SEO - Mason Interactive

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform. It replaces Google’s previous Universal Analytics (UA) tracking code and offers many new features that are designed to help you better understand user behavior on your website. In this article we’re going to discuss the differences between both versions, how measurement looks a bit different this time around, and some resources for how and when to migrate.

What are the main differences between UA and GA4?

In contrast to Universal Analytics which relied solely on pageviews for understanding how visitors interacted with websites, GA4 uses what Google refers to as “Events” – user interactions such as clicking a link or watching a video that are tracked individually rather than collectively under one pageview metric. This helps marketers understand each individual user journey through the site in much more granular detail.

Measuring Users: GA4 vs. UA

GA4 is a significant shift from UA, with its architecture based on events rather than pageviews or sessions, as well as its introduction of AI-driven insights and predictive models designed to give users deeper insight into their data and enable actionable decision making.

UA: Session-Based

Universal Analytics uses a session-based data model to track user activity on a website. A ‘session’ is defined as a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame. Universal Analytics collects information about the activities users have performed in that session, such as page views, time spent on the site, and any goals or conversions that were completed.While this data is important, it can essentially leave marketers with half of a story. We don’t know if a certain page is successful by just looking at the total number of times someone saw it. Cue the event-based model:

GA4: Event-Based

GA4, however, switched to an event-based data model to measure users and their interactions with websites. An ‘event’ is defined as any action taken by a user while they are interacting with a web page such as clicking on a link, scrolling, or submitting a form. Each event is tracked and logged in order to provide detailed insights into how users interact with websites and what kinds of actions they take while browsing them. For example, GA4 can detect when certain buttons or links are clicked more frequently than others on pages, or if there are areas of content that visitors tend to spend more time on than others. This data can then be used to inform decisions around website design and content creation for enhanced engagement and improved user experience.

Key differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4

Measuring Content Success (or Failure): Is Bounce Rate Still a Thing?

What Happened to Bounce Rate?

Since the transition to Google Analytics 4, one of the most notable changes had been the removal of bounce rate as a metric. But alas! Google heard the critics loud and clear, and as of July 2022, they reintroduced bounce rate – however, it’s not exactly how we remember it from UA.

Bounce Rate Definitions: GA4 vs. UA

At its core, bounce rate is defined as “the percentage of sessions in which users view only one page and then leave your site”. In other words, it is used to measure how effective a page was at capturing user attention. Bounce rate was (is?) a widely accepted metric in Universal Analytics, that businesses and marketers have grown to utilize as a staple for measuring success and failure.

GA4 moved on from the traditional ‘bounce rate’ to create a new metric entirely: engagement rate. Engagement Rate can be interpreted as the inverse of bounce rate – indicating how likely visitors are to continue engaging with your site for longer periods of time. GA4 defines engagement rate as the ratio, represented as a percentage, of your engaged sessions to your total sessions

Google considers a session to be ‘engaged’ if it meets any one of these three criteria: if the visit lasts more than 10 seconds, if it results in a conversion event, or if there are at least two pageviews or screen views. In other words, an engaged session is when a visitor has spent meaningful time engaging with your website’s content. Though engagement rate gives us an indication as to how users interact with our pages once they arrive, bounce rate will tell us why they’re leaving so quickly – this could be due to slow loading speeds, confusing navigation structures, or irrelevant content beside what they were expecting.

By monitoring both metrics together and analyzing user behavior, you’ll have a much clearer picture as to what changes need to be made on your website in order for users to spend more time actively engaging with your content. Making small tweaks such as increasing loading speeds, improving navigation, optimizing content with specific user intent, can have immediate impacts on both engagement rates and overall user satisfaction.

Important Dates & Info About Migrating to GA4

Universal Analytics will officially sunset on July 1, 2023, meaning: no more data will be collected in UA after that date. For the following six months, users will still have access to the historical data that had been recorded on UA before its discontinuation. However, after those six months have passed, all of the data from UA will be permanently inaccessible and this will signify the end of an era for Google Analytics. Following this milestone, GA4 will become the new default platform for analytics services.

Migrating is a somewhat straightforward process, but to ensure all data is accounted for, and important conversion metrics are in place, we suggest making this transition sooner than later.

If you need help reach out to us at hello@masoninteractive.com, or take a look at some of the resources we’ve listed below.

[GA4] Introducing the next generation of Analytics, Google Analytics 4

Comparing metrics: Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics

Should You Switch To GA4 Now? What You Need To Know

An In-Depth Guide to Google Analytics 4

We’re excited to announce that Mason Interactive recently added the International Center of Photography, a world renowned institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography, to our portfolio of notorious New York brands.

Founded in 1974 by Cornell Capa, ICP continues to champion “concerned photography” — socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. Since its inception, ICP has presented more than 700 exhibitions and provided thousands of classes to artists, scholars, and students worldwide.

CONTACT HIGH | A Visual History of Hip-Hop

Image: Barron Claiborne, Biggie Smalls, King of New York, Wall Street, New York, 1997.

This exciting new partnership will focus on growing awareness and driving qualified leads through a long-term digital marketing strategy that will center around the institution’s One-Year Certificate program. The Mason Paid Media + SEO strategy teams will be responsible for increasing YoY revenue, and working with the ICP team to explore new channel opportunities, with an emphasis on driving new enrollments and brand loyalty.

Learn more about ICP and plan your visit to visit the new location at 79 Essex Street in New York.

When done right, SEO can yield an ongoing, free source of high-converting organic traffic for colleges and universities. More than half of prospective students begin their enrollment journey using search engines like Google.

But while students rely on search engines to find top schools, many higher education marketers overlook the importance of SEO. We listed 6 tips to get back on track with SEO best practices and climb search rankings.

Why is SEO So Important for Colleges and Universities?

Search engine ranking matters more than you may think. Statistics show that 28.5% of searchers click the top result, while only 4.8% make it to the second page of search results. The higher your college’s or university’s website ranks, the more prospective students will click on your website. But if you rank on page two and beyond, searchers may never find your institution.

Understanding search behavior is important for higher education SEO

Let’s do some math: The keyword “culinary school” gets ~8,100 searches per month. Assuming 28.5% of those clicks go to the first result, ranking for that term will give you ~2,308 clicks. Assuming a conversion rate of 10%, ranking for that term would give you an extra ~230 enquiries per month!

Being that all those clicks are “free”, in the sense that you don’t need to pay for the clicks, organic traffic is a valuable lead generation channel.

5 SEO Tips for Colleges and Universities

1. Perform a thorough SEO audit

Before you can build an effective SEO strategy, you need to understand which areas need work. That’s when a SEO audit comes into play. Tools like SEMrush, ahrefs, and Screaming Frog are a great starting point providing insights about your website’s health. If you want to dive deeper, we recommend working with a SEO professional who can read all technical and structural aspects of an audit.

2. Build content around searcher’s intent

It’s not uncommon for a higher education marketing professional to write site content that doesn’t align with search intent. A website like this can’t rank high, would you agree? A little research helps. Start by investigating your prospective student’s intent. Why did they perform a search? What are they looking to learn? Then, identify what search queries users type into the search box. This exercise will help you build a list of keywords to use across your site.

Identify a keyword strategy that involves a healthy mix of industry-standards and how prospective students may refer to programs or topics. Think “Industrial Organizational Psychology Degree Program” vs. “I/O psychology program”.

3. Optimize for local search to rank in local searches

When prospective students are looking for colleges or universities in a certain region, you want to make sure your institution is front and center. Claim your Google My Business listing and work on achieving NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency across your contact page and other local business directories.

This local SEO tactic can be automated using a local business management platform, such as Yext. Does your school have multiple campuses or offices? Create an individual Google My Business listing for each location.

Add each location as its own Google My Business listing.

4. Analyze and improve page speed

Let’s face it, nobody likes a slow loading site. But, besides upsetting users, slow page speed impacts SEO performance. Google’s Algorithm Speed Update announced page speed as a direct ranking factor. It also impacts search ranking indirectly because slow page speed increases bounce rate and reduces dwell time.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool analyzes your site’s speed and even provides recommendations for how to optimize it.

Image compression is an easy first step to reduce a page’s loading speed. Try free online tools like TinyPNG to quickly resize images before uploading them to your website.

5. Maintain brand consistency in Google search engine results page

How your institution is represented on Google search engine results page (SERP) is often a student’s first touchpoint with your brand. So, you should aim to give a good impression. While you can’t control what information things like Google Knowledge Panel pulls in directly, there are steps you can take to ensure accuracy:

Update Wikipedia and ensure all data is accurate and up-to-date
Claim your Google My Business profile and keep information up-to-date
Claim the Google Knowledge Panel to make recommendations and send feedback to Google
Consider paid partnerships with ranking sites that Google pull information from (such as US News and World Reports) and pay attention to how you’re submitting information

This is what Google SERP looks like for Miami International University of Art & Design.

6. Remove problematic subdomains that damage SEO performance

Lastly, review all existing subdomains. Are they currently managed and kept up-to-date by someone? Remove abandoned subdomains that can cause a bunch of technical SEO issues for a school’s website. Typically, these subdomains are for internal purposes, or course catalogs, but house the most critical SEO implications, potentially damaging SEO value and ranking ability.

How to Implement SEO Best Practices for Higher Education?

Dedicate some time every week to optimize your college’s or university’s website for SEO best practices. The tips we listed in this article are easy to implement in-house and are guaranteed to improve your site’s SEO ranking.
If you’re finding SEO too tricky, contact Mason Interactive’s higher education marketing experts for additional support and guidance.

Search engine optimization is a critical tactic for a D2C brand. Search engines originate a big chunk of online sales. You may ask, how big? 65% of all eCommerce sessions are generated through search traffic and 33% through organic search. Mason’s Director of SEO, Jenna Vaccaro, shares her search engine optimization tips for emerging D2C brands.

First, let’s drill down to the meaning of SEO, what is it and how does it work? “Simply put, search engine optimization is the process of driving more organic traffic to your website from search engines. Skillful SEO professionals focus on both, the quantity and quality of that traffic”, Jenna explains, “It’s a healthy mix of delivering content that potential customers are looking for now, ensuring the site is free of critical technical errors (hello page speed!), and implementing ongoing offsite strategies (including local SEO for eCommerce with physical locations). All the elements must work together in order to improve the most valuable KPIs. More traffic doesn’t always equal more sales.”

Step #1: Begin with Keyword Research

Any successful SEO journey starts with in-depth keyword research. Think of what your customers type into Google to find your product, or any kind of product in the same space. If you’re in a highly saturated direct-to-consumer market, it’s crucial to think of the entire competitive landscape. Thoughtful curation of content, from a user and from a search engine stand point, is the key. This applies across the website from the ‘About Us’ page to Product pages and everywhere in between.

Jenna recommends direct-to-consumer brands to focus on how the product is described. “The way you talk about your product doesn’t necessarily match what users are searching for. You may describe your product as X, but the masses search for Y”, Jenna said.

“It’s important to keep searchers’ intent in mind and optimize content to your ideal customers.”
Jenna Vaccaro, Director of SEO, Mason Interactive

Don’t Over-Optimize With Too Many Keywords

Now, what makes a good product description? From an user standpoint a good product description is descriptive, gives enough information about the product, and clearly describes why your product sets itself apart from competitors’ products. From a search standpoint, a good product description is written in a way that someone who is searching for keywords would be able to find your product. Jenna reminds D2C brands to maintain a good balance between SEO and brand identity. “Keep your brand in mind and avoid tarnishing the content with too many SEO keywords”, she recommends.

In addition, make sure all your website elements like structured data, reviews, rich snippets, and stock availability, are searchable and in Google’s preferred language (JSON-LD). Search engines might not be able to find you if the backend is not optimized for search.

SEO is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Jenna reminds eCommerce business owners and marketers that SEO is an ongoing effort, “it’s a common myth to think that SEO is a “one and done” strategy. But if you don’t maintain your SEO, you’ll lose your position on search results. Stay on top of Google’s algorithms that change several times each year. On top of that, direct-to-consumer brands can’t forget about seasonality changes and keeping up with competitors.”

Regular SEO audits are a must in your toolbox to identify possible errors and bugs. Let’s imagine a couple of scenarios of such errors for D2C brands:

You received a lot of good PR that links back to your site (Google likes, yay!). Since, you have made changes to your website and those links are now broken. As a result, all that press becomes worthless for SEO purposes.
The required fields are mislabeled in your organic shopping feed and Google won’t find your products. As a result, you risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in conversions.

Doing your SEO right will have a positive impact on your holistic D2C marketing strategy. “Always focus on omnichannel success. SEO gives you tons of findings to use for cross-channel marketing. Align the strategies and identify keywords that work best on all channels”, Jenna adds.

Are you ready to put these tips into action for your direct-to-consumer brand? A thorough SEO audit is a great place to start. Claim your free SEO audit here or contact us today to talk with our SEO experts.

What Does this Google Algo Update Mean?

For a few months now, Google has had the Core Web Vitals algorithm update looming over us. Originally set to launch in May, now pushed back to mid-June, this update is going to change the Google ranking algorithm to factor in a website’s core web vitals. What are core web vitals, you ask? These are metrics defined by Google that identify on-page experience for users.

Core web vitals identify on-page user experience

Photo: Developers.Google.com

The three aspects of core web vitals are load time (LCP), interactivity (FID), and visual stability (CLS). Core web vitals are broken down into Mobile and Desktop experience so rankings for both desktop and mobile could be affected.

Who Does The Update Affect?

The best way to think of the core web vitals on your site is to ask yourself: is my website loading slowly? If you answered yes, then the update could affect your site. That is not to say that all of the other ranking factors are no longer valuable in the Google Algorithm. If your site has amazing content, high-quality backlinks, but loads slowly then it’s likely that you won’t see drastic drops in rankings overnight. Core web vitals is just going to be yet another factor in the cog that is the Google Algorithm. Google stated:

“A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”

How to Prepare for Core Web Vitals

Once you’ve identified that your website is loading a bit slow, the next question to ask yourself is: what is slowing down my site? Google Search Console has a core web vitals tool that shows you if there are any glaring page experience offenders.

Google stated:

“Pages that receive a score of “good” on Core Web Vitals are achieving an aspirational level of user experience, and might get a boost in the page experience component of ranking, provided other components of the page experience signal (HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, etc) are deemed OK.”

If you have some pages that receive the grade of ‘needs improvement’ and ‘poor’ then there are improvements you can work towards. None of these issues can be fixed overnight, but more so worked towards. In the meantime of improving your page experience, it’s a great idea to look at what other ways your site can improve. SEO fundamentals are always going to be important when getting your website to rank.

Still have questions? The experts at Mason Interactive can help answer any questions. Contact us to get started.

In the beginning of December there was another Google core algorithm update, which would make that the third (and hopefully final) major algorithm update of 2020.

Here’s What We Know

Google is notoriously elusive when it comes to their algorithm updates. They usually announce them with little information on what they actually mean. Because of that, we monitor the SERPs and industry articles on the days preceding the Google announcement.

We know that there was a huge spike in ranking fluctuation on December 4th, 2020. Things seemed to have leveled out since then, but Google has reported that the update is still rolling out as of 12/10/20. Search Engine Land has put together some data on how the update has affected major industries.

Stay Calm & Stick to Best Practices

In these times when rankings appear to be fluctuating, it’s important to stay calm and not make any drastic changes. Google is never going to change the fundamentals of their algorithm, so it’s safe to say that if you stick to their best practices, your website will be okay. Here are some tips on how to follow best practices:

Have quality content that is updated regularly
Run site audits regularly and fix any major site health issues
Keep E-A-T in mind (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness)
Look at your website from a user’s perspective, not from a search engine’s perspective

Contact our SEO experts to schedule a free consultation and to learn more about SEO best practices.