Google Analytics Interview Questions and Answers 2017

1- What is meant by conversions and how will you track conversions through GA?

Conversions happens when any predefined goals are accomplished thereby generating ROI to the business. Proper goal URL's needs to be specified before GA can start tracking conversions. We need to define a goal URL through the Conversion section in GA and whenever the visitor reaches the predefined goal URL, a successful conversion gets tracked.

2- What is the difference between a visit and a session?

As per the current standards, sessions and visits are the same thing, there is no difference. Whenever a visitor enters the site, a session starts and lasts for 30 minutes. This counts to 1 visit and 1 session. 

3- What do you understand by assisted conversions?

On most of the cases, conversions do not happen using a single channel. often, more than one channel is included in a successful conversion. Assisted conversions helps us to get a clear idea as to which channels are involved in contributing a conversion. This is shown in the Multi Channel Funnel reporting tab in GA. Common channels contributing to conversions are direct, organic search, referral, not set, social network and email.

4- I want to track how many organic visits I am getting on a weekly basis for a predefined set of keywords. What is the best way to check that on a regular basis investing the least possible time?

We can create a custom dashboard and specify all the metrics and dimensions there. Creating a custom dashboard will save our time and allow us to check the status at any point of time during the week, month or day without applying filters every time.

5- How can I identify the keywords that are sending paid traffic to any site?

The keyword column displays traffic divided under paid and organic. We can easily identify the paid keywords by moving to the keywords section.

6- How will I identify the popular pages on my site?

The popular pages on the site are the top landing pages of my site. I can identify the top landing pages of my site by moving to the behavior section. This will display the top landing pages that are giving us the maximum visits.

7- How does Google calculates time on page?

Google puts a time stamp whenever any user lands on a specific page then it compares the time stamp of one page with the other. For example, any visitor enters the site on Page A and moves to Page B then lands to Page C and finally leaves the site. In this case, a time stamp is put on Page A suppose its 10:10, when the user moves to Page B, another time stamp is placed on Page B, suppose its 10:20 and then when the user lands on Page C, another time stamp is placed, lets say 10:30. Now to calculate time on Page A, Google will subtract the time stamp on Page B with that of A. In this case, 10:20-10:10 which will come to 10 minutes for Page A.

8- How can I identify where the visitors are clicking the most?

This can be seen with the help of In-Page Analytics.

9- Where can I find the UA tracking code?

The Universal Analytics tracking code can be found in the admin section of the web property.

10- By default, a session is of 30 minutes, is it possible to change the session time and make it 45 minutes?

Yes, we can set custom session timings by moving to the admin section and clicking on the session settings.

10. What is event tracking?

Event tracking involves includes the Google Analytics code customization and is utilized to track a specific occasion/action on a site like a tick, document download or some other change.

11. Which is more important – Bounce Rate or Exit Rate

Both are similarly imperative yet relies on upon the quantity of components like a high leave rate of a contact page/thanks page or a channel’s end page is characteristic.

12. Define Session, Users and Pageviews.

Session– In Google Analytics, a session is a gathering of connections that happen on your site inside a given date range. For instance a solitary session can contain site visits, social associations, occasions, and ecommerce exchanges.

Users- In Google Analytics the clients are, that have had no less than one session inside chose date

Pageviews- In Google Analytics the site hits is the aggregate number of pages saw. Counting the rehashed perspectives of a solitary page.

13. What are Google Analytics ‘Goals’ and why should I use them?

In Google Analytics the site hits is the aggregate number of pages saw. Counting the rehashed After introducing Google Analytics’ following code, your next step is to recognize what key site guest activities you need to screen. Google Analytics alludes to these as Goals, which you ought to use to gauge which sorts of substance pattern well with guests and which don’t.

Destination. A specific location within your website.

Duration. How long people website visits last.

Page Visit. Which pages and screens visitors view during a single visit.

Events. Actions visitors take during a visit, including ad clicks, social media shares.

14. Can I track my Google Adsense campaigns with Google Analytics?

Yes, Google Analytics measures the achievement of your Google Adsense. In the event that your goal is to create income through AdSense activities, Waisberg suggests utilizing Google Analytics’ Pages report. It gives a point by point perspective of which site page performed best regarding creating AdSense income and that’s just the beginning.

15. What is meant by conversions and how will you track conversions through GA?

Changes happens when any predefined objectives are refined consequently producing ROI to the business. Legitimate objective URL’s should be indicated before GA can begin following transformations. We have to characterize an objective URL through the Conversion segment in GA and at whatever point the guest comes to the predefined objective URL, a fruitful change gets followed.

16. What do you understand by assisted conversions?

On the greater part of the cases, changes don’t happen utilizing a solitary channel. regularly, more than one divert is incorporated into an effective change. Helped transformations helps us to get a reasonable thought as to which diverts are included in contributing a change. This is appeared in the Multi Channel Funnel reporting tab in GA. Normal channels adding to changes are immediate, natural hunt, referral, not set, informal organization and email.

17. How can I identify the keywords that are sending paid traffic to any site?

The keyword column displays traffic divided under paid and organic. We can easily identify the paid keywords by moving to the keywords section

18. How can I identify where the visitors are clicking the most?

This can be seen with the help of In-Page Analytics.

19. Where can I find the UA tracking code?

The Universal Analytics tracking code can be found in the admin section of the web property.

20. What is a Google Analytics Segment?

Similarly as with customary client sections in advertising, in Google Analytics, portions bunch guests who offer basic qualities. There are bunches of qualities of guests that are gathered as a matter of course by Google Analytics, from insights about their programs and screen sizes to the locales that they originate from and the sorts of pages they see.

21. If Channel X equally initiates and assists in conversions, what would its Assisted/Last Interaction Conversion value be?

It would be exactly 1.

22. What are some ways you can use profiles?

You can look all the more carefully at movement to one subdomain, you can look all the more carefully at activity to one catalog or segment of a site, and you can confine access to some portions of data.

23. How can you track user engagement on websites that use Flash or AJAX and are located on one HTML page?

Ans: You can use Event Tracking, or track interactions as Pageviews and set goals.

24. What is ‘Treemap’ in Google Analytics ?

At the end of 2014 the Treemaps report was discharged inside Google Analytics. The report imagines AdWords information by using settled rectangles and a red to green shading scale. The treemap permits to us to rapidly recognize the solid and feeble ranges of our records, helping us drive our regard for the right places.

25. What is difference between Goals & Funnels ?

A funnel conversion expect a particular way before the objective. For example, suppose you run a campaign for Widget An utilizing a presentation page with focused activity. You want to see the funnel conversion rate for that landing page, add to cart, then thank you page (in that specific order) to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. You see that specific funnel conversion rate is 2%.

For a goal conversion rate, all you care about is maximizing a conversion rate overall, all you think about is augmenting a transformation rate generally speaking. Suppose that objective is basically to build Widget A’s transformation rate (on your web properties) paying little heed to whether clients enter by means of that point of arrival or go to your general site

26. What are the three elements of Event Tracking?

Categories, Actions, and Labels.

27. How to set up install tracking for mobile apps ?

Step 1: Enable app install tracking in your account for android and iOS.

Step 2: Update your Analytics SDK for android and iOS.

28. What is In-Page Analytics ? 

In-Page Analytics allows to see what users are clicking on within each page.

29.  What is RPC in Google Analytics?

RPC stands for Revenue Per Click is a great metric available in Google Analytics for use E-Commerce tracking.

30. How does Google calculates time stamp on page?

Google keep a time stamp whatever any visitor comes on a particular page then it compares the time stamp of one page with the other page.

For instance, any user enters the site on Page 1 and moves to Page 2 then move to Page 3 lastly leaves the site. For this situation, a period stamp is put on Page 1 assume its 10:00, when the client moves to Page 2, some other time stamp is set on Page 2, assume its 10:10 and afterward when the visitor comes on Page 3, some other time stamp is set, lets say 10:15. Presently to compute time on Page 1, Google will subtract the time stamp on Page 2 with that of 1. For this situation, 10:10-10:00 which will come to 10 minutes for Page 1.

31. How will I identify the popular pages on my site?

The top landing pages visits by users are popular pages on site. We can see top landing pages using Google analytic moving to the behavior section.

32. What is “Not Set” and “Not Provided” in Google Analytics?

(Not Provided) = Organic visits via Keyword Search

Google switched to a secure server (https) in 2011 which encrypts search results. When you’re logged into Google (i.e. Gmail, Calendar or YouTube) that time your searches become protected so all keyword data show as (not provided) in Google Analytics.

(Not Set) = A direct or a referral visits

This can be a little more complicated, but basically refers to a catch-all for facts Google Analytics wasn’t capable to identify.

SEO Interview Questions and Answers 2017

1- Tell me something about yourself?
Seo Job Interview Questions and How to answer them
Seo Job Interview

You should brief your interviewer about your family, your educational background and your work experience.

2- What was the recent update which Google had and what changes would you suggest for it?

Google recently had the Hummingbird update which was a change in the core search algorithm. Google moved from keyword based searching to concept based searching. It included semantic level analysis in order to find out real answers and searcher's intent behind the user query. I would add comprehensive and fresh content to my site after the Hummingbird update.

Prior to the Hummingbird update, Google had the Penguin update which was a measure to control web spam. Penguin update had penalized websites which had a spammy backlinking profile and returned more semantic results. Semantic results were based on the relationship between words present on the search query. Penguin trusted sites that had original and good content, fresh content, good social media presence and quality organic links.

3- What all verticals have you handled in your SEO career so far?

Verticals means on what themes of websites have you worked so far- this may include education, real estate, IT, travel, Shopping, jobs etc.

4- What do you know about Google Panda update?

The Panda update was done to improve the quality of search results in Google. Panda update also known as the farmer update was done to eliminate content farms which provided less user friendly experience. It used machine language scalability as one of the important metrics for judging relevancy of a web page. All the focus was transformed on the user and now quality content , proper design, proper speed, proper use of images and videos, content to ad ratio all mattered more after the Panda update. You need to optimize your site for better clickthrough rate and a less bounce rate.

5- What is Google Sandbox in SEO?
Google Sandbox is an imaginary area where new and less authoritative sites are kept for a specified time period until they establish themselves of being displayed on the search results. It happens by building too many links within a short period of time.

6- What is the difference between on page seo and off page seo?

On page seo means optimizing your website and making changes on title, meta tags, site structure, site content, solving canonicalization problem, managing robots.txt etc.

Off page optimization means optimizing your web presence which involves backlink building and social media promotion.

7- How will you solve canonicalization issue or what is .htacess file?
.htacess file is used to solve the canonicalization issue of a website. It may happen that the home page of the site may take several urls like http://www.example.com or http://www.example.com/index.html or http://example.com . The search engines might treat these url as different and may divide the link juice gained by having various backlinks made with any of these 3 urls. The link juice gets divided between these three urls equally. .htacess file is created to have a single url of the home page so that the link juice is passed onto single url.

8- What is keyword stemming in SEO?

Keyword stemming is the process of finding out the root word from the search query. A query having the word “ playful” would be broken down to the word “play” with the help of stemming algorithm. The search results returned would be having the word ” play” in it.

9- What is LSI?

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. It is a data retrieval technique which finds connection between words and the use of synonyms while fetching data from the index.

10- What do you know about the Florida update?

Florida update happened on November 16th 2003. This update applied stemming, maintained local rank, penalized over optimized sites by applying filter etc. In short, it modified the search results before presenting it to the user by applying filters.

11- What are the limitations of title and description tags?

Title tag can be between 66-70 characters and meta description tag can be between 160-170 characters.

12- Does Google uses keyword tags?

No, Google does not make use of keyword tags.

13- What is 301 redirect?

It is a method of redirecting user from the old page url to the new page url. 301 redirect is a permanent redirect and is helpful in passing the link juice from the old url to the new url.

14- What was your exact job profile in your previous company?

Provide a suitable explanation about your job profile which would include your job responsibilities and the amount of work you have handled so far.

15- What do you understand by Cloaking?

Cloaking involves using deceptive techniques which presents the user with a different version of the webpage than that presented to the search engines.

16- What tools do you use for doing seo?

I use Google webmaster tools, Google Analytics, Open site explorer, Alexa, Ahrefs,Website grader etc.

See:- List of free seo tools

17- What are your good qualities?
You will have to answer here about your good qualities like- I am hardworking, sincere, punctual, love to accept challenges etc.

18- What is the difference between Seo and Sem?

Seo stands for Search Engine Optimization while Sem stands for Search Engine Marketing. Seo provides organic traffic to a website with the help of search engines while Sem involves the use of Google adwords and other paid channels of advertising.

19- What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It is a form of advertising methodology in which the advertiser pays for every click on their ads. Google uses this form of advertising in its channel of advertising called Adwords.

20- Which is better Robots.txt or Meta Robots Tag?

Meta Robots tag is much better as it helps in forcing the search engine crawlers not to index and display the hidden pages in your server.

21- Do you use separate Seo strategies for Google,Yahoo and Bing?

Yes I use separate strategies for Google,Yahoo and other search engines.More backlinks are required for Google .It pays more attention to backlinks and site authority while Yahoo and Bing pays more attention to title and Meta tags. Hence, a site takes time to rank on Google as compared to Yahoo and Bing.

22- How will you increase the Pagerank of a page?

By building more backlinks from authority sites and high page rank webpages.

23- How will you check the number of backlinks of your competitors site?

With the help of the link operator on Google and by using various external tools like Alexa, Backlink Watch , Open Site Explorer, Backlink finder etc.

24- Which is more important- Building backlinks to a website or building great content?

Both are important. Building great content is necessary as it is your first step towards ranking ;and building backlinks helps to build authority to your website and is an important metric for ranking well. Hence both should go parallel and both are equally important.

25- Who is Matt Cutts?
Matt Cutts is the head of Google's web spam team.

26- If a website has a search engine saturation of 40% , what does that mean?

It means 40% of web pages from that particular website are indexed by the search engine.

27- What do you mean by anchor text?

Clickable text written on an hyperlink is known as anchor text. It is of great value to the search engines and is used for evaluating the relevance of web pages with respect to search queries.

28- How will you treat Web standards while optimizing a website?

Google loves web standards hence I will apply the web standards provided by W3C while optimizing a web site.

29- What methods would you apply for decreasing the loading time of a website?

I would use external style sheets, less images (unless necessary), optimize the images and decrease the file sizes of the image without reducing the quality of the image, use CSS sprites to reduce HTTP requests etc.

30- Which tools do you use for choosing keywords?

I use Google Keyword tool, Wordtracker tool, Wordstream, Seo book keyword tool etc.

*Remember certain tools are paid but you may use the trial version for some days.

31- What blogs and sites do you regularly visit to update yourself?
I follow Matt Cutts blog. Seomoz blog, Seochat forums, Searchengineland.com,Seo book, Seosandwitch, Seroundtable, Seobythesea, seochat etc.

32- What are doorway pages?

These are pages that are specially created to rank high on search engines using deceptive techniques.Doorway pages do not provide useful content but instead redirect users to the main page.

33- What are the Social Media channels you have used for marketing?

I have used blogs like blogger,wordpress,typepad, tumblr etc, social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Stumbleupon, Delicious etc., social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc., Video Sharing sites like Youtube,Vimeo etc.

34- What would you suggest to the client who has a website made on Flash? How would you do Seo for that site?

Search engines find it harder to parse the contents presented using Flash. I would suggest the client to use an alternative to flash like HTML 5.

35- What do you understand by Frames in HTML?

A frame is a HTML technique which divides the content of a page onto several parts. Search engines see Frames as completely different pages and as such Frames have a negative impact on Seo. We should avoid the usage of Frames and use basic HTML instead.

36- Which is the popular search engine in Russia?

Yandex is popular in Russia.

37- If the meta robots tag has a value of "no index, no follow" what does it mean?

It means the search engine crawlers would not index the contents and would not follow the links present on the page.

38- Who is Rand Fishkin?

Rand Fishkin is the CEO and Co founder of Seomoz, the most popular seo software in the world. He started the informative "White Board Friday" series for explaining the concepts related to Seo and search engines.

39- How will you restrict the search engine crawlers from indexing a folder named "Secret" that is present in the root?
The following code when added on the robots.txt text file would restrict the crawlers from accessing the folder

User-agent:*
Disallow: /Secret/

40 - What do you understand by Google Dance?

Google Dance happens when major updates happen on the database maintained by Google. Constant shuffling leads to unstable rankings of the Web Pages.This continues for some days and is known as Google dance. It was witnessed in the past before the real time searching happened. Now, Google updates its index almost everyday and changes are witnessed narrowly.

41- Which are the top 3 social media websites that you will suggest to your client for SMO work?

I would suggest Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

42- How does Google Plus helps in Seo?

Google Plus helps the promoted web pages to get plus ones which are considered as genuine votes by Google. More plus ones helps to enhance our search engine rankings. Moreover,it helps to get high rankings in personalized search results where our friends can see the web pages shared and promoted by us.

Read more here:- Using Google Plus for Seo

43- What is a Pizza Box in terms of Google?
Google server comes in a standard case which is commonly known as "Pizza Box".

44- How important is to have a keyword in a domain name?

After the recent EMD update, the weightage on the presence of keyword on a domain has reduced. It is therefore important to go for a domain name that can focus on building a brand rather than using only keywords which could make a domain look spammy. Although having keywords in the domain helps but it would work only if the combination comes out as brandable. Some popular examples of website which succeded without having keywords in it are flipkart.com, myntra.com, ebay.com, digg.com, reddit.com and ofcoz google.com etc. But, there are some themes where the presence of keywords becomes necessary like the presence of the keyword "recipes" in allrecipes.com or the presence of the word "food" in the domain foodnetwork.com . Hence, its important to take decisions based on the theme you need to target.

45- What do you understand by "Engagement Metrics" with relation to social media?

Engagement metrics comprises of information which is used to measure the importance of user (customer) engagement with respect to a particular social data.Some example includes likes, retweets, plus ones, clicks, favorites, repins, comments etc.

46- What are your favorite ways of attracting natural backlinks to your site?
Having user friendly content on the site is the best way to attract natural backlinks but one of my favorite ways of attracting natural backlinks is by offering free widgets and free infographics to my audience.

47- Have you heard about ASO?
ASO stands for App Store Optimization which is a process of improving the visibility of mobile apps on app stores like iTunes and Google Play.

48- How can you search with the exact keywords you type on Google without using quotes?

We can use the Verbatim tool in order to search with the exact keywords entered on Google.

49- What do you understand by Google Authorship and how can you use it for Seo benefits?

Google Authorship allows you to link your Google Plus Profile to the content you create. This is a way to enhance the overall user experience and stop spamming. Results containing content from original and reputed authors are valued highly by Google and chances of spamming are also reduced. Hence, implementing Google Authorship is really useful for Seo as it helps a webpage to rank higher based on the author rank.

Read more:- How to Make Full Use of Google Authorship Profile

50- How can you make a website mobile friendly?

I will create a mobile friendly version of the website for Googlebot-Mobile, use meta.txt for specifying special instructions to mobile search engine crawlers, use mobile.xml sitemap and will have mobile optimized content on the site.

Read more:- Mobile Seo

51- What is the difference between clicks and visits in Google Analytics?
Clicks indicates the number of times any user clicks on an ad while visits indicates the number of unique sessions each visits create.

Read more:- Difference between clicks and visits

52- How can you track Facebook likes using Google Analytics?

We can do this with the help of social interaction web tracking. I will add a custom script using FB.Event.subscribe function to start tracking clicks. ( Learn how to track Facebook likes )

53- How will you plan an Seo strategy for a website already affected by Penguin update?

Penguin update deals with scanning through the link profile of a website. I will scan the links pointing to the site using tools like ahrefs and prepare a list of low quality links. I will make every effort to get those links removed like emailing the webmaster. If somehow, I am unable to remove some links then I will use the disavow links tool to devalue the remaining links from harming the site. Apart from this, I will plan a link bait strategy to get some high authority links in order to increase the reputation of the site. This will surely help a site to recover from the effects of the Penguin update.

54- What is the difference between HTML sitemaps and XML sitemaps?

HTML sitemaps are created for the user and contains a basic structure for displaying all the pages of the website in a hierarchy. XML sitemaps are created for the search engines and helps a search engine bot to easily cache, index and discover new pages.

55- How many keywords do you think are enough to target on a web page?

There are virtually no limits on the number of keywords that we can target on a web page. Best approach is to focus on our main keyword and all the secondary keywords would find way for itself in the search engines. The old method of targeting 3 keywords per web page does not works any more. You can have 10-15 keywords or even more to target on a single web page.

56- What is the difference between soft 404 and 404 errors? How will you find and remove these errors?

A 404 error is returned when the browser requests a resource from the web server and the server is unable to find that resource so it returns 404 file not found error. On the other hand, soft 404 error is returned when the browser requests a resource from the web server and the server returns 200 OK response for a file that does not exist on the server. Hence, in both the cases, file is not present on the server but in case of soft 404 the server returns 200 OK response code by mistake. We can find out these errors with the help of Google Webmasters Tool and we can either remove them by adding proper redirects and by creating a custom 404 page for helping the user in proper navigation while browsing the site.

57- Is there a limit to robots.txt file?
Yes, googlebot reads the first 500 KB present in the robots.txt file.

Additional Kinds of Tracking Through Google Analytic

Download link tracking

Clicks on links to downloadable files (e.g. PDF, AVI, WMV) can be tracked as Events or virtual pageviews. When you set up an Event to track clicks on a link, Analytics counts the clicks as event hits. When you set up a virtual pageview to track clicks on a link, Analytics counts the clicks as page hits.

To track clicks as Events:

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, read Analytics Events.
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, read Event Tracking - Web Tracking on Analytics Developers.

To track clicks as pageviews:

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, read about the Analytics tag.
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, read Page Tracking - Web Tracking on Analytics Developers.

Flash tracking

If you want to track data activity on your Flash elements or Flash-based website, see Analytics Tracking for Adobe Flash on Analytics Developers.

Ecommerce tracking

To set up Ecommerce tracking:

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, read Ecommerce Tracking (Universal Analytics).
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, refer to Ecommerce Tracking - Web Tracking or Enhanced Ecommerce - Web Tracking on Analytics Developers.

Event tracking

With Events, you can track interactions with elements embedded in your pages and screens, like buttons, links, videos, and gadgets.

To track Events:

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, read Analytics Events.
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, read Event Tracking - Web Tracking on Analytics Developers.

Custom dimensions

Custom dimensions let you collect and analyze data that Analytics doesn't automatically track. You can, for example, use custom dimensions to define user types, like member and non-member.

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, refer to the Analytics tag reference.
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, read Custom Dimensions and Metrics - Web Tracking onAnalytics Developers.

User timings

Analytics automatically tracks page and screen load times, but you can also set up customized tracking to measure how long it takes for Ajax-based operations and resources to load.

• If you use Google Tag Manager to manage your Analytics Tracking, refer to the Analytics tag reference.
• If you have Analytics tracking added directly to your site, read User Timings - Web Tracking on Analytics Developers.

Choose Event Type

(https://raventools.com/marketing-reports/google-analytics/event-tracking/affiliate-link/)

• Affiliate Link ⇢

Optional Goal Setup

After you add the event tracking code to your site, you may want to setup a goal in Google Analytics that's related to the event. Follow these instructions to setup the goal.

1. Login to Google Analytics and click on Admin in the main navigation.
2. Select the Account and Property where you want to create the goal. Under the View list, click onGoals
3. Click on the New Goal button, click on the Custom radio button and then click on the Next step button.
4. Name the goal and select the Event radio button.
5. Populate all of the relevant goal details (in bold):
   • Category | that matches |
   • Action | that matches |
   • Label | that matches |
   • Value | that matches |
6. Click the Create Goal button. You're done!

• Article Rating ⇢

If you give visitors the ability to rate your content, you can easily set up an event to track just how often they are being rated. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for rating articles, then add the code to the article rating button to track the event.

• Blog Comment ⇢

Ever wonder which posts received the most blog comments? Wish you could easily tell without mining through your archives? Using event tracking in Google Analytics we can set up blog comments as a goal in Google Analytics. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for blog comments, then add the code to the blog comment button to track the event.

• Contact Form ⇢

Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for a Contact Form. Then add the code to the submission link or button for your Contact Form to track the event.

• File Download ⇢

Have a whitepaper or some other file available for download on your site? With event tracking in Google Analytics you can track the number of times a particular file has been downloaded. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for file downloads, then add the code to the file download link to track the event.

• General Event ⇢

You can create events around any type of link. If there is an event that you didn't see listed above (such as an account login), you can create that event here. Just fill out the form below and add the event tracking script to your link where indicated. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for a general event, then add the code to the link to track the event.

• Live Chat ⇢

To track the number of live chats initiated on your website, we'll need to set up an event in Google analytics. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for a live chat, then add the code to the link to track the event.

• Newsletter Signup ⇢

Ever wish you could easily track how many people have signed up for your newsletter without having to log in to an ESP like Campaign Monitor? You can actually tag your newsletter links in Google Analytics to count any click on your signup button as an event. Then you'll be able to easily measure which blog posts lead to the most signups. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for a newsletter signup, then add the code to the link to track the event.

• Product Rating ⇢

If you give visitors the ability to rate your products, you can easily set up an event to track just how often they are being rated. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for rating products, then add the code to the product rating button to track the event.

• RSS Subscription ⇢

Ever wish you could easily track how many people have subscribed to your RSS feed without having to log in to a service like FeedPress? You can actually tag your RSS subscription links in Google Analytics to count any click on your subscription button as an event. Then you'll be able to easily measure which blog posts lead to the most subscriptions. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for an RSS subscription, then add the code to the link to track the event.

• User Registration ⇢

Ever wish you could easily track how many people have subscribed to your RSS feed without having to log in to a service like FeedPress? You can actually tag your RSS subscription links in Google Analytics to count any click on your subscription button as an event. Then you'll be able to easily measure which blog posts lead to the most subscriptions. Use the form to build GA Event tracking code for an RSS subscription, then add the code to the link to track the event.

• Video ⇢

If you have videos on your site, you may want to know how your visitors are interacting with them. How many visitors played the video? How many watch until the end? Do people who watch the video convert more often than those that don't? By implementing event tracking on your videos you can answer these questions.

A Penguin’s The Latest Update 2016

What should SEOs do to make the best of the new Penguin update? Perhaps not much. Columnist Dave Davies notes that while Penguin 4.0 was indeed significant, things ultimately haven't changed that much.

For the last four-plus years now, we’ve heard a lot about Penguin. Initially announced in April 2012, we were told that this algorithm update, designed to combat web spam, would impact three percent of queries.

More recently, we’ve witnessed frustration on the part of penalized website owners at having to wait over a year for an update, after Google specifically noted one was coming “soon” in October of 2015.

In all the years of discussion around Penguin, however, I don’t believe any update has been more fraught with confusing statements and misinformation than Penguin 4.0, the most recent update. The biggest culprit here is Google itself, which has not been consistent in its messaging.

And this is the subject of this article: the peeling away of some of the recent misstated or just misunderstood aspects of this update, and more importantly, what it means for website owners and their SEOs.

So, let’s begin.

What is Penguin?

Note: We’re going to keep this section short and sweet — if you want something more in-depth, you should begin by reading Danny Sullivan’s article on the initial release of Penguin, “Google Launches ‘Penguin Update’ Targeting Webspam In Search Results.” You can also browse Search Engine Land’s Penguin Update section for all the articles written here on the topic.

The Penguin algorithm update was first announced on April 24, 2012, and the official explanation was that the algorithm targeted web spam in general. However, since the biggest losses were incurred by those engaged in manipulative link schemes, the algorithm itself was viewed as being designed to punish sites with bad link profiles.

I’ll leave it at that, with the assumption that I shouldn’t bore you with additional details on what the algorithm was designed to do. Let’s move now to the confusion.

Where’s the confusion?

Until Penguin 4.0 rolled out on September 23, 2016, there really wasn’t a lot of confusion around the algorithm. The entire SEO community — and even many outside it — knew that the Penguin update demoted sites with bad links, and it wasn’t until it was next updated that an affected site could expect some semblance of recovery.

The path was clear: a site would get hit with a penalty, the website owner would send out requests to have offending links removed, those that couldn’t be removed would be added to a disavow list and submitted, and then one would simply wait.

However, things got more complicated with this most recent update — not because the algorithm itself got any more difficult to understand, but rather because the folks at Google did.

In essence, there were only a couple of major changes with this update:

1. Penguin now runs in real time. Webmasters impacted by Penguin will no longer have to wait for the next update to see the results of their improvement efforts — now, changes will be evident much more quickly, generally not long after a page is recrawled and reindexed.
2. Penguin 4.0 is “more granular,” meaning that it can now impact individual pages or sections of a site in addition to entire domains; previously, it would act as a site-wide penalty, impacting rankings for an entire site.

It would seem that there isn’t a lot of room for confusion here on first glance. However, when the folks at Google started adding details and giving advice, that ended up causing a bit of confusion. So let’s look at those to get a better understanding of what we’re expected to do.

Disavow files

Rumor had it, based on statements by Google’s Gary Illyes, that a disavow file is no longer necessary to deal with Penguin-related ranking issues.

This is due to a change in how Penguin 4.0 deals with bad links: they now devalue the links themselves rather than demoting the site they’re linking to.

Now, that seems pretty clear. If you read Illyes’ statements in the article linked above, there are a few takeaways:

1. Spam is devalued, rather than sites being demoted.
2. There’s less need to use a disavow file for Penguin-related ranking penalties.
3. Using the disavow file for Penguin-related issues can help Google help you, but it is more specifically useful for sites under manual review.

The disavow takeaway

The takeaway here is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. There is no change. If you’ve used unethical link-building strategies in the past and are considering submitting a disavow file — good, you should do that. If you haven’t used such strategies, then you shouldn’t need to; if Google finds bad links to your site, they’ll simply devalue them.

Of course, it was once also claimed that negative SEO doesn’t work, meaning a disavow wasn’t necessary for bad links you didn’t build. This was obviously not the case, and negative SEO did work (and may well still), so you should be continuing to monitor your links for bad ones and adding them to your disavow file periodically. After all, if bad links couldn’t negatively impact your site, there would be no need for a disavow at all.

And so, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Keep doing what you’ve been doing.

The source site?

In a recent podcast over on Marketing Land, Gary Illyes explains that under Penguin, it’s not the target site of the link that matters, it’s the source. This doesn’t just include links themselves, but other signals a page sends to indicate that it’s likely spam.

So, what we just were informed is that the value of a link comes from the site/page it’s on and not where it’s pointing. In other words, when you’re judging your inbound links, be sure to look at the source page and domain of those links.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Your links are labeled

In the same podcast on Penguin, it came to light that Google places links on a page into categories, including things like:

• footer;
• Penguin-impacted; and
• disavowed.

It was suggested that there are other categories, but they weren’t named. So, what really does this mean?

It means what we all pretty well knew was going on for about a decade. We now have a term to use to describe it (“labels”) rather than simply understanding that a page is divided into sections, and the sections that are the most visible and more likely to be engaged with hold the highest value (with regard to both content and links).

Additionally, we already knew that links that were disavowed were flagged as such.

There is one new side

The only really new piece of information here is that either Google has replaced a previous link weighting system (which was based on something like visibility) with a labeling system, or they have added to it. Essentially, it appears that where previously, content as a whole may have been categorized and links included in that categorization, now a link is given one or possibly multiple labels.

So, this is a new system and a new piece of information, which brings us to…

The link labeling takeway

Knowing whether the link is being labeled or simply judged by its position on the page — and whether it’s been disavowed or not — isn’t particularly actionable. It’s academically interesting, to be sure, and I’m certain it took Google engineers many days or months to get it figured out (maybe that’s what they’ve been working on since last October). But from an SEO’s perspective, we have to ask ourselves, ”What really changed?”

Nothing. You will still be working to develop highly visible links, placed contextually where possible and on related sites. If this strays far from what you were doing, you likely weren’t doing your link building correctly to begin with. I repeat: the more things change, the more they stay the same.