Welcome to another 2 part blog! This time we’re looking at commonly forgotten housekeeping elements to digital marketing and even while choosing just a few select options to discuss, it was hard to keep it all at manageable bite-sized reading portions, so for today we’ll look at tracking and trending.

To start with, we get it. Digital marketing is an ever-growing (and changing) field with so many spinning plates that it can be easy to forget various aspects of it. So while we’re certainly not able to fit all that you should remember into one blog, we thought we’d throw out a few reminders for things you might not have looked at in a while to help inspire you to clean house, revisit every nook and cranny and ensure you’re getting the most out of things across Google Ads (AdWords), SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing and other web marketing activities.

Google Tag Manager Features

Without a doubt, the single best tool you can utilise for custom reporting on the activity around your website is Tag Manager, so if you don’t already have it installed (as well as Google Analytics) then that’s absolutely your first bit of homework. We cannot stress this highly enough. For those that do have it installed however, you’ll be aware that it packs a vast array of custom options that provide some of the most valuable behavioural data you could imagine from scroll tracking (so you know how much of your content is actually being read per page), through to embedded YouTube video interaction tracking, drop down menu selection tracking, various other event tracking options and way more than we could list here. The best part about all of this is that it’s set up in a way that the installation of new tracking protocols is fast and easy.

But the reason we don’t list absolutely everything that this platform can do speaks to why we think that it’s important to check in with blogs such as Analytics Mania, Google’s Official Developer’s Blog, or something more simple such as Moz’s Introduction Blog, which should give you an idea of the types of things to look out for so that you are aware of any handy new features that you might be missing out on. It’s a constantly evolving tool that is the gold standard for tracking technology, so don’t forget that!

Google Trends

This often forgotten search volume trends tool has not lost its importance, but perhaps that importance is what has never been fully understood about it. Instead, it’s been seen as a cool little crystal ball that’s fun to play around with from time to time while in reality you only need to think objectively for a few seconds about the value of this kind of data when deciding the way forward for an SEO or Google Ads campaign.

It’s also not just something to consult at the beginning of a new campaign. If you’ve made decisions on keyword selection for an SEO or Advertising campaign (so you’ve used Google trends to help you decide what you want to rank for) then it makes sense to revisit trends periodically down the road to make sure that what was once a trending keyword isn’t now declining in search and becoming less worth your time and effort. We’d recommend taking a look quarterly, but we tend to make decisions 6 months down the road to be sure the trends are clear and consistent.

Conversion Data (Goals)

You might think we’re about to talk about some sort of secret weapon with regards to tracking conversions, but although we definitely could (and likely will in future blogs), we’re not. Sadly too many businesses simply do not check their conversion data often enough. We do understand how it happens. You’re a businessperson with great ideas at the forefront of your field and a wealth of experience with customers, so why would you not know which keywords it’s important to target? Well we hate to burst your bubble, but with respect, you’d be surprised how easy it is to have a misguided opinion on such things. You may have keywords that you really care about from a reputation and branding standpoint that have no conversions and that is perfectly fine, but if you’re stuck on ranking for a particular term or theme of keywords without having done the research to see if ranking for those keywords actually results in business then you could well be barking up the wrong tree without realising.

Put aside some time today. Know what converts. It’s the most valuable thing you can do with the time you allocate to your online marketing activities and we can promise you there will very likely be at least a couple of surprises in there.

And that’s it for today. Simple but effective. You’ll be surprised what you’re about to find out when you log in and start digging. Next week we’ll talk about social media & content marketing/engagement so be sure to stay tuned!

As always if you’d like us to explain anything about digital marketing further then please feel free to get in touch. Alternatively, if you’d like to add anything then comment below!