Mobile-first indexing does exactly what it says on the tin! In short: the mobile version of your website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their index.
The interesting part is – and the part that many people don’t understand and freak about – that it’s not a “mobile only” index and if for whatever reason you don’t have a mobile-friendly version of your website in 2018, your desktop site would still be included in the index.
Needless to say, without a mobile-friendly version you are not going to rank well.
As usual, we have to continue to experiment with our websites and observer the SERPs closely in order to fully understand this new way of ranking websites.
Best practices for mobile-first indexing
If for whatever reason your website has a separate desktop and mobile version make sure you follow the technical guidelines below to prepare for mobile-first indexing:
It is absolutely necessary that your mobile site contains the same content as your desktop site.
If in the past your mobile site had less content than your desktop site, you should make sure that your mobile site primary content is equivalent to your desktop site.
When it comes to structured data make sure it is present in both versions of your site. It is absolutely necessary that URLs in the structured data on the mobile versions are updated to the mobile URLs.
Metadata should be present and exactly the same on both versions of your website. Make sure that titles and meta descriptions are identical on both versions of your website.
Make sure you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=alternate link elements between your mobile and desktop versions in order to help the GoogleBot understand separate mobile URLs.
Top 5 technical SEO mobile-first indexing tips
Build a responsive website as soon as possible.
Switching to a single responsive site means consolidation of effort and therefore a more efficient use of resource and consistency of offering.
Flash is a total no-no.
You have to understand that the mobile Googlebot is crawling as a mobile visitors so it would see any issues with flash installation requests as a human visitor would and will realize Flash cannot be installed as mobile devices do not support Flash.
Google will treat all content on mobile equally – hidden or not.
In a mobile-first SEO landscape, the best way to present our content is changing and it makes a lot of sense to have hidden content in order to create a better mobile experience. Talking about content placement make sure that key messages are highly visible and above the traditional fold.
Mobile page load speed is a significant factor in the mobile user experience.
Not just that but page speed is a ranking factor in mobile search.
Google knows that nobody wants to be waiting for an age whilst pages load, eating up their mobile data.
I don’t even have to tell you that the best way to understand how quickly your site loads, what kind of mobile experience it offers you your users and most of all what you can do to improve this is to use Google’s own Mobile Speed and Usability tool.
It is not necessary anymore to block CSS, JavaScript, or images.
I remember when mobile design first burst onto the scene, it was absolutely obligatory to block certain resources including CSS, JavaScript, and images as some of these elements were often leading to slow loading as well as display issues. So it actually made a lot of sense to hide them from the GoogleBot on mobile.
Today, however, smartphones are in many cases more powerful than the computers owned by users. They have faster processors, more memory, and more capacity to deal with anything we throw at them.
On the other side, nowadays the Google’s mobile Bot can also handle all of these elements. So if the GoogleBot can handle it, make sure you show it everything. That way, Google can properly categorize your website content and rank it appropriately.
Conclusion
I’ve said it many times before but I would say it again: creating a mobile-first experience for your customers is more important now than ever before.
If you haven’t realised it before your best bet is a responsive site. A responsive website approach would take care of both the desktop and mobile user experiences in a single move.
Last but not least focus on quality. Google is still prioritising indexing great content first. Even though the new mobile-first algorithm will prioritize for mobile devices, don’t forget that quality should not suffer just because you are trying to appeal to your mobile customers.
New week, new online interview. In about 10 minutes I’m gonna be talking to Emma Labrador about my favourite SEO crawler called OnCrawl. Before you ask me I’m gonna tell you. OnCrawl is a very visual, data-driven SEO tool that can help you build your SEO strategy with confidence. Link in the description.
I used to be a front-end developer and used to build a lot of websites for big companies like for example Vecton Mobile. At the time you know we are talking about 6-7 years ago, even yeah 6-7 years ago there was nothing like Digital Marketing. So very quickly I realised that Internet would be, you know would be big one day and traditional marketing has to evolve. With that in mind at the time, I was building those websites I was, I literally wanted them to be first findable and second be profitable.
And as you know I am still talking a lot about SEO being part of Digital Marketing and not a separate entity.
Or the way I call it “rankings to revenue.”
So basically that’s me Omi Sido. I normally talk about technical SEO, rankings and revenue.
Yeah, I will try to be as serious as possible, ok?
Personal Branding
It’s difficult to achieve success without hope and confidence – Omi Sido
Emma: And you really, how do you say, you really like to share best practices with the community.
Yes, I am always me. I am always Omi Sido. I am never, you know, I am not afraid to show my strengths and my weaknesses. Because people learn from me and I learn from them. Right? And don’t be afraid to be vulnerable basically. Because we all have weaknesses. Let’s be honest. This is why I said you have to really find your strengths, your weaknesses and you have to kind of make a, find a way to make them visible. When people see you as a human being online they like you.
Emma: What are you doing in your free time when you are not doing SEO?
Teamwork in Digital Marketing
No individual can win the Digital Marketing game by himself – Omi Sido
I know I don’t talk a lot about it and it may seem online that I do everything on my own. But the truth is I am surrounded by a bunch of very good people. Teamwork is essential to success and growth. And I know there are a lot of people out there who think they can do it all on their own but the truth is they can’t.
Having a good team of individuals around you not only helps you to stay grounded but it also enables you to think in different ways.
Tuesday evening. Eight o’clock. A lot of my mates went to the pub to watch the game, you know, Real Madrid PSG. But me no no no no no no. I am collecting my new drill.
You know you are getting old when you are excited about a new drill.
What is RankBrain?
Somebody just asked me online “Omi, can you describe RankBrain in one sentence? Describing RankBrain in one sentence is not an easy job. On the other side, if you can’t describe something in one sentence you probably don’t know it well. With that in mind, my answer would be.
RanBrain: give your audience the best content and work your hardest to get them to stay on your page.
How to Start a Career in Digital Marketing
Today I wanna give a big, massive shout out to Liam Fallen. “I’ve just started my first Technical SEO role today. Aiming to have a career like you mate!”
Liam, your words mean a lot to me. It feels so unreal that somebody actually wants to be like me. I’ve started my Digital Marketing journey because of a guy named David Amerland. And I still remember all the advice he gave me in the beginning. So today I’m gonna give you my advice.
From today hard work, numbers and creativity should be your best friends. In fact, they should be your only friends.
The best travel mug
Guys, have you seen my new coffee mug from Bodum? Such a great idea. You just put some coffee, you pour some hot water, you screw the lid, you wait for 3 minutes and you press. Freshly brewed coffee anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, something that I’ve noticed this morning. Time in New York and no search results. Google, thank you very much. How shall we call this new feature? Voice search in the SERPs.
What’s Hot in Digital in 2018?
This was Apple big update last year in about the third quarter. But going all the way through to being able actually to update your sit on a flight. To have that capability in a messaging App when we think about messaging kind of in our heads is a little bit more as text originally. We go from texting into basically an App.
Yes, it’s messaging. Yes, you are talking to it but it’s doing all the things that you used to do in an App. And actually, this is just what WeChat did 3-4 years ago now. I mean it’s really we are copying WeChat where there were years ago. The other thing that Apple has launched…
All Toys R Us stores to close their doors
Unfortunately, this week the store that we all remember from our childhood Toys “R” Us decided to close all its stores across the UK and the USA forever.
I know a lot of people are mentioning a lot of reasons online for the collapse of the toy giant but let me tell you the real story. The real story is: Toys “R” Us never believed in the Internet.
First, in early 2000 they outsourced themselves to Amazon which literally forced everybody to start buying from Amazon rather than the Toys “R” Us network.
Second, the never really adapted to the new business online e-commerce reality.If Toys “R” Us the dominant niche retail leader in a multi-billion industry is dead what do you think it’s gonna happen with your business in the next 5 years?
Or in short “Adapt or Die.”
On a more happier note next week I am going to my favourite city Paris where I’m gonna be talking about Technical SEO. But you do come back here next Sunday cause you’ve got the problems and I’ve got the solutions.
It’s all set and ready for my first ever SEO podcast with Click Consult – a top Digital Marketing agency based in the North of England. In about half an hour I’m gonna be talking to Chloie Brandrick about technical SEO. If you wanna know more about technical SEO you have to listen to my first ever SEO podcast.
Technical SEO
You’ve probably heard me many times saying that SEO should never live in isolation. And I see this a lot. I see a lot of blogs out there, a lot of the so-called SEO influencers talking about SEO like SEO is the only thing in Digital Marketing. You know. Which is so wrong. I’ve said it many times:
SEO should be the heart of every company but it’s not the only thing that’s gonna make you successful online.
The Google RankBrain Algorithm
Recently every time I come to central London I would be visiting my SEO agency. So naturally, my brother thinks that every time I come to central London I am visiting my SEO agency which is basically not true.
Now apply the same logic to RankBrain – a machine learning algorithm – and you get the following. If in your industry – and I will repeat this one – in your industry, a big percentage of your audience is interacting with short-form content than naturally, RankBrain would think that short-form content is the best for your industry. If a big percentage of your audience is interacting with a long-form content naturally RankBrain would think that long-form content is the best thing for your industry.
So if you want to be successful online you have to know your audience.
One of my followers on LinkedIn just asked me. Omi, when did you decide that your videos are good enough to upload online? Jeff, mate, I didn’t decide anything. One day I just grabbed my camera and I started shooting.
Don’t wait for perfection. Decide what you want. Make a plan and work on it every single day.
This camera costs me only £100. Look around me I don’t even have a microphone. Cause it’s not about the equipment. It’s all about the story.
What is NAS (Network Attached Storage)?
No. No. I am not hiding from my momma. Although this morning I ate a whole jar of Nutella and I am not going to the gym. I am actually trying to. I am playing with my new toy. My new NAS box from Synology.
It seems to me that a lot of friends and a lot of colleagues don’t’ know what NAS is. NAS is a Network-attached storage.
Basically, you’ve got this small box that you can hide in the cupboard and it acts like a cloud service. So if in the year 2018 you are still paying for cloud services – Dropbox or you are paying money to Google Drive you are definitely doing it wrong.
You can access this thing from anywhere in the world. You can connect it to your mobile all the photos that you take are automatically uploaded on this device so basically, your storage here is always it’s always good.
Vero has taken the social app world by storm
Hi Guys, today is a beautiful day. I know it’s snowing outside and it’s cold and it’s miserable but there is this new social media App that is generating so much buzz. It’s called Vero. Some people say that this App is the new Instagram. I don’t think so. Some people say that this App will kill Instagram. I don’t think so. But I like it. I like it a lot. I just love the idea of a social media app where the algorithm doesn’t tell you what’s good for you. Where everything just comes in a chronological order. And the pictures they look good in portrait or in landscape mode. It’s free for the first one million users so go subscribe straight away.
As it’s super cold outside I hope you can see my bike – it’s covered in snow – let’s do couch SEO.
What is data, and why it’s so important?
Data is simply another word for information.
The best way to describe the word information is by its synonyms – intelligence, guidance, knowledge and last but not least direction. By examining large amounts of information, it is possible to uncover hidden patterns and correlations.
So to answer the question above – data allows businesses to make informed/intelligent decisions about future projects or business directions.
What is technical SEO? And why is it important?
In the last two weeks, I’ve spent a lot of fo time talking about technical SEO. I’ve done a podcast on technical SEO. My first ever SEO podcast. I’ve done two webinars, two roundtables and I’ve written two articles on technical SEO. One may say that Omi is trying to push his agenda. Well, you know me better than that. As long as we are talking about SEO I am happy. But you must have an effective SEO strategy. An effective SEO strategy that leads to more organic visits, more qualified leads, better brand awareness and ultimately more revenue.
If your SEO program isn’t providing all of these benefits you are probably allocating too much time to the wrong tasks.
So what is my favourite SEO framework? I am a big fan of the 80/20 framework. You should be spending 80% of your time doing engagement SEO and 20% of your time doing technical SEO. But when I say 20% I mean 20% of solid technical SEO. No ifs, no buts! Technical SEO is still the foundation of all SEO efforts. And only when you have a solid technical SEO foundation you should be shifting your focus to engagement SEO.
Guys, it’s Sunday. My team is playing. I am going to the PUB to watch the game with my mates. And I am having an amazing day. And if I am having an amazing day you should be having an amazing day. With that in mind, do come back here next Sunday cause, cause I love spending time with you.
Custom fields feature that allows us to create our own metrics
and dimensions.
Google sheets connector used with Supermetrics allow us to
pull in an even larger number of data sets.
We have built a chrome extension that allows users to make
their reports real-time (if the data source itself is updated in
real-time).
“Unlimited” reports and data sources.
Limitations
No bespoke data source joining feature (yet).
Google Data studio functions are not yet as well-refined as those
from BigQuery.
Limited connectors (Community connectors added to help with this)
No rich media yet only images and links.
Attribution dashboards can be difficult to build (though not impossible)
Reports and Data Sources
Reports and Data Sources are two of the key cornerstones of what makes up Google Data Studio 360. They are what visualise and pull the data respectively.
Reports in Google data Studio
Reports are where the configuration of your dashboard and the overall visualization is built/designed.
Reports can be easily shared with other users with either view or edit access.
Customizable themes and cosmetic features available.
It’s important to note that the reports themselves don’t hold the data, they just display it.
Creating Reports in Google data Studio
Creating a report In Google Data Studio is a really simple task.
Go to the reports section using the left-hand navigation.
Just click on the blue plus symbol in the reports section.
You can also create a duplicate of an existing report by selecting the option under “File” once you’re in the report you wish to copy.
Copying Reports in Google Data Studio
Select the data source(s) to use in the copy
If you have at least view access to the original data sources, you can use those.
If you copy a report that uses a data source that has not been shared with you, you must select a different data source to use.
The non-shared data sources appear as “Unknown” in the data source selection.
Create the copy of the report
Data Sources in Google Data Studio
Data sources are the individual connections that are made from our data in other tools (e.g. GA) to our reports.
By default, the data displayed in a report is viewable to anyone who has the link, by using the owner’s credentials. However, this can be changed such that users need to have access to the data to add an extra layer to your data security should you need it.
Data Sources creating a report
Again creating a report is really simple.
Start by going to datastudio.google.com and sign in.
Go to the data sources section using the left-hand navigation.
Just click on the blue plus symbol in the reports section.
You can also create a data source when you first create a report. The first stage in building a dashboard in Google data studio is connecting a report to a data source.
Data Sources Connections
Once you start creating a data source you’ll be given a list of possible connections.
Your access to different sets of data is based on your access levels for that tool and is based on the same email address used to log into Data Studio.
You only need view level access to pull data from a connector.
Once you select a connector type drill down into the view or table of data that you want to connect to.
Click “connect” and you’ll be given a summary of all of the dimensions and metrics that you’re bringing into the data source. Click Create/Add to report and you’re done.
Note: You can have multiple data sources connect to the same report at any one time, meaning you can see your GA data alongside your AdWords, Big Query or any other connector’s data within the same report.
Community Connectors
If you can’t find the connector you’re looking for you may be able to find it in the community connectors list.
This list contains connectors for tools that sit outside of the Google stack and work by drawing data from the respective tools’ APIs
You can even create your own connectors with the use of Google appScript.
There are 50+ connectors at the moment including:
– Facebook
– Adobe
– MailChimp
Data Sources Credentials
By default, the data source will be set as “Using Owners Credentials”. This means that by using this data source in a report, anyone who views the report (perhaps via a shareable link which we’ll come onto later!) will be using the owner’s credentials (The person who created the data source) as opposed to their own.
This is really handy if you want to share the report with people internally, without sharing the original data with them (e.g. access to GA or AdWords)
The other option is to use viewer’s credentials whereby the viewer has to have access to the original data set in order to view the data source.
This acts as another layer of security if you want to limit who can see your dashboard. You might want to use this if you only want colleagues who have access to BigQuery (or any other connector) to see your report.
Copying Data Sources in Google Data Studio
Data sources can only be copied when edited via the DATA SOURCES Homepage.
Sign in to Google Data Studio.
On the left, click ‘Data sources’.
Browse, or use the search box in the upper right, to locate the data source you wish to edit.
Click that data source.
In the upper right, click ‘Make a copy of this data source’ button.
In the confirmation dialogue box, click ‘Copy data source’ blue button.
If the Connectors panel appears, select the data set for the new data source, then click ‘Reconnect’.
Limits of copying a data source
Copying a data source doesn’t copy or validate the actual data. It only duplicates the data source schema.
If you connect the data source to a different data set from the original, it’s possible that calculated fields may not return the same results as the original data source.
Editing Fields in Reports
You can change field names, aggregations, data types, and analytical functions at the chart level.
When you first create a chart or add new fields to an existing chart, the names, data types, and aggregations of the fields in the chart are the same as they are in the chart’s data source.
For example, the sessions metric has a ‘number’ data type and an aggregation of Sum.
By default, the sessions field will appear the same in every chart in which it appears.
You can change the field characteristics in each widget.
This allows you to include different ways of viewing the same field within a
single chart.
For example, in a table, you can edit the sessions metric to show all of these…
Enabling Editing Fields in Reports
You can toggle the ability to edit fields in the data source settings.
Edit the data source(s) used in your reports.
Click the toggle button in the data source header labelled ‘Field Editing in Reports’.
Editing Fields in Reports – What can be edited?
The field’s name.
– For example, you can rename Sessions to Visits. This lets you have
multiple instances of the same field in a chart.
The field’s aggregation.
– For example, you can recalculate Order Value from SUM to AVERAGE. Fields with an aggregation of ‘AUTO’ can’t be changed.
The field’s data type.
– For example, you can convert a Number to a Percent, or Text to a URL.
For date fields, you can change the format.
– For example, you can show a full date (YYYYMMDD) as year month
(YYYYMM).
The field’s analytical function.
– For example, you can apply a Percentage of Total function to your
orders.
Any changes you make to a given field only apply to that instance of the field in that chart, it does not change the field in the data source.
Building a Report in Google Data Studio
Building you Report – Tools
Once you’ve connected a data source to your new report, it’s time to start building out your data visualisation. The core tools at your disposal are available along the top toolbar.
Widgets
Here lie the options available to you with regards to data visualisation. Time series, bar charts and geo-maps to name but a few of the options available for visualising your data.
Cosmetics
These tools are available to assist you in making your report look more “on brand”. Import images, text and shapes to make your report more visually pleasing.
Controls
These are really cool. Controls allow you to enable users to manipulate the data that they’re viewing, without changing the underlying data.
You can give them the option of changing date ranges or filtering the report by a specific dimension like traffic source for example.
Building you Report – Widgets
Creating reports is really simple in Google data studio, just click and drag once you’ve selected a tool from the toolbar to get started.
Elements that you draw move freely so you can always rearrange your report with ease.
Most widgets have features that can be split into two parts.
The Data section is what determines what part of the data source is used in your widget.
Here you can:
Apply a different data source
Change the dimensions and metrics displayed
Apply sorting methods
Apply filters to the widget
As well as some widget-specific options (e.g. adding a breakdown dimension for a time series.)
The Style section is where you can start making your widget more in line with your brand.
Here you can:
Use the Google colour pallet as a default or you can add custom colours and make use of the colour wheel.
Change the formatting of text.
Apply borders and backgrounds
As well as some widget-specific options (e.g. setting a scorecard to use compact numbers)
Building you Report – Arranging Widgets
You can move widgets freely in data studio but if you want to have stricter controls of a chart or set of charts those options are available too.
You can make a widget “Report Level” by selecting the option after right-clicking the widget. This will cause that widget (and any subsequent changes to it) to appear on all pages of your report. This is most useful when used on logos, header and controls, things that you would want appearing consistently throughout the report.
You can also select multiple widgets and have them align with one another by selecting multiple widgets (by either clicking and dragging a box around them or by using Shift+click).
Once selected got to Arrange on the top navigation options. From here you can choose how to align or distribute your data visualisations.
Options available are:
Order: Push an element into the background or move it forward.
Align: make the elements selected align vertically or horizontally.
Distribute: Spread the elements evenly between the two furthest widgets
Another powerful feature at your disposal is what’s called Grouping.
Grouping lets you group (Surprising) widgets together so that they move as one.
Not only that but they act much like a sub-report:
You can assign a different default data source to groups
Filters and controls that are used in a group only affect the elements in said group, meaning that you can split a page into two parts and have users control the data visualisations for each part independently of one another
You can group elements together by selecting them and using the option under the Arrange menu or by pressing Crtl+g (Ctrl+Shift+G to ungroup).
Building you Report – Report Settings
For more report wide changes go to: File>Report and Theme Settings
Layout: This lets you choose the orientation of the report as well as letting you choose where report level widgets get placed (Top or Bottom)
Theme: This acts much in the same way that the “style section does for widgets, letting you apply cosmetic changes at the report level.
Data: This acts much like the data section of widgets but at the report level, letting you apply a default data source and enable caching to make your report run faster when you first load it up.
Building you Report – Sharing
Sharing in Data Studio works in a similar way to Google Sheets. You can produce a shareable link or email users individually with access.
The share button can be found in the top right-hand corner.
An important point to note is that a created link can only have one of two settings applied.
View: Users who have the link can view but not edit the report’s configuration.
Edit: Users with the link can view and edit the report’s configuration.
This is important! If you send out a link with view access and then one with edit access both sets of links will have edit access. In this scenario, it’s better to use the email option instead.
Building a Report in Google Data Studio – Advanced Examples
Pivot Tables in Google Data Studio
Pivot tables take the rows in a standard table and pivot them so they become columns. This lets you group and summarizes the data in ways a standard table can’t.
In terms of Google Analytics (GA) data, you can only pivot dimensions, not metrics.
Limitations
Pivot tables can process up to 50,000 rows of data and can degrade dashboard performance.
You may have only 1 pivot table per page in a report.
Pivot tables do not paginate, as do standard tables.
You can’t apply metric filters to pivot tables.
Canvas Size in Google Data Studio
The size of the canvas on which you create the dashboard can be changed. There are 4 standard options and a custom option:
US letter – 4:3 – Portrait
US letter – 4:3 – Landscape
Screen – 16:9 – Portrait
Screen – 16:9 – Landscape
Custom – You can specify the exact width and height you want in pixels
Better view Canvas Size
Colour In Reports
You can choose how to colour the data in your reports:
Colour by Dimension Value, E.g. France will always be represented as Blue. This is the default behaviour.
Colour by order, the first series of data will be blue.
Use different shades of a single colour
Change behaviour for all charts
You can do apply the same behaviour, except apply it to all reports in a dashboard.
Edit Report.
Click on the report then select the theme panel.
Under the Colour by options, select the new default behaviour.
You can change the default theme of the report.
Edit Report.
Click on the report then select the theme panel.
Under the Current theme, you can change the theme of the dashboard.
Only simple and simple dark available by default, but you can create your own in chart palette.
Embedding Reports in Google Data Studio
You can embed a report using an HTML iframe in a page. The iframe contains a special link to the report. This link is generated by Data Studio when you enable embedding for the report.
You can embed public and private reports:
If the report is shared publicly, then anyone viewing your page can see the embedded report.
If the report is shared with specific users, groups, or domains, then only those folks can see the embedded report.
These viewers must be logged into a Google account.
Embedded reports appear in the iframe in view mode.
Embedded reports are fully functional, but users can’t edit, copy, or share them, as there is no menu bar.
Viewers can’t refresh the data in an embedded report. (The data will refresh as usual when the cache expires.)
Page navigation for multi-page reports appears in the bottom of the report.
Viewers have options in the bottom of the report
A link to see it in Data Studio
A button to view the report in fullscreen mode
Segments
Segments are a feature in Google analytics that allows you to group
users and sessions based on a series of conditions. They are a great
way to gain insights into your data and now you can pull them into
Data Studio.
You are only able to add a segment to a report if you have access to it
in GA. Once a segment is added to the report, all other
editors/viewers of this report can use it (in a similar way to a Data
source).
GA segments will be kept synchronized with Data Studio when:
A user clicks the refresh data button.
Cache expires and is refreshed.
If Data Studio requests the data for some other reason.
This feature can be switched off by going to Resouces>Segments.
When you copy a widget or a report different things will happen to the segment depending on whether or not you have access.
Component
If you have access:
If you don’t have access
Report
If you have access
If you don’t have access
Segment Limitations:
You can only apply one segment per widget.
If you change the data source of a widget that has a segment on it Data Studio will keep the segment
applied and won’t be able to intelligently tell you that the segment isn’t compatible with the new view so
be conscious of how you use it.
Google Data Studio Tips and Tricks
Tips and Tricks – Link Navigation
Make use of links in text widgets.
You can link to other pages in the report, building up your own contents list within the header of your page.
You could even have the first page be a contents page to separate reports with a “go back” feature on the rest of the pages.
Tips and Tricks – Keyboard Shortcuts
The same shortcuts that are available to you in Google sheets are available to you in Data Studio. The most helpful ones are:
Ctrl+c – Copy
Ctrl+v – Paste
Ctrl+x – Cut
Ctrl+a – Select all
Ctrl+z – Undo
Ctrl+y – Redo
This allows you to copy/paste entire page configurations, saving you time. There are however traditional options in the form of right-clicking a widget or selecting undo/redo in the main toolbar.
Tips and Tricks – Real-Time Reporting
Real-time reporting isn’t natively supported in Data Studio but fortunately, there is a chrome extension that can enable the functionality.
Just search for real-time data studio as a chrome extension.
Set how often you want the data source to refresh and if it should only apply to one report in particular
Make sure your data source is real-time otherwise this extension won’t work as expected.
Tips and Tricks – URL Field Type
When you create a data source, Data Studio will detect valid URLs in the data set and assign the URL field type to that dimension.
If the URLs are not detected automatically: You can set the field type to URL manually.
*URL fields display the full link in charts. In tables, this link is clickable.
Tips and Tricks – Calculated Fields
You can build your own calculated fields if you have edit access to the data source you want to add it to.
This can be used to create your own Metrics and Dimensions.
You may want to use this to build ROI metrics or your own custom channel groupings
Sometimes we might want to see what the dashboard and visualisations look like across different views or maybe you saw a good dashboard and you want to see it represent your own data.
Now with Data control, you can pick the data source you want, while the original added data source will remain as the default.
This saves you remaking the dashboard with the data you want as the data source.
There are 7 types of connectors to choose from:
Google Analytics (of course)
AdWords
Attribution 360 (TV Attribution)
DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers)
DoubleClick Campaign Manager
Search Console
YouTube
Tips and Tricks – Export data from a chart
To export data from a chart:
Data Export is available in View Mode.Only the data available in the chart is
exported.
Any filters, date range controls, or
Google Analytics segments currently in
place are also applied to the exported
data.
Pagination has no effect on export. All of the table rows are exported.
Tips and Tricks – Export data from a chart – How to disable
By default, data export is enabled. In order to disable the option for the entire report:
Disable export data from a chart in Google Data Studio
Tips and Tricks – Definitions
If you’re planning on sharing this to a wider team it can be handy to have a definitions page or appendix at the end so users don’t bombard you with questions about what the different dimensions and metrics mean.
The Help tab in Google Data Studio
The Help tab at the top of the page contains a number of very useful features.
Help
Community Forum
Release Notes
Request a feature
Watch a tutorial
Legal help page
Request a feature & forum
You can view the community forum for FAQ’s or to ask your own questions. The community is very friendly and active.
“Request a feature” option, takes you to another page and asks if you would like to vote and comment on feature request already made, or to make a request of your own.
Release notes & Watch a tutorial
If you click the Release notes option, you will be brought to a page with all the new features and changes listed by date of release.
“Watch a tutorial” provides a number of YouTube videos on how to do some useful functions in Data Studio such as filter controls, share reports, calculated fields etc.
Alexa, what’s the temperature today in London?
In London, there is a flood alert in effect. The current weather is 2 ºC with clear skies and sun. Throughout the day you can expect more of the same with a high of 6 ºC and a low of 1 ºC.
Hmm, I don’t remember such a cold winter in recent years. Why am I talking to a…?
How to motivate yourself to reach your goals
Yes, emotion is very important. On the other side, rewards feel good. Penalties feel bad. And that’s why they can both work well for motivating you and your team. With that in mind give your best friend or colleague £100 today. If you get a task done by 5 pm you get your £100 back. If you don’t complete it you lose the £100. Yes, exactly. Suddenly your to-do list for today got very emotional.
Yoast SEO: the #1 WordPress SEO Plugin
Today I’ve been told that Jono Alderson is leaving Distilled behind to join team Yoast – yo, yo, yo – in their quest to make SEO available to everyone. Similar to me.
In all honesty Jono I’ve never used this plugin before but I promise you that from today Yoast is my favourite, my top SEO WordPress plugin. Joking aside congratulations on your job mate. Well deserved. And good luck.
What is your favourite SEO tool?
What’s my favourite SEO tool? Well, there is no one tool that I can call my favourite SEO tool. It’s more like I’ve got a set of favourite SEO tools. So to answer your question directly: I can’t think of an SEO tool that I am using every single day. But there is definitely a set of tools that I am using every single week. Becuase normally in SEO to perform a task you need more than one tool. And then I am gathering data from different sources so I always know what’s really happening.
With that in mind when it comes to technical SEO audits my favourite tool is called OnCrawl. A French company called OnCrawl. But then all my agencies, all my SEO agencies are using DeepCrawl.
When it comes to keywords research my favourite tool is Sistrix. A German company called Sistirx. But then all my agencies are using SEMrush. So sometimes I’m gonna see problems or trends in Sistrix that they can not see in SEMrush and vice versa. Sometimes they would see problems or trends in SEMrush that I can not see in Sistrix.
So with that in mind using one tool is not just not advisable. It’s actually dangerous.
After a long day and a long interview, Happy Valentine’s to all the lovers out there. If you have something good keep it
and cherish it forever. Love you all, guys.
Surround yourself with the right people
At the end of the day, on the day of the week, everything comes down to love. If you surround yourself with love and the right people, anything, anything is possible. You know what: Alexa, I love you.
That’s really nice. Thanks.
Meanwhile do come back here next Sunday cause you’ve got the problems and I’ve got the solutions.
The way to survive the working week is to set up your expectation very very high on a Monday. If your Monday is tired. If your Monday is moody. If your Monday is complaining somehow the whole week gest tired and moody. Trust me, people, you’ve got enough days in a week to be negative.
So set your Mondays aside just to smile.
To all my favourite people have a beautiful week ahead. Gerry, be careful with those breakfasts mate. They require a lot of running.
Friday morning and I am standing in front of one of the most iconic buildings in England. Twickenham Stadium, the Home of England Rugby. I am here because at Canon we’ve decided to initiate all our digital marketing campaigns in this iconic building.
Monday morning. It’s nine o’clock and I am supposed to be at work. But my bike just won’t start. It’s absolutely dead. What a bad start of the week.
Yesterday morning my motorbike broke down. And today I had a flat tyre. Sometimes we all go through tough times. That’s life. So because I had a flat tyre I needed a mechanic. On the other side, another human being also had a bad day today so she too needed a mechanic.
And there you go. Today I pumped into a woman who needs digital marketing services. And I… I need another client. All I am trying to say is that to make life easier we should all learn how to see the positive in negative events.
To make life easier we should all learn how to see the positive in negative events.
Hey Nick, Happy Birthday, mate. I can’t believe you are already 29. You don’t look a day older than 25.
Work hard, don’t forget your friends and your colleagues….and life is beautiful.
This week was rough. This picture was taken on Monday morning when my bike suddenly died and I couldn’t go to work.
It’s all about how you see the things that don’t go your way. That’s what really matters in the end. Happiness is a feeling. Sadness is a feeling. Loneliness is a feeling. Your feelings from our own reality.
And if you feel ashamed of your own feelings you’re letting the lies of self-doubt destroy your reality. Trust me you have the right to feel pain – to live through it and to own your scars – to deal with the realities of life in order for you to grow into the toughest, cleverest, and most of all the truest version of yourself.
Monday morning and I am going to a one-day course on Google Analytics. For those of you who texted me after The Sunday Talk, yes, as an SEO I do Google Analytics. In fact, I think I know it pretty well. But given a learning opportunity, I never say ‘No’ as I never ever think that I know everything in a given subject. To achieve excellence one must always strive to learn more and to do better.
When it comes to Christmas Oxford Street is my favourite place here in central London. meanwhile, I am just coming back from the Sistrix training and it was amazing. Patrick gave us so much knowledge. Hey Juan, thank you very much for setting me up with this training, mate and Merry Christmas.
Saturday morning. Everything around me is frozen. But the day has arrived. I am finally moving into my new house. My old house is here. a house in a car. I’ve spent all my money buying the house so buying a cooker or fridge…buying food this Christmas will be very, very difficult. But then I am alive again.
You out some coffee inside. You pour over some hot boiling water. Two sugar and you wait for a process called sedimentation. Then you imagine that it tastes good and you drink. Mamma mia. Bellissimo.
The things that you find in old houses. A newspaper from 1981. And Tony Galvin: I never realised Spurs was such a big club. I am sorry to tell you that Tony but 36 years later Tottenham is still not there.
James, nobody, nobody ever asked me about Christmas SEO. Ok, but if I have to give you 3 tips. Ok.
The first one would be ‘Add a Christmas logo to your website’. If nothing else it shows that your website is current, and up to date.
The second one would be – and ok not many people do it – ‘Update your meta descriptions to be seasonal. Attract the clicks in the SERPs by standing out and being relevant. Yeah, I talk a lot about relevance. By the way, you need to do this sooner rather than later. Ok? As it could take Google a while to update. But don’t forget to change back once the holiday season is over!
Last but not least ‘Email past buyers’. Yes, trust me on this one. Last minute shoppers are often ‘repeat offenders’ so gather a list of those who purchased last minute last year, yes, and surprise them with a tailored email campaign which will help them again this year!
How do I always come up with ideas like that? Well, you know me, James.
I love my job.
Patricia Martinez: Merry Christmas, guys! And do come back here next year.
Sunny Karwal: Merry Christmas, guys! Don’t forget to come back here next year. And have a great one. Cheers.
Alex Thurgood and Stephen Casey: Merry Christmas everybody. Don’t forget to come back here next year.
Ibukub Sodipe and Esha Nandi: Merry Christmas, everyone! And don’t forget to come back here next year.
Sandra Lokas: Merry Christmas everybody! And don’t forget to come here next year.
Samar Mustafa: Merry Christmas, everybody! And don’t forget to come here again.
Cecilia Montessoro and Karla Al-Hassan: Merry Christmas everyone! And don’t forget to come back here.
It’s Christmas Eve people! It’s Christmas Eve and let me tell you something. Christmas is a miracle. On this day of the year, all of us smile a little bit more, give a little bit more. Love a little bit more.
And let me tell you something else. Christmas is the time to be the best version of yourselves. Cause you never know you may like it and you may continue doing it. So then this miracle will be with you throughout the whole year.
Meanwhile, I hope I managed to inspire you a little bit this year and if I made you smile once, just once please do come back here next year cause you’ve got the problems and I’ve got the solutions.
Monday evening. Today was my first day at work after almost two weeks and everybody, absolutely everybody is talking about AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages. Why? Well, simply because Google told us that from next year mobile will be their top priority.
Looking at the bigger picture and answering some of my critics from the beginning of this year it is no longer a case of asking wheater Mobile Marketing is important.
We all know it is.
Nowadays the task is to look at the stats and truly understand how our customers behave when using different mobile devices and what their preferences are.
Some of you were a little bit lazy this year with AMP and the whole Mobile Marketing thing. Do the same thing next year and you will be in big trouble.
Wednesday morning. 1:00 a.m. I know I couldn’t sleep until I finish this project. I hope you remember my first voice recognition kit and this is absolutely the first moment we’re gonna see if it’s working or not.
So far it’s been making some noises nothing significant so now is the moment of truth. I hope you can hear my heart pounding.
Ok Google, what’s my name?
Your name is Omi. I nearly broke my table.
Ok, Google. Ok, Google. Ok Google, what’s the temperature outside?
The present temperature in London is 41.
Forty-one? Ok Google, what’s the temperature outside in Celsius?
In London, it’s currently 5 degrees Celsius.
Sweet victory. Ok Google, cheers. Cheers. Cheers
First, before getting into the subject let’s make one thing very clear. Whether we like it or we don’t Google is shifting their attention to mobile first next year 2018.
What does it mean? It means that websites gonna to be assessed and ranked based on their mobile structure and performance.
Why is Google doing that? Well, for the first time this year more searches were completed on mobile devices then than desktop computers.
What does it mean for publishers like us? Well, people are annoyed when their mobile experience is slow.
Why is speed so important? Well, 40% of people abandon a website.
Good morning people. It’s Friday. It’s sunny and inspired by Gerry White I am wearing my Blue Glass hoody. You all know why.
The thing I wanna say today is that I never had time in my life when I just said ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ and I stopped working. But saying that weekends are special and I love escapism. So enjoy yourself as there should be no limit in having fun.
“Lasciatemi cantare
Con la chitarra in mano
Lasciatemi cantare
Una canzone piano piano
Lasciatemi cantare
Perché ne sono fiero
Sono un italiano
Un italiano vero”
Actually, I met Jon two-three months ago in Manchester and he showed me how to eat pizza with pineapple.
John, you’ve got a special place in my heart.
With Jon Myers, Gerry White and Matt Bullas at the Benchmark Search Conference
But talking about this week. Monday AMP presentation. Tuesday AMP presentation. Wednesday I didn’t do an AMP presentation but I did an internal video talking about AMP.
Thursday AMP presentation with a training of developers. Eight hours.
Friday the AMP talk continued.
While preparing for these presentations I realized two things. First I do a lot of shopping online. And second 80% of my shopping is done here.
Enough said.
Now next week will be anything but boring again. I’ve got one-day training on Google Analytics. I’ve got what three Christmas parties. And then I’ve got a whole day training at Sistrix on Wednesday.
Is Sistrix the new kid on the block? Is Sistrix gonna replace SEMrush or Searchmetrics?
If you wanna know the answer, do come back here next Sunday cause you’ve got the problems and the questions and I’ve got the solutions.
A lot of you are asking me on LinkedIn “Omi, what did you actually study?” And the answer is Chemistry. I even have a Master degree in Chemistry. But chemistry is not my passion.
When it comes to Digital Marketing I am self-taught. And it was very, very, very difficult. For many, many years I used to study during the night and work during the day.
But I am not here to give you one of those inspirational stories as like so many of you when I was a teenager I didn’t follow my passion.
So I struggled a lot later on in my life until I met this guy David Amerland who inspired me who gave me the permission to follow my passion.
With Teodora Petkova and Mr David Amerland
So today I am giving you the permission to follow your passion. But be smart. Passion alone won’t pay the bills. While studying Digital Marketing I had many jobs. No shame in it.
Am I ever gonna be rich following my passion? Probably not. But then I absolutely love my job.
I am just coming back from central London where I had coffee – lots of coffee – with Nick Doudy and a long chat about machine learning. So on my way back home, a question hit me in my face.
What is intelligence?
When you think about it in many ways unintelligent machines are already far smarter than we are but we don’t call the calculator on my mobile smart just because it can multiply massive numbers. We just say “it’s correct”.
Somehow we reserve the term ‘intelligence’ only for typical human capabilities like recognising a face or composing a symphony. But sooner or later we will teach the machines how to recognise a face or compose a symphony.
When it comes to intelligence why are we talking about knowledge and not emotions?
The question on intelligence is a strange one. Not just because it has been changing ever since we care to actually think about it. 100 years ago it would have been some kind of knowing some kind of language. Speaking some kind of language probably Greek and Latin.
These days mathematics and coding analytical skills and understanding but really these are not a true form of intelligence in a way that we can actually measure it in a general sense. So what is it really and it’s changing all the time. It’s morphing as we understand more about how to recreate aspects of intelligence in the artificial intelligence field.
So truly intelligence, when we think about it, is the ability of everything we know to interconnect and acquire meaning so basically it is what we know and how we know it and how that actually connects together.
It’s a contextual or it can be most of the time but it is more a sense of awareness of the impact of the things that which we know, the moment we know them, how we know them and what they actually affect in terms of the other things that we know and remember.
So it is interconnectedness.
Simple. Well, try recreating that and yeah it becomes quite hard.
Trust me, people, I am so excited. I am so pumped up. I’ve just received my first Voice Kit by Google and I can’t wait to build my first Google Home.
So let’s see what’s inside this box. And yes this is the first I’m gonna see the content of this box. Paper. We don’t need the paper. The actual body. And then various cables and things. Microphone stereo board. The voice hat, a speaker and a button. This is all you need to build your Google Home.
I believe a lot of you should start playing with these toys as Voice Search is the future of SEO. Some people may even say
Voice Search is the future of Digital Marketing.
It only took me only 5 min to assemble my first Voice recognition device. Unfortunately, installing the Raspberry Pi operating system takes hours so we gonna see this device in action next week.
Now talking about next week oh my god the word ‘busy’ is not enough to describe it.
On Monday I am going to one of the top Digital marketing agencies in England called Periscopix, where I’m gonna, have an all-day training on Google Big Data Query.
Wednesday I am going to Paris, France for the SEO European Night organised by OnCrawl where I’m gonna be talking about SEO and Machine Learning.
In the end of the week, all my family is going to Sofia, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe where we gonna be celebrating the birthday of my mother.
So a very busy week is ahead of me but you, yes you do come back here next Sunday cause you wanna see this device in action, you’ve got questions and issues in Digital marketing and I’ve got the solutions.
