, image, video)

The best part is you can actually combine and compare several dimensions to get more granular data. (Who doesn’t Love MORE data?)

Let’s take a look at a few screen shots:

In this first shot we are looking at search queries from the last 7 days compared the previous 7 days. We have chosen to look at clicks and average position. The ability to compare data on one screen is a huge improvement to GWT!

As always with Google Webmaster Tools, you can zero in on any of the results for a detailed chart. Below, you will see that we clicked on ‘fashion marketing’.

Next, we’ll take a look at a new feature that allows you to compare metrics by devices. Here, we are taking a look at total clicks for 28 days on a desktop computer compared to mobile devices.

The report also allows you to filter by several different factors which will come in handy for content creators and SEOs as it makes it easy to narrow in on specific topics within your site. In the next screenshot we have chosen to look at clicks and impressions from the last 90 days for only URLs that contain ‘fashion’.

You can drill down even further too! We added filters to the same report as above to get more detailed information. We now have the clicks and impressions for URLs containing ‘fashion’ narrowed to mobile traffic from the United States! Are you as excited as we are?

Our initial opinion of this report is that it’s a really great upgrade for Google Webmaster Tools, probably one of the best we’ve seen thus far. We’ve only just started to experiment with it, but feel the biggest benefit seems to be the fact that we can get granular data faster without having to cross compare with Analytics. We also believe that in the future, the mobile portion will most likely be the most valuable as there is a lot of talk in the SEO world about upcoming mobile algorithm updates.
In the end, we are super excited to learn more about it and provide Google with our feedback. We promise to keep you updated…Stay Tuned!

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