Are You Prepared To Adopt GA4?
In issue 273 of the #SEOForLunch we discuss the news of Google deprecating Universal Analytics and how this might cause trouble for digital marketers.
Hi Lunch Buddies!
It’s been a busy week so far as I’m still making up for taking both Thursday and Friday off last week. What did I do? I drove two hours north to Two Harbors Minnesota to get one last snowmobile trip in. While the trails were far from perfect, we were still able to get about 350 miles of riding in. Will I be putting in a few extra hours this week? Yes. Was it absolutely worth it, YES!
Let’s jump into this week’s #SEOForLunch
-Nick
Wix launches technical SEO app with Deepcrawl
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Gives a full breakdown of status code errors and broken links
Provides a list of title tags that are not properly optimized
Tracks down thin and duplicate content
Learn more about Wix SEO tools
Official Search Engine Updates
Article/Tweet
Keeping Redirects In Place For 3 Months is “Too Short”
What's Important:
Barry Schwartz caught a response from Google’s John Mueller on Twitter regarding redirects being removed after 3 months. John further elaborates that redirects should be kept in place for “at least a year”.
Nick’s Take:
A lot of SEOs have changed their stance on redirects needing to stay in place forever. Not me. The tech debt is low and the risk simply isn’t worth it. What do you think?
Article
Google To Deprecate “Universal GA” For GA4 July 23’
What's Important:
Google’s Director of Product Management, Russell Ketchum, announced that Google plans to sunset Universal Analytics next year. Officially, UA properties will stop registering new hits as of July 1, 2023.
Nick’s Take:
First off, I realize this isn’t SEO news directly. However, since we all rely on analytics to measure our SEO efforts I found it a good exception to the rule. Note that the post states that legacy UA data will only be available for ~6 months after July 1st. In doing further research, it sounds like you can export your data but no solution yet exists to upload it into GA4.
Second off, July 1st is my birthday. Not a good bday gift, Google. Bad Google! :)
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Top SEO Resources From Last Week
Backlog Management for SEOs
Adam Gent, theseosprint.com
Everything in this post is worth your time. If the knowledge share isn’t enough then you’ll probably be nodding your head (as did I) when you see the perfectly crafted images that go hand in hand with trying to get SEOs and devs to “play nice.”
Expert SEO Consultants Don’t Solve Problems, They Show Opportunities
Tom Critchlow, seomba.substack.com
As many of you know, I also write The SEO Freelancer newsletter. I’m very often referring freelancers to Tom’s newsletter. All of his content is valuable whether you are in-house, agency or freelance. This particular post is just one example of how a consultant can truly make themselves stand out from a crowd of other digital marketers.
14 ways Google may evaluate E-A-T
Olaf Kopp, SearchEngineLand.com
Many in the industry debate whether E-A-T is measurable and a ranking factor in its own. While Olaf acknowledges this, he also does a great job of outlining various components that if an “E-A-T score” did exist, these would very likely play a large role.
Internal links, backlinks, and topical authority
Jessie Willms, wtfseo.substack.com
Who’s ready to talk about links? Jessie and Shelby outline the importance of internal links while further explaining the value of backlinks in their entirety. Furthermore, they tackle topical authority and how links also play a critical role.
You Made It To The Bottom. You’re AWESOME!
Thank you for reading this week's issue of the #SEOForLunch. If you know anyone who may also enjoy this newsletter please consider sending them to the signup page. https://nickleroy.com/newsletter
Learn About The Guy Behind The #SEOForLunch
Nick LeRoy is a professional SEO Consultant specializing in technical SEO, content strategy, and website migrations.
Nick is also the author of two SEO-focused newsletters: #SEOForLunch and The SEO Freelancer.
You can connect with Nick online through Twitter and LinkedIn.