Google Analytics 4: What You Need to Know Today [Chris Cheetham-West Interview]

One of the core tools that most marketers use to measure their ROI, Google Analytics, is undergoing its first major revision in more than a decade.

From beginners to experts, learn what these changes mean to you and how you can best prepare for them in this interview with Google Analytics expert Chris Cheetham-West.

Key Highlights

[06:28] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Chris Cheetham-West

[08:28] Chris's Marketing Journey

[11:02] How to Utilize Google Analytics 4

[15:58] Universal Analytics vs Google Analytics 4

[18:47] New Definition of Engaged Rate and Engaged Viewer

[22:09] Google Analytics 4 Integration for E-commerce

[25:04] Chris's Advice on How to Save Time Inside Google Analytics 4

[27:57] Making Better Decisions with Data

[30:39] Final Advice on Google Analytics 4

[32:10] Connect with Chris

Notable Quotes

• Google probably realized that, hey, people are using goals are not using it effectively enough. But everybody that has a website most likely have a goal. So now that's going to be more of a central part of Google to explore versus just like a small piece, it was in Universal Analytics.
• And it's one of those things where, after a few months, we're gonna realize that this is a better tool to use. And I'm getting to know my customer a little bit more.
• The message I want to say is like, there's always a faster way to get to the data that you're trying to find.
• Be intentional about looking at what's going on and making those changes. So make those decisions on a monthly basis, maybe even a weekly basis to optimize. So don't forget to optimize, not just look at the data, but optimize and see how you can get better.
• So those are all things that you want to consistently do weekly or monthly basis to make sure you're really getting the most out of the data? Because it gives you so much information. All you got to do is look at it and then take action.
• Right now is the time to play around with GA 4 so right now is like, look into events, if you're not able to use the advanced, you've ever used goals before looking to it, but the old analytics get used to these things that are going to change.
• In that case, just make sure you are playing around with it, spend an hour a week on it hour a day even just to get ready, and just to understand it, so that way, you can be ready for the change.

Guest Links:

• Chris' Website: https://chrisnwest.com/
• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakerchrisnwest/ 

Learn More:

• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Transcript

Neal Schaffer: 0:00

Google Analytics for when I say that, does that excite you? Does it frustrate you? Are you confused? Well, Google Analytics is at the core of understanding the efforts of our modern digital marketing. And today we have a special guest who's going to help guide you into this transition into Google Analytics for to help you get the most out of it. On this next episode of The your digital marketing coach, podcast, digital social media content influencer marketing, blogging, podcasting, blogging, tick talking LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SEO, SEM, PPC, email marketing, who there's a lot to cover, whether you're a marketing professional entrepreneur, or business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert advice. Good thing you've got, Neil, on your side, because Neal Schaffer is your your digital digital marketing marketing coach, helping you grow your business with digital first marketing one episode at a time. This is your digital marketing coach, and this is Neal Schaffer. Hey, everybody, Neal Schaffer, here, your digital marketing coach, and welcome to my podcast. You might be listening to this for the first time, maybe you did a search for Google Analytics. I am a digital slash content slash influencers slash social media marketing, consultant, author, speaker, half of these podcast episodes are interviews, and I do my best to really find experts to bring to you I'm going to tell you the story of how I found today's guest in a moment. But half of the episodes are interviews, and half of them are solo episodes where based on my work with clients and speaking and all the other things I do, just trying to give you insightful advice to give you positive ROI, every episode at a time. And I also want to take a moment, if you are a longtime listener subscriber, I'd really appreciate just a quick five star review. If you think it's worthy, a five star or four star three star but just to get your feedback on any review app for podcasts, it would mean the world to me, whether it's Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to this podcast, I also want to introduce myself to say that recently, I have gotten a lot of emails from podcast listeners wanting help with their marketing. And I don't like to really pitch a lot of what I do on this podcast, I really want to educate, inform, inspire you, right. And if you ended up working with me, that's awesome. If not well, by inspiring you on paid it forward. But I do want to say that I currently work and now I can say three different ways in which I currently work with businesses and people. The first way is a group mastermind a group coaching community that I think is a bonafide mastermind community. Because of all the experts we have in there, it is capped at 15. Members, we are at full membership right now. But if you go to Neal schaffer.com/membership, you can sign up for the waiting list, we meet four times a month over zoom, we have a Slack community, I also provide every quarter, a private 30 minute one on one consultation. Whenever I have special discounts, special offers, everything goes into that community first. So if you'd like a little bit of help, and you like understanding and listening to issues that others similar marketers and entrepreneurs and and digital business owners have, I think you'll really get a lot out of our communities go to Neal schaffer.com/membership. For that, if you want to take a course I have started delivering digital courses, live cohort based courses where you join the course live together with other students, I just finished my first cohort. And based on that success, I'm happy to announce my second cohort of my create an influencer marketing strategy. In two weeks. It used to be one week, but the feedback I got was to give the students a little bit more breathing time I added an extra office hour. And I think that if you have yet to take me up on this course that you're gonna get a lot out of it. Go to Neal schaffer.com/maven to because it's the second cohort and you'll see the information it starts on January 9. Right now, I only have one course on influencer marketing strategy. Based on feedback from my newsletter readers, I am going to be developing my second course on creating an SEO optimized library of content to generate more website traffic. So if that's something that interests you, make sure you go to Neal schaffer.com. And you sign up on one of those widgets. And you will get informed when that course launches in February or March of next year. The third and final way in which I work with businesses and professional This is to my fractional CMO. This is marketing consulting, where we meet for a certain number of hours per month, it's based on a multi month contract. And yes, it is based on the 1000s, if not 10s of 1000s of dollars over the course of time. So if you are in need of a marketing expert, but you don't want to hire someone full time, I think, or you just want someone to help you with a certain strategic initiative over a short period of time. I think that that investment makes a lot of sense. And I'd love to help you out. For more information on that go to Neal schaffer.com/cmo. Dang, that was the biggest intro I've ever done before getting to today's interview, which I want to get to. So I was at Content Marketing World. And I explained this at the beginning of the interview as well. But you know, there's a lot of sessions on content marketing, content marketing, well, this is my first time going. But every hour seemed to have like eight or 10 or 12 different sessions that competed with each other. So it was really hard finding one to choose from at every hour, every hour and a half session. When I saw there was one on Google Analytics for I have fractional cmo clients that are on Shopify, and the Shopify, Google Analytics for integration is not yet complete. So these clients really worry about Google Analytics for and I thought, you know, at a minimum for them, but also for myself, I need to know what is going to happen with Google Analytics for it is transitioning over July 1 2023. And lo and behold, there was one session on Google Analytics for and it was presented by today's guest, Chris Cheatham West, and it was literally standing room only it was packed. I had to stand in the back of other people have rows of people standing in front of me. So after he presented, it was an excellent presentation, really dumbed it down and gave actionable advice and made us all I think, in the room excited about Google Analytics for I thought I have to have Chris on this podcast. So I reached out to him. He said, Yes. And here we are. So without further ado, and Chris Cheatham. Wes is more than just a Google Analytics expert. I think you're really going to get a lot out of this episode, above and beyond Google Analytics. But let's get to the interview. And welcome. Well join me in welcoming Chris Cheatham, West to the your digital marketing coach podcast. You're listening to your digital marketing coach. This is Neal Schaffer. Chris Cheatham, West, welcome to the digital marketing coach podcast.

Chris Cheetham-West: 7:33

Thanks for having me,

Neal Schaffer: 7:34

Chris, it's so awesome having you. For those that don't know, Chris was a speaker at Content Marketing World. And he did. There's a lot of people who say, you know, standing room only, but when he spoke about Google Analytics for it really was Danny rimoni. Because I was one of the ones standing in the back who couldn't get a seat. You maybe the organizers thought, you know, Content Marketing World. It's more about like the content. And you know, there was only one Google Analytics session, which was Chris's. But I love the way that you presented the information. I think you you left a lot of people felt, you know, feel a lot more comfortable about Google Linux for at least myself as well. But before we get before we dig a little bit deeper into that. I just, you know, want to know more about you. I know that you've done a lot in, you know, working at Google, President, American Marketing Association. You've written a few books along the way. So I'd love to hear like, how did this all get? You know, how'd y'all get started with this?

Chris Cheetham-West: 8:30

Oh, yeah, sure. So back then I got a degree in marketing. And after I got a degree in marketing, I got a job at Google as a marketing specialist. And so I was part of a team that would go across the country and train small business owners on how to be effective online. And so back then, every small business owner pretty much thought that you had to pay 10,000 hours to get a website. And so the team was created just to tell all these businesses that you can get online at no cost or low costs. So that's like Google Places, Google Analytics, Google Maps, even when Google Plus was out there, he's even back then. We're out there trying to promote Google Plus. So all those tools were a business that I can use, and people still use them today. And eventually, that's when I realized that I liked presenting and training organizations. And so then I launched my business in 2014. And it since then, we've done a lot of training on Google Analytics, management and many other topics that help businesses

Neal Schaffer: 9:35

exit Yeah, and I mean, none of you can see this but Chris has been smiling this entire interview so far. And when you're on stage, you smile the entire presentation down. So you I mean, you you present very well and clearly your passion and love for for, you know, teaching and speaking clearly show so, so thanks for sharing that. So, you know, I would assume you know, this is an audience of corporate marketers and business owners and entrepreneurs and I'm assuming that everybody uses Google Analytics, probably not everybody knows how to use it to the extent that you do. So in talking about Google Analytics for I think there's going to be some topics that come out that others might be interested in as well. But, you know, I think for me, a lot of people use Google Analytics probably saw starting July 1 2023. You know, your current version of Google Analytics is going away. And I have two clients that both use Shopify as their CMS. And all the sudden they realize they cannot track sales in Google Analytics for yes. And after hearing you speak, I've reported back to them saying, yeah, it's common, it's common, you know, July 1, still got some way. So. So some of you might have thought, you know, well, I can't use Google, Alex, for what are the alternatives? And I have seen a lot of marketers talk about that. And it definitely is a little bit different than Gu LX three. But obviously, there's some upside to it as well, as you talked about. So I guess, you know, what, why don't we start before we talk about Google Analytics for, you know, let's talk about Google Analytics, and how how did you present this to small businesses in terms of this amazing free tool that that Google provides everybody and how they could utilize it?

Chris Cheetham-West: 11:13

Yes. So Google Analytics has been part of my presentations, I will say over the past 10 years, whether I'm doing two day seminars on digital marketing, or whether I'm talking about social media, and because it's a free tool, and people after I tell people about the tool and show them screenshots, they're always shocked to find out that it's free. So that's how to start. And then I would say, I've been using it for over 10 years as well. So I got certified in in Google Analytics, the university, like a while back ago, and I just realized how important it is to understand your data. Even right now, like when potential customers go to my website, and they reach out, I go to Google Analytics, and I see what city they're in, what page they go to, before they got to the consequence page, and also what page they dropped off at, or even what blog post they saw for them to find out about my business and services. And so I just realized how important it is. And from there, I started to really dig deep and find out, hey, how can we really understand everything about analytics? And what I tell many businesses is that Google Analytics, different types of organizations can use it, different types of teams, so you don't want to overwhelm yourself. You want to figure out how is it important for your specific team? How is it important for your specific business? Because Google analysts can be for IT teams, just make sure the websites are working correctly. It can be for communication teams, even a public relations. So public relations organization reached out to me and they said they want to understand how can they use Google ads for for to track their communication and what people are, are looking at more on their website. So it's, it's for so many different types of brands and teams. So you want to make sure you think about, okay, what is it that you need, or else you're getting? You get overwhelmed. And so sometimes they start to want more detail. So that's when I started to learn from beginner level to advanced level, everything that is about Google Analytics, and that's when I realized how powerful it is. And that's why I say, I've done three days seminars only on Google Analytics. If you're already shopping, I say that, but it's like, that's how much is on this tool. Yeah. So that's, I present it to where whoever I'm talking to, I say if you're a small business owner, let's say you have a restaurant, okay, look and see how much traffic is coming from social media, how much traffic is coming from Google, and what pages they're dropping offense so you can know what people are interested in.

Neal Schaffer: 13:43

So Chris, I'm curious, how often do you look at your own Google Analytics? I'm assuming every day I look at mine every day, but just out of curiosity,

Chris Cheetham-West: 13:52

I would say every few days, I listen every few days. And when I tell people to is like this feature is not in Google Analytics for yet, but just schedule, you know, make sure you have you automate those reports. So create that dashboard. And then have it's where you get an email at least every week. So that way, you're not frustrated because you forget to look at analytics. Because like, hey, that's that's ideal. Looking at loads every day. That's ideal. But as you know, people have different jobs. People are too or too busy. And then you must pass on my man, I haven't looked at my analytics. So yeah, definitely set it up. I'll say few few days for me or when somebody when customers reach out.

Neal Schaffer: 14:29

Right, right. I mean, it's really interesting because I look at so I look at I use sem rush or SEMrush as my search engine ranking tool. So I look at that every day. And I look at how I compare to my these competitors for certain keywords, as well as my own ranking. And I also look at my site content. And it's really interesting over the last three days, I have this blog post on how to get verified on Twitter. And it's gone up by several by several 100% becoming my leading content that gets lots of traffic purely because you know Elon Musk on Twitter and Twitter blew through. So, to me looking at that, if you really keep your finger on the pulse of things, you really get the feel what are people? You know, what are people coming to your site for? What interests them? What do you want? What trend might you want to tap into? So that's where I find it. I mean, obviously, you can look at historical data, left and right in Google Analytics, but even as a way of looking at what's trending on your site, it's, it's really fascinating. So, so awesome. Yeah, I'd love to be in one of those three day workshops someday, my friend. Until then, we'll have to do this podcast interview in lieu. So let's, let's start with sort of like the big elephant in the room. So we all have Google Analytics three, which you just taught, you just say, Universal Analytics. And I had to like go back into Google Analytics and say, Am I on Universal Analytics? This is the current version. So So anyway, it is the current version. So what are the big differences? If you had to summarize between what everybody is used to working on now? And what they will be working on in GA for starting in July? 1 2023? if not sooner?

Chris Cheetham-West: 15:58

Oh, sure. Yeah. So like, the reason why I did my presentation is saying how I did it got the micro, because I realized that even a Universal Analytics, there's so many aspects of it that people don't currently use. So I always recommend people to understand some of these aspects such as event tracking. So if somebody goes to your website, and you have a link that leads to another website outside of your own, your regular Google Analytics, universal, it doesn't really track that you have to create an event, you have to create custom code for Google wants to track that. And so same thing when it comes to goals. Goals are when people figure out, hey, how do I track the results of my site? And how do I make sure that we're getting the traffic we need, then you set a goal within Universe Analytics, you say, every time we reach x amount of visitors a month, hey, we reach that goal, or every time somebody hits this certain page on my site, 10 times, that's a goal, or every time somebody watches the video for five minutes, that's a goal. So those right there are things that are going to be the focus point in Google and score. But I feel like you need to understand those concepts, you know, before we had those that made so for example, let's say, bounce rate. So bounce rate is a popular type of thing to look at when it comes to getting results. So you want to make sure when people come to your site, they're actually seeing on your site, and they're moving around to different pages of your site, that would equal a good bounce rate. But now, it's going to be a little bit different, it's going to be called engagement rate. And that's because Google realized that 10 years ago, people were making websites a certain way, with multiple pages. But now some websites, maybe there's only one page on the website, maybe it's only a landing page. And so it's not fair for somebody to create a landing page, that's one page. And then they have all these visitors to go to that page. And then it looks like they have a horrible bounce rate, you know, but in reality, it was meant for them just to go to one page and make a purchase. So now engagement rate is going to say, hey, when people come to this page, or this website, how long are they staying, what pages they're going to, and then that's going to equal up into an engagement rate. So again, that's gonna be different, as well as the events. So now, it's going to be a lot easier to have events. So I mentioned how before, in order to track outbound clicks, you have to put in input different types of code. But now that's automated. So you can automatically be able to see if people scroll if people are clicking outbound links, and doing other types of things on your website. But that doesn't mean that you can't create your own events, because everybody has different websites or different histories. But you can still create your own events, but it's going to be a lot more automation in it.

Neal Schaffer: 18:47

That's very cool. So let's, let's sort of dissect this a little bit more. So this new definition of engagement rate and engaged viewer, I remember content working when you give this formula, they stay on your page for like 15 seconds, and they scroll or what was that formula? 10

Chris Cheetham-West: 19:03

seconds. So it's a couple of different things, like 10 seconds on your website, or they go to a few different pages. So yeah, basically, yeah, that's instant seconds.

Neal Schaffer: 19:11

And you know, the bounce rate children's name, because I have a blog that gets a lot of traffic from Google. And people are looking for an answer, they find the answer, they leave, I'd like for them to stay, I try to make them stay. But at the end of the day, I have given them what they want. And and they are satisfied. So I've never really I've never really looked at bounce rate as being this big, important thing. I like the idea of engagement rate. I have my own thing where I look at content if if it gets a lot of traffic, but people stay less than 15 seconds. That means that something's wrong. If you know, you're I don't know if there's a title or it's, you know, ranking for the wrong keyword what have you so I really liked what Google is doing there. I love the automation of events can't wait to see that. I'm assuming though that a goals are still going to be the you'll still be able to do that right? But you're just pointing it out in that something that you know, I know I use gold As for my lead magnets to understand, you know, where people are coming from how many conversions I get what have you, but so everything in Universal Analytics that covers goals will still will the current goals and Universal Analytics, transfer over to GA for are we gonna have to recreate those? Yeah, so

Chris Cheetham-West: 20:15

it's a good question. Because goals, there's not gonna be called goals in Google's four is going to be called conversions. Okay. All right. So like, basically Yeah, so basically, that's the central thing is like events, conversions, engagement rates, so like now okay, it's gonna be even more easily accessible because again, people realize Google probably realized that, hey, people are using goals are not using it effectively enough. But everybody that has a website most likely have a goal. So now that's going to be more of a central part of Google to explore versus just like a small piece, it was in Universal Analytics. So for example, you can on pretty much any type of report you're looking at, you can create a conversion, which means goals. So you could say conversion is whenever somebody goes to the homepage, and they go to the service page, and then they go to the contact us page, that's a conversion. Or whenever somebody comes to your page from Google, and they're using the Chrome browser, and they're spinning five seconds, that's conversion. So and we all have a versions, and we've got to think about what conversions are. And answer your other question is, and that's, that's when it comes down to the migration. So like, you can't, you aren't going to be able to transfer some things like the goals, but you're going to have to configure them a little bit differently. That's why some companies are saying, hey, we need to migrate. So right now you have your current Analytics, you have five goals. Now you need a format that within Google explorer, so you can't, you're not gonna just transfer it, you set the reformat it to a conversion.

Neal Schaffer: 21:45

And then I'm assuming that ecommerce conversions will now be together with goals than all as conversions. Is

Chris Cheetham-West: 21:52

that correct? Yes. Yeah, correct. Yep. Yeah, that

Neal Schaffer: 21:54

makes a lot of sense. Well, that all sounds good. So there's going to be a little work that needs to be done. As far as that question I had. For E commerce, I'm assuming that Shopify and all the others are working on their Google Analytics integration, their GA for integrations as we speak, is that a correct assumption?

Chris Cheetham-West: 22:09

Yeah, so it's important to realize that we just think about how the Google X three University Islands has been the past 10 years, there's always been updates, you know, like monthly or quarterly, maybe once a year, they do the updates. And then also, you take, for instance, like WordPress, you know, like, they created those plugins for Google Analytics and made it easier for a lot of small business owners to implement Google Analytics, instead of putting on a code on every page, they just download a plugin. So I see that as being the same thing as when it comes to these e commerce sites, they're going to make plugins, that's going to make it easier for Google Explorer to show their data. So again, we just have to give it time, you know, because there's a lot of there's some features that that are in the old analytics that I would like to have in Google explorer, but they're probably just still working on it, like the ability to automate reports to be sent to you. They're still probably still working on it. Right. But you know, it's like, the good thing about is they they're using this, this new platform to kind of give you a better overview of the entire customer experience, like, and more information about the customer, like how often have they had been to the site tracking visits over time instead of just for one day at a time. So yeah, so I think it's a we just have to wait it out. And I think they're, they're gonna work

Neal Schaffer: 23:24

on it. So well, I love the optimism there. And with with the smiling, it really, really makes me want to believe. I'm just curious, though, I always thought maybe they were doing some things because of these recent, you know, more and more importance related to privacy issues on the internet. I thought maybe that was one of the triggers. That was behind this redesign and Google Analytics. But what you're saying is that's not the case. It's been 10 years, it's time for a refresh. And let's also take into account what our customers have wanted and make something better was that the better way to look at yeah,

Chris Cheetham-West: 23:58

that's, that's what our that's what I've seen as it's like, just the better way to see your data, they looked at how we're how we're using Google Analytics, and they probably just say, Okay, this is how it should be. It's, it's the thing about is, it's one of those things where it's like, who really likes change, you know, like, we have to change to a new platform, migrate all this other stuff. And it's one of those things where, after a few months, we're gonna realize that this is a better tool to use. And I'm getting to know my customer a little bit more. And it's, yeah, you're getting with less effort, less work, but it's one of those things where it's like, just getting used to another theme, right? Yes.

Neal Schaffer: 24:36

But I think we also have to remember, this isn't Facebook. This isn't Twitter, this is Google. And I think people just have more trust that they're doing the right thing in the organization, right, than some of the others. So anyway, I digress a little there, but Okay, so I you know, when we talked about what we discuss on this, so those are really the big differences and hopefully everybody breeds a collective sigh of relief. So you said you had some advice on You know, and you see a lot of businesses waste a lot of time in Google Analytics. So I'm curious as to what advice you can provide them and us on how we can save more time inside a gap to be more effective.

Chris Cheetham-West: 25:13

Yeah, sure. So most businesses I run into, they go and see their traffic. And that's about it. So they see that, hey, we got X amount of visitors a month. And we're good to go. Or we got X amount of visitors from social media or Facebook, and then we're good to go. But I think a way that a lot of people waste time is that they're just going through all these random reports. And so for example, I don't know if you're familiar, if you're familiar with secondary dimension, you go to one report, and you're looking at your search engine traffic. And then you can say, Okay, this search engine traffic, what country did they come from, you can go to five different reports and write down that data. But in reality, there's always a faster way to get to that same data, you know, so like within Google for in building links, you can create the customer report, so you create a report that you want, using all these features, and then you can automatically log in the next day, and you don't have to go through five different steps to recreate the same report. So same thing with like custom audiences is, if you if you have a job in mobile marketing, and you only care about mobile data, you go into Analytics, you set up custom audience, you say, Hey, I only want this view of my analytics to show mobile information, mobile traffic from Android mobile traffic from iPhone. And this traffic should only be viewed from people that are in Texas, in New York City, for whatever reason, maybe the company has locations there. Instead of going in and doing that those filtering every time you log in, you can create those custom reports, you can create those custom audiences. So you just go in and log in. Alright, so the message I want to say is like, there's always a faster way to get to the data that you're trying to find.

Neal Schaffer: 26:54

Cool. So yeah, I honestly don't do anything with customer reports. So that's really great advice. One thing I have found, I have one client in particular, and we're really going into, they're on Shopify really going into the sources of where they're getting their business from. And I realized that the channel grouping that Google provides isn't always that accurate. And sometimes you'll see social media traffic and referrals. So if you go into admin settings, I'm sure you know, the custom channel grouping, and really, you know, making it work for them. And that's something that I'd like to throw out there. I know, it's not a custom report, but it can really help you better understand the data. You you want it you know the way you want to see

Chris Cheetham-West: 27:28

it. Yeah, I recommend highly recommend. Alright, so

Neal Schaffer: 27:32

customer reports, I'm assuming that's going to be available on GA four as well, we might have to recreate those reports. So you might actually want to get started in GA for creating them. What about, you know, another thing you want to talk about was this idea of of data and making better decisions with data, I think, I think marketers have always known this. But I think you know, these days, more and more business owners, leaders are understanding that data really is power when it comes to your business. But you know, Google Analytics gives us so much data, what can we do to make better decisions with that?

Chris Cheetham-West: 28:03

Oh, yeah. So I would say, be intentional about looking at what's going on and making those changes. So sometimes many business get in the habit of just looking at the data, like, Hey, we got this traffic that's coming in great. But every month try to make a decision. So if you find out that you have all this traffic going to a page, and they're exiting and out exiting out before they go to your contact page, why not implement some design changes? Why not see where people are actually clicking. So get with the design team, get the word good with the web team, and maybe change those colors, the call to action buttons, change around the buttons as well. So that's one thing I hope that this new Google ads for has, is like the the kind of feature that shows you where people are clicking it. But yeah, so make those decisions on a monthly basis, maybe even a weekly basis to optimize. So don't forget to optimize, not just look at the data, but optimize and see how you can get better. So for example, for for my business, I make sure that when people come to the site, I look at exactly where they drop off. And then I tell myself, you know what, let me add more content to the site, let me have more a higher call to action. So instead of them having a scroll all the way down before they click on a button to contact our search for our services, how about we put that link a little bit higher? You know, or how about we edit some images so that it's easily seen what we do. So those are all things that you want to consistently do weekly or monthly basis to make sure you're really getting the most out of the data? Because it gives you so much information. All you got to do is look at it and then take action.

Neal Schaffer: 29:37

Yeah, that's that's really great advice. I love that, you know, weekly if not, if not monthly of having these iterations of let's set a goal of five data points a month that we're you know, starting with our money pages are our most important pages. You know, I will often you know, I look at the site content when things drop off, it might be time for, you know, revision of the content or I often look at the money Social media sources and Twitter has always driven more traffic to my site than any other social media sites. So I've been really curious people are saying, Oh, we're you know, we're of all the Twitter's gone. And with Elon Musk taking over, people are dropping up, but the traffic is still there. I mean, that's what Google is telling me. So I can sleep at night knowing I don't need to change anything. But you know, Pinterest has been a little bit different. That's always been my number two, and it's still dropping off. But yet, it's still more than LinkedIn, and Facebook for me. So these are the kinds of things that every month I have these checkpoints, right, my sanity checks, but this is the thing that every company really needs to have, right? Whatever those important things are for your business. And I think that's a really, really great reminder.

Chris Cheetham-West: 30:37

And it's a great point.

Neal Schaffer: 30:39

Yeah, so Chris, any other sort of Google Analytics, GA for or just in general advice that you'd like to throw out there? Before we we end this conversation?

Chris Cheetham-West: 30:48

Oh, yeah, just like you mentioned earlier, I would say, right now is the time to play around with GA for so right now is like, look into events, if you're not able to use the advanced, you've ever used goals before looking to it, but the old analytics get used to these things that are going to change. So like, then you're going to be ready next year, when it actually changes. So how are you just playing around with it, you know, and remember, you can still create an additional profile for good notes for that's not going to do anything to your older profile. So you can have both of them at the same time. So in that case, just make sure you are playing around with it, spend an hour a week on it hour a day even just to get ready, and just to understand it, so that way, you can be ready for the change. So there's so many different features, and I'm sure everybody would like it.

Neal Schaffer: 31:33

Thank you, that's awesome. I know one person I know freaked out too. Like, well, if I, if I like start the GA for profile, I don't want to lose any of my current data. So so thank you for that reminder. Really, really important. So you know, Chris, when I got back from the conference, and I was so excited about this, and I told one of my clients, I immediately they're like, Well, you know, how do I get like, Can I hire him? Well, that will be like fly out for training. So I don't know if they ever contacted you. But you know, I gave them a your your URL name and everything. But for those that are listening, maybe they want a little bit of training or handhold. And training as part of what you do. I know you also have some books out, you work with business leaders, you have a lot going on. So I want to give you to Florida introduce how listeners of this podcast that want to get in touch with you and might want to work with you. What are the services that you offer? And find you?

Chris Cheetham-West: 32:20

Oh, thanks. Yeah, so the services I provide when it comes to Google Analytics is that we really talk with your team to figure out where you're at when it comes to Google Analytics. And like I said earlier, we do up to three days sessions on Google Analytics. So some companies what they decide to do, they say, You know what, let's do eight sessions, two hours each, or like six sessions at two hours each. So we have beginner, intermediate or advanced. So some people decide, you know, we just need intermediate events. And then we say, You know what, let's do four sessions, at three hours each. So pretty flexible, based on where your team is currently at. And then we also just added on the whole Google Analytics for section as well, and then help with migration and all that. And so you can find me at Chris in west.com, and then email just as Chris at Chris in west.com. And then we can definitely help you out. And my book, digital marketing results is out and also leading in a virtual world is odd as well. But yeah, so I look forward to working with you.

Neal Schaffer: 33:21

Awesome, Chris. We'll put all that in the show notes. Thank you so much for you know, I tagged you. In that podcast episode I published about my takeaways from Content Marketing World, you were one of the 11 people featured. So thank you for like reaching out after being tagged, I think that this has been really super educational. I know it's gonna help a lot of people, a lot of businesses. And I hope that if they want that training, they reach out to us or at least buy your book. So thank you so much, Chris.

Chris Cheetham-West: 33:45

Great. Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's great.

Neal Schaffer: 33:47

All right. I hope you enjoyed that podcast as much as I did. Chris is just a wealth of knowledge. And if you're looking for Google Analytics Help above and beyond Google Analytics four, I certainly hope that you will reach out to them and include them in your group of experts that you utilize for all of your digital marketing. Well, you know, I gave such a long intro about what I do. I don't think I need to say much in this outro I wanted to thank you again for joining me. It is a continuing journey. And with every episode, I try to find a different angle. I try to find a different expert to interview. I do my best to sincerely provide you value. If there is a topic that you want me to cover or someone that you think I should interview. Feel free to reach out to me. Go to Neal schaffer.com fill out the contact form. Email me Neal at Neal schaffer.com. Ping me tag me DM me on social media. I am everywhere. Yes, I am on Tik Tok as well. It is Neal Schaffer social. If you are curious, I do hope you'll reach out to me. Thank you again for being a loyal listener and a loyal subscriber. This is your digital marketing coach Neal Schaffer reminding you to keep your eye on the goal and to be an option. Talk to you next time. Week. Neal Schaffer signing off. You've been listening to your digital marketing coach, questions, comments, requests links, go to podcast dot Neal schaffer.com. Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes and Neal schaffer.com to tap into the 400 Plus blog posts that Neil has published to support your business. While you're there, check out Neil's Digital First group coaching membership community if you or your business needs a little helping hand. See you next time on your digital marketing coach.