How To ‘Fix’ GA4’s Default Channel Groupings

+ Photos and Google Search

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Welcome to Part I of Edition No. 34 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.

Highlights from Friday’s updates:

• Awesome Google Search Features on the Horizon

• DALL•E No Longer Has Waitlist

• Meta’s AI Video Tool is Amazing, Creepy

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Contents

Tip: Do Images Matter for SEO?

Analysis: How To ‘Fix’ GA4’s Default Channel Groupings

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Tip: Do Images Matter for SEO?

It’s a bit of a loaded question. To answer, I only want to talk about the importance of using original images, and the effect that has on getting found on Google.

The topic of how photos can affect page-load time, and whether you need a photo sitemap extension, are separate (and probably more important) topics. Far too complicated for our quick tip.

So, should you use (relevant) images on your website? I vote yes.

They’re more appealing to the reader, and again, if they’re original, it’s an additional storytelling component.

But do they help you get more search traffic?

Martin McGarry @seomcgarry

Hey @JohnMu does Google care if I use the same image from unsplash that 10,000 other sites has used?

🌽〈link href=//johnmu.com rel=canonical 〉🌽 @JohnMu

@seomcgarry If you're focusing on web-search, go for it. Using stock photos is totally fine. If you're trying to show up in Image Search, stock photos make it a bit harder (since we would try to just show one of the copies), but in many areas, searching visually is rare.

For context, John Mueller is Google’s search advocate.

What’s unclear is what exactly Mueller means by “searching visually is rare.” In any case, we can conclude from this that you shouldn’t expect a ton of traffic from the Image portion of Google search.

But if you want to make sure you have every advantage possible over your competitors, original photos are best. Especially when compressed. But again, that’s a tip for another time.

Did you find this tip useful? Share it to help spread the word.

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Analysis: How To ‘Fix’ GA4’s Default Channel Groupings

In last week’s tip I pointed out a significant GA4 data issue: you can’t trust default channel groupings. e.g. Gmail referrals are counted as organic search.

For the more in-depth portion of this week’s newsletter, I’m going to walk you through the process to fix it.

We’re going to use Google Analytics 4, Excel or Google Sheets, and some old-fashioned common sense.