The One and Only Google Analytics

Before coming into google analytics lets have a look on urchin. Urchin was another web statistic analysis program and its developed by urchin software corporation. It is used to analyse and display web server log file and traffic details on that website. But this service ended on 28th march,2012. Google service was developed from urchin. It was used to redesign google analytic in the year 2006.

Asynchronous tracking code is the newer version of google tracking code and it is able to track even small activities on the website. Google analytics is the most used website statistics service. Through this we can track website visitors and more. 

To use google analytics first you have to log in to your mail account. You will reach to your home page and it will be like this and graph show the users currently present in your web page.

Functions are :

• Visitors can be tracked
• Visit nature : It can be direct visit, organic visit, referral visit, social media visit, ads visit

Direct visit means the users directly enter the url. Organic visit means by using search engines people search the required data. Referral visit is the visit through links given in some websites. Social media visit means visit through social media platforms i.e, links given in social medias and finally ads visit means visit through ads.

• How much  time they spend
• Which page they visited
• Which device 
• Location
• Net connection
• Which Browser, operation system and much more 

To get these details you have to add your website to google analytics. Lets check the whole process

Process:

After sign in via your mail account you will reach to google analytics signup and after this you can see the new options like website/mobile. Here to add your website click on website and fill the following form.

Here you have to give your account name and website name. Then copy your blog/website address and paste it in the place of url of website. Here one important thing is that in the left side there is an option called https. If it is written as http then change to https. Because https is more secure than http. In the industry category select appropriate category for your website. Now the reporting time, you should provide time zone according to your websites i.e, if your website is America based then you must give American time zone. If it is Indian based then Indian timezone. It is because time zone is different in different countries.

After all this process its the time to get the tracking id. Click on get track id button, select country and click on i accept. Then you get the track id, copy it and open your blogger. Go to settings in your blogger and click in the option others. You can see the text box to provide google analytics track id and paste it there, then save it.

Again come to your google analytics page and copy the global site tag code. In blogger click on theme and select the option edit html. In the head tag paste the copied code i.e, before head tag close potion and save it. Open your google analytics and click on all website data shown in the left top side. Click in real time and select overview, now you can see the number of active persons/users on your blog. In the content section the pages that users used will be shown and in that the symbol ' / ' indicates your home page.

Behavior option means whether the users/visitors are new or revisit. In the audience section we can see active users, technology i.e, mobile or desktop, bench marking, age etc.  In the real time overview we can see the current users.

So by using google analytics we get all details about the users. It is launched in the year 2005 and many websites are using it. And don't forget to provide google webmaster tools. If you have any doubts about google webmaster tool you can refer it on my old post.

Nikitha V P

Controller of SEO :The Webmaster Tools

We know on which circumstance search engine optimization started and details about on page optimization. After the on page optimization how Google crawl your site? What are the process behind this? Here is the answer.

Webmaster tool is the medium for communication between Google and webmasters. Webmaster tool or search console (Soon they will change to this name) is a mock point. It point out our mistakes and

errors. Search console include country settings, site maps, gender, location and more. Its an unavoidable tool in search engine optimization. We can login to this via gmail account and the remaining process are like this.

After login we will enter into webmaster tool page and click on add property. Here we have to paste a valid blog address. After this on the left side of the dash board there is an option called crawl and click it. Then you can see an option called fetch as google and here provide your blog post address. This is done to request google to fetch this address. Then click on request indexing and there will be two options, first one is crawl this URL only and the second one is crawl this URL and direct links. Here we have to select the first one that is crawl only this URL then click on go button.

 After this come to blog and copy the address of your post's URL. Note that just only copy the portion after the main blog address that is the portion after blogspot.com. Then again come to search console and paste it on text field and request indexing then select the second option, crawl this URL and direct links. This is done to tell google that you are the owner and crawl the links given. To check whether your page is crawled or not  just go to google and copy paste the main blog address and search.

Your blog post can be shared to twitter it can increase your post readability. What you have to do is first login to your twitter account and also to your blog. In the last portion of your blog post there will be a twitter icon and click on it. In the new tab appeared there will be your blog post's URL. In that URL, after html word there will be additional words and characters. We don't need that portion so just remove the portion after html word and provide # tags in that. By providing # tags your post will be visible to more and more people. Add # tags relevant to your post. Then click on tweet button and your post is published to your twitter account.

Now, how google catch this? It can be done easily by clicking the arrow in the right side of the added tweet. Select the option copy link to tweet and open a new google tab. Search submit url to google and we reach to search console. There will be a box to paste your url, paste it there and there will be a verification by google to make sure you are not a robot. After this click on submit request and a text will be displayed, showing that your request is under process. 

To attract people we can add multimedia tweet. In a normal tweet just the link address is shown but in multimedia tweet we can add images, videos etc. It will be more impressive and attractive. For this go to your twitter account and look for the button tweet or add comment text box in home page. Select any of this and paste your blog post's address and # tags. Now there will be an image icon to add images with the post. Always choose relevant images for your post and tweet it. Google catching is done by above said process. 

Social Media Optimization: 

Social media optimization is the process of attaching your social media accounts to blog as widgets. Lets see how twitter is attached. In twitter click on settings and privacy, in the left end there will be a widget option and click on it, then select create new widget. In the new tab shown there is a text box field to add your twitter id and add twitter id starting @your id. After that select embedded time line and click on copy code to copy it. Then go to blogger and click on the layout given in the left side. Look for add a gadget and click it. Then click on HTML/Java Script after that we can see a title portion and content portion. In the content portion paste the copied code and save it and finally save arrangement. You can see the widget added in the blog after refreshing it. 

We can also add LinkedIn account, just login to your linkedin account and click on edit profile. In that we can see the option public profile settings and click on it. There will be an option called edit url. This is to customize your url address. In normal case there will be digits and charters in your url

and making it complicate to read, by customizing it we can remove those digits and make it as a simple url. After that click on create a badge option and copy it's link address. Then come to your blogger and select layout option. Click on add gadgets and go to html/java scripts option. Then paste your copied address in the content portion. Again go to linkedin account and click on widget given below the java script option. You can select any widget design and copy its code. Paste the code in content portion of  blogger html/java script and save it. To view the widget go to your blog and refresh it.
   

So this is all about webmaster tool. Without webmaster tool we cant provide a controlled search engine optimization/ SEO. Hope you all like it..😊

Nikitha V P

SEO On Page Optimization Tips

What is on page optimization in SEO? It refers to how well your web page is shown in search results and by using different key words for searching, your page must be found. 

The content must be in easy words and it should be free from spelling and grammar mistakes. The users always looking forward to simple understanding contents not complex or heavy words and sentences. So if user feel your content is too lengthy and understandable words he/she suddenly close your site. It will affect your page ranking. The most important thing in your content is its title,the title must be catchy and impressive. The biggest text in a page is h1 tag and title is given in this tag. There is also limitation in characters in a title. It is 55 to 60 characters or 5-12 pixel width. Title can't be in full capital words because it may exceed pixel width. So in search result google can't show full title you have given. 

If the website contain more than one page then each page must have unique titles. The title details like too length or too short will be shown in html suggestions  in webmaster tool. We know titles are given in h1 tag. But what happens if title is not present? does google show title as untitled ? No never. Google never show title name as untitled or unnamed. If the h1 tag is not given google go to h2 tag text and if h2 not present then h3 tag text. But sometimes if recommendation links from other websites are present then it is considered as title. Another case in this is if google feels that this particular title is not relevant to the contents in that page then google show the snippet portion in the h1 tag, not the title we given. If more than one h1 tag present then crawling become difficult.

Google consider h1 tag as the identification for a page and limitation is 7-8 words. The focusing keywords must be in different pages and add 2 to 3 times. Percentage of keyword present in the content is called keyword density. To attract users add focusing keywords at starting portion of the content. If we write more elaborated content the chances of adding focusing keywords is high. Anchor text acts like a fuel for crawling. If we give hyper links to other sites then that hyper linked word is called anchor text. But do not give anchor tag to our focusing keywords. Anchor text technology can be used to rank up our websites.We can also include internal link from post to our service page. It increases optimization of blog and website. Contents and page must be user friendly, that is make your content for users not for search engine bots. Users always need every page in simple and easy manner otherwise they never visit your site. Try to add your focusing keyword in a position that before comma or full stop because while reading the content by bots it suddenly strike that. It will increase keyword ranking. 

Meta Description

Meta description is the portion that show in search result's snippet. Meta description gives the summary of what the page is about and it contain 2 or 3 sentence. They must be unique for each page. If the meta tag we given is not relevant to the page then google avoid these descriptions. The limitation is 155 to 160 characters for a page. In the case of post/article the limitation is below 155 characters. This is because in the case of post, the published date included in search result. So the length can't be above 155 characters. Other important thing is our desired keyword must be added in meta description. 

Image Optimization

 Image optimization is done by following 3 process. First one is alt tag that is alternate name or text. Alt attribute provide an information about the image if the image failed to load or display. Alt tag is given inside img src tag. Second one is image file name and it must be relevant to the content. Never use inappropriate name for the image. Third one is content around the image in the published page. 

Authorship Optimization:

Authorship optimization is done to tell google that this particular content is of a particular person. This is done by adding name of the person who wrote the content and provide google plus like social media links to show that he/she is genuine. Add rel attribute in html like this, rel="author" then that post is completely owned by you.

This is all about on page optimization in seo. The evolution and history about seo is given in my old post peep into history and evolution of SEO and you can refer it.

Nikitha V P

        
         

Peep into History & Evolution of SEO

 We all know google is the top search engine in the world. ( Thanks to Larry Page & Sergey Brin )

Google always have answers about whatever we asks. Today we can't imagine a life without these kinds of search engines. From simple to complex things we all depend on search engines like google. But can you imagine there was a time when google itself felt that its really falling down to a non trustworthy search engine?? Yes they do!

The three basic functions of google is crawl, index and caching. But in old times websites are not crawlable because at that time they have no idea in marketing. They only try to make website more colorful and attractive by adding bigger size images and flashes. Due to this google takes more time to crawl and failed to give results. So the officials in google gathered and discussed about these issues. At this discussion they found a solution and it is search engine optimization (SEO). But some officials opposed because they thought if they share the optimization tips it will affect google's existence. After many debates and discussions finally they decided to  share the optimization tips to webmasters.

Google shared starter guide to webmasters but it wasn't a happy ending. After getting the optimization tips they misused it. Webmasters maintained technical side only, to place their website in top rank. They never tried to provide quality content. In early times google give importance to content specification. After noticing the misuses google updated its algorithm. Google came up with following features in the past years, they are link specific, quality link specific with page rank, passing the juice. Passing the juice huh?! Sounds funny, right?! Lets check it. We can simply say if the page ranked website provide unusual links to other websites then that page ranked website's rank will automatically fall down. This value is passed through hyperlinks. With this they also introduced rel=nofollow, it is a value that tells the search engine that the hyperlinks should not influence the ranking of the website.

From 2009 onward google introduced new features for visitors and they are google suggestions, personalized search results etc. After years of struggle to gain users trust google decide to show results depending of website's rank. Depending on users interaction a websites's rank can be increased or decreased. If the visitor close the website within seconds then the rank of the website fall down, it is called Bounce rate.

 From 2010 onward social media became a big hit so google included social media as a part of them, that is if the website shared via social media then its rank increases. To make it more efficient and trustful they introduced social media authority value. In 2011 google became stronger and done strong updations. They introduced new updations to stop misuses and they are Panda updation to find content spamming, Penguin updation for link spamming, Parked domain updation, Exact match domain updation, Humming bird updation to give semantic search result, Mobilegeddon updation to make website mobile friendly and pigeon updation.

 Panda Updation

Panda updation is to avoid content spamming.       

   It includes:
      ⇨ Content plagiarism
      ⇨ Content spinning
      ⇨ Thinny pages
      ⇨ Keyword stuffing
The first updation was in 2011 and after that many updations done. The panda updation became big hit. In May 2014 google done panda 4.0 update and millions of content duplication pages removed. They added panda updation in main algorithm as a permanent filter. Because due to this updation google can provide quality contents in search results.

penguin Updation

  Penguin updation is to find link spamming.
  It includes:
       ⇨ Link exchange                                           
       ⇨ Link selling or buying
       ⇨ Link farming
       ⇨ Comment spamming                                 
       ⇨ Wiki spamming
       ⇨ Over guest blogging
The first penguin updation was in 2012. In 2016 google done penguin 4.0 updation. They changed link spamming into real time.

Humming bird Updation

Humming bird updation is to improve search results. That is google provide deep information with the use of artificial intelligence. In 2015 new version of humming bird introduced, it is RankBrain. In this artificial intelligence largely used. So google can provide more accurate and quality results for the user.

Mobilegeddon Updation

Mobilegeddon update is to make websites mobile friendly. That is, the website's text will be readable without tapping or zooming. In this case horizontal scrolling not possible, only vertical scrolling. The first updation was in 21st April 2015. Google done the second updation in 12th May 2016 and it is a strong update. After this if  a website is not mobile friendly then in search result google show a text that tells the user this particular site is not mobile friendly. 

After years of struggle and updations google became more powerful and successful. According to reports google receives about more than 2 billion online searches on a daily basis. Behind every success there is always a story about hard work and struggle. Now you know that story and here I conclude the topic about history and evolution of search engine optimization..😊

Nikitha V P