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How To Know If Your Online Ad On Another Website Is Driving Traffic To Your Website

You don’t have to guess or rely on information provided by a prospect (who reaches out to your organization because of an ad or some other marketing activity) to figure out if the online ads you paid to have placed on an external website are working for you. It’s much more accurate to gauge the effectiveness of your online ads through information available via GA Google Analytics than rely on individuals who answer inquiry calls for your organization, or on the caller to remember how they learned about you.

Using Google Analytics (GA4 Analytics) To See If Your Online Ads Are Generating Results

Let’s say you bought an ad on my website, allintheresults.com. You can check your Google Analytics traffic acquisition reports to see if any readers of/visitors to the allintheresults.com website were “referred” to your site because they clicked on your ad that was displayed at allintheresults.com

STEP 1. Log into your Google Analytics Account at https://analytics.google.com.

Image Of A Screen Print Taken From Google Analytics Home Page

STEP 2. Click on the reports icon (square with bar graph in it) found in the menu bar on the left-most side of your dashboard

Image Taken From Print Screen While In Google Analytics

STEP 3. Click on “Acquisition”

Image Taken Of Print Screen During Google Analytics Session

STEP 4. Click on “User Acquisition”

Image Of Google Analytics Reports

STEP 5. In the center of the screen where it shows your various sources of traffic, including referral traffic, click on the “+” sign to the right of the words “First User…Primary Channel Group”

Image Of Google Analytics GA4 Reporting

STEP 6. Select “Traffic Source” from the menu that appears

Image Of Google Analytics Report Taken Via Print Screen

STEP 7. Then select “Cross Channel User Source,” and then, “First User Source/Medium”

Image Of Google Analytics Report Tool

STEP 8. Now scroll thru the report generated (note make sure you scroll thru all the pages of the report) and look for any website that is listed as a referral source. If ads you were running on allintheresults.com were driving traffic to your website, you would see that as a referral source and the number of users that landed on your website as a result of clicking on your ad housed at allintheresults.com

Note that referral traffic doesn’t have to come from an ad you purchased on an external website. It can come because there is a link on an external website or property to your website (known as a backlink), such as one on social media profile/presence to our website, as shown below.

My SEO consulting firm is not currently running any external ads on social media, but you’ll see having a social media presence on LinkedIn and Facebook is causing individuals to click on links in our profiles or our posts to visit our website.

STEP 9. Check the two left-most columns in the report that is shown in the middle of your Google Analytics screen to see if a website is listed as a referral in the left-most column or if the word “referral” is listed after the name of the website in the second column. If that is the case for a particular website, then that means visitors are coming to your website because of clicking on an ad (that has a hyperlink to your site associated with it) or from a backlink on an external site. And, you can see in the report the number of visitors who came to your site from the external site in-question.

If you don’t see the website listed from whom you purchased an ad, then, it’s very likely the ad has not generated any clicks, and ultimately, visits to your website. But, you should reach out to the website you bought the advertising with to discuss this.

Our SEO Consultants Are Here To Help With All Your Online Advertising Needs

Whether you are looking to run paid search advertising (Google, Microsoft Bing Ads), Google Display ads or ads that run on an external website from whom you can purchase advertising directly, or social media ads (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), we can help set up, monitor, optimize and report on your online advertising campaigns. So, reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about your online advertising opportunities. We can help you figure out if online advertising makes sense for your particular organization and what kind.

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Why You Shouldn’t Leave Your Website Posts or Pages Stranded

As we called out in our recent blog post that highlighted the SEO (search engine optimization) benefits of running website diagnostics reports, often organizations neglect to position their website as well as possible from an SEO standpoint, and therefore, miss out on opportunities to be found by searchers conducting relevant searches in relevant geographies.

One missed SEO opportunity that would be identified by running website diagnostics reports is if your website has a lot of what’s known as “orphan” pages or blog posts.

What Is An Orphan Website Page Or Post?

An orphan website post or website page is a page or post that resides on your site to which no other pages or your posts on your website link. As we called out in this blog post about the types of website links search engines value and reward sites for, inner-page and inner-post links not only support SEO, but they also provide for a better user experience. By providing a link from one page or one post on your website to another post or page on your site that you believe a visitor reading a particular page or post of your site would find helpful, you are providing for a favorable user experience and making sure visitors’ questions get answered — something that AI search engines love!

Sure as an SEO consulting firm and company, we love inner-page and inner-post links because they support websites ranking well in search engines, but we also believe the following. Every business owner’s and every employee’s time is precious. A lot of time and energy goes into creating helpful and interesting website content, so why not capitalize on it by making sure as many as possible visitors to your website who might have an interest in the content are made aware of it.

image of an old, large boat on a beach that has been abandoned

Inner-Page Links Help You Avoid A Huge SEO Mistake

Per our recent blog post about why you should avoid duplicate content, it’s far better from an SEO standpoint to link to content (from which visitors would benefit) that appears on another site page or vs. to duplicate/repeat it.

So, don’t leave your priceless and helpful website content stranded and feeling like an orphan, start linking to it from other appropriate places on your website!

Struggling To Understand SEO Opportunities and SEO Errors?

Schedule a free complimentary consultation with our SEO consulting firm today!

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Why Walking And SEO Require The Same Mentality

If you regularly read our digital marketing blog, you know that I blog most frequently about two topics about which I’m particularly passionate — SEO (search engine optimization) and walking. It’s been a while since we put up a brand new walking-related post. But, as we write and post this, it’s Veterans Day, and unlike most Mondays, I was able to squeeze in a walk today during business hours. Usually, Mondays are our SEO consulting firm’s busiest day of the week because our search-engine-optimization and other-digital-marketing clients come back on the communications grid after being away from their offices over the weekend and/or we’ve got a bunch of work-related e-mails to respond to that came in over the weekend. But, with it being a federal holiday, it’s been far calmer on the e-communications front. The only e-mails we are getting today are from fellow marketing consultants! So, it felt right and perfect to squeeze in a mid-afternoon walk on a sixty-something-degree November day!

This image shows the backside of a woman walking on dirt path somewhere who is wearing a bright orange sweater or sweatshirt and black leggings, plus pink sneakers and who has her heads toughing the top of her head. It is fall day and the sun is shining thru the branches on trees and thru leaves, but some leaves have already fallen and cover the path she is walking on.

Don’t Get Out Of SEO Shape. Stay SEO Strong!

In addition to being able to walk today, from a time and workload perspective, I needed to walk. I’d been under-the-weather for about a week with a bad head cold, and I hadn’t gotten my almost-daily walk in since I became sick. That meant, I was a little bit out of shape and I walked slightly slower than usual and was able to walk less far. Like walking, whether it be related to my own business or a client’s, I’ve found it best to keep up with SEO regularly. How? By, at least twice-a-month, putting up fresh content — whether that be in the form of a blog post, new question and answer for an existing FAQ, or some other kind of updated/new content from which target audiences would benefit.

The more you stick to a schedule and stay in SEO shape, the easier it seems to be to stay on that path, and keep producing effective content that addresses the needs of your audience, i.e., helpful content. Plus, if you keep doing the aforementioned, the less likely your organization’s will slide significantly backwards in search-engine results, and the less you’ll need to invest a large chunk of time all at once to try to regain the ground you lost on the SEO front.

In addition to consistency, as we shared in this past blog post about what exercise of any kind/exercise in general has in common with SEO, search-engine optimization success requires patience. You’re not going to be able to walk or run at your desired pace from the get-go, i.e., when you first start a walking or running program. And, you’re not going to be able to go the distance you want either. You’ve got to stay patient, while continuing to move forward and achieve small successes.

Our Boston SEO Company/SEO Consulting Firm Is Here To Help!

As we also called out in our above-mentioned blog post about what staying in shape and SEO have in common, staying in shape and SEO often require support from a partner.

Our team of SEO consultants is here to take your SEO journey with you every step of the way! In fact, we’ll document results to remind you where you came from, what you’ve accomplished, and what goals you should be setting next and suggested tactics to achieve them. Reach out today for a complimentary SEO discussion today!

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A Day In The Life Of An SEO Consultant

If you’re considering a career in digital marketing, and particularly within that, a specialty or expertise in SEO (search engine optimization), read on to learn what a typical work day look likes.

How An SEO Consultant Starts Her Day

8:30a.m. – 9:30a.m.

Check/read (and send response e-mail) e-mails, which inevitably include the following:

  • Notifications from paid search (SEM) ad platforms (Google Ads or Microsoft (Bing) Ads) about:
    • Policy changes that have caused a Google or Bing Search Ad to be disapproved
    • Ad extensions and ads that have become disapproved because “page destinations” are no longer working (sometimes, clients of ours take down or move website pages to which site links (one form of ad extension/asset) point or ads point and forget to let me know that pages have been taken down, moved, etc.
    • Payment form (credit card) can’t be charged — therefore, the credit card information that a client provided to Google Ads or Microsoft Ads is no longer accurate/has changed
  • E-blasts and e-newsletters about SEO and invites to various SEO webinars and classes (due to the large # of search engine optimization experts we follow)
  • Client questions about how well their website is or isn’t ranking in search engines, particularly Google
  • Questions or comments from other marketing professionals with whom I collaborate, including social media specialists, branding/graphic design specialists, and website designers and developers
This is an image of Gail Snow Moraski, our Boston SEO Company's Founder/Owner Who Is An SEO Consultant. Gail has blonde shoulder length hair and is waring and orange crew-necked sweater that reads "Carpe Diem" She is wearing classes and smiling and is standing in front of a field of black-eyed Susans in her backyard.

9:30 a.m. – noon

  • Use Google Analytics data, Google Search Console data, paid search platforms, and SEO rankings audit reports to analyze and document KPIs (key performance indicators) for upcoming monthly/standing client meetings
  • Have a mid-to-late morning #SEOStrong snack, particularly one with lots of protein like swiss cheese or hummus because you definitely need a sharp brain and a lot of energy to do SEO work!
  • Employ “Answer The Public” and Google Ads keyword planner tools to conduct keyword research in relevant geographies using approved “inputs” from client about what terms they believe their target audiences would use to identify someone who offers the services, products, and solutions to problems they offer
  • Check client Google Ad and Microsoft Bing Ad campaigns (including Google Nonprofit Ad Grant ones) to see how they are performing, including reviewing cost-per-click (CPC) and click-thru rate (CTR); plus, review and apply or dismiss recommendations from Ad platform to improve optimization score, and check for appropriateness of “search terms” for which ad platforms are serving up ads.

12p.m. – 6:00p.m.

  • Review SEO diagnostics reports to determine possible website issues and/or missed SEO opportunities related to a particular client’s website ranking situation.
  • Facilitate client discussion about next steps/implications of their SEO rankings audit, diagnostics reports, and/or monthly KPIs. Where do we go from here to move the SEO needle and drive more relevant searchers to the client’s website in the month ahead?
  • Write a blog post for my own website or for a client website to support SEO by addressing topics and answering questions that are important to clients, but also to show search engines, that the website in-question is being kept “fresh”
  • Write and enter SEO page/post title tags (this might be in WIX, GoDaddy, Joomla, WordPress, Expression Engine, or a propriety software such as a CMS platform used in a particular industry), and submit the revised pages/posts for indexing by Google and/or Bing using Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.

7:00p.m. – 8:30pm

Check e-mail again and/or continue to complete client SEO work of the nature outlined above. Being an SEO consultant is not just a 9 to 5 job!

Considering Hiring An SEO Consultant/SEO Expert?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about your particular organization’s marketing challenges and opportunities!